Female cocktiel odor.

Question

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-----Question-----
Hi, I have a male and female pair.  The female has been laying eggs for the past couple months.  Just when I think I can pull the eggs she lays more.  I have now just put up the nest box, put the 3 in it and she layed one more. I also seperated the birds.  My problem is her stool is foul smelling!  The stool is large (normal while laying eggs) and she is eating her food.  I don't think she's bound because she just layed 3 days ago and this has been going on for a couple weeks. Is this normal and if not what could it be?

Thanks.
-----Answer-----
Hi, Nancy.  Thanks for posting!

First off, you need to put the pair back in the same cage together if you want these eggs to hatch.  The male and female in the tiel species share incubation duties and also share in caring for any babies that hatch.  So the male's presence with the female is required.    

Your female tiel shouldn't be laying clutch on top of clutch until she abandons the previous clutch.  You should be pulling any infertile eggs when she abandons a clutch, but prior to her laying again, which usually takes up to 2 weeks.  Something isn't right here.

Do you want these birds to breed and produce offspring?  If not, then remove the nesting box you just put up.  Reduce any light they have available to 12 hours per day only.  This will discourage egg laying.

The foul odor of your female's droppings could be due to her incubating her eggs.  She will most likely not come off of her eggs except once or twice during her incubation shift to defecate, thus, the large stool.  However, foul smelling droppings can also indicate illness/disease, could be related to poor diet, lack of necessary vitamins/minerals, etc.  Is your bird showing any other signs of illness?  What type of daily diet do you have your tiels eating?  Has she had sufficient cuttlebone available during her months of egg laying?  

Please come back with answers to my questions, and I'll try and help further.

Chrys

Thanks for you quick response.
First let me explain that I do not want or care if the eggs hatch.  If they do that's fine but I am not encouraging it.  I separated the pair because the cage was getting extremely difficult to keep clean and I thought that was the source of the odor.  I usually clean it once a week or so but am finding I need to clean it after 2 or 3 days.  I also did not have her nest box up because I did not want to breed her. I put it up to see if she would calm down if her eggs where not rolling around the bottom of the cage. I don't know if this pair has ever mated, I have never witnessed it.  Although the male is very protective of her.
They have been together a couple years.

As far as food.  I give both of them regular 'tiel seed daily in addition I offer her a breeding formula for extra calcium.  I also started giving them both a stress/molting formula when I separated them and because I noticed that my females crest was gone.  It is coming back now so I assume this is due to laying.  Once in awhile I will offer them human food.  Like romaine lettuce, strawberries, pasta.  Stuff like that.

I normally have a cuttle bone for them but at this time I don't.  I do have a couple calcium block available for them.  

Answer
Hi again, Nancy.

So, are your females' droppings foul smelling or is it the cage itself that is foul smelling?  If you don't know for sure, you'll need to find a fresh dropping and hold it under your nose.  If it's the cage itself that smells badly, this is a different story.  It could be a combination of your female's droppings during incubation process and food that has been dropped and spoiled on the cage bottom (mixed with water that has spilled).

A nesting box to parrots means breed!  The addition of a nesting box can also result in additional stress for birds, as their sole purpose of living is to reproduce.  Thus, a nesting box could add stress versus eliminating it.

It's possible your female is laying infertile eggs, however, it's more likely the pair has mated.  It only takes a couple minutes for them to complete the act, so you may have missed it.  

An all-seed diet is a poor diet.  Seed is high in fat and low in nutrition.  Your tiels need more variety in order to stay healthy.  Visit my website for information on proper diet:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Your female's crest could have disappeared as a result of molting, not due to laying.  Parrots usually molt starting in Oct/Nov.

I recommend you remove the nesting box, put the male back in with the female (unless you want to keep them separated so they won't breed), and leave the eggs right where the female has laid them and let her abandon them on her own (if they don't hatch).  If the eggs are rolling around on the cage bottom, they may not be fertile.  In order to keep her calmer with her eggs, you might want to build up the area around her eggs a little so they don't roll all over.  Either do the latter or leave the nesting box up and move all her eggs into the box and see if any hatch or wait until she abandons them.  If any eggs hatch, you'd want them to hatch inside the nesting box, not in the cage bottom.

The female will need a cuttlebone in the cage if she's not eating on the calcium block.  This is very important to keep her from becoming eggbound and so she remains healthy.    

An avian vet can give your female a hormone shot to stop her from laying eggs if she continues to lay and lay.  Continual laying is very hard on a female parrot and can shorten her lifespan, not to mention the chances of eggbinding, becoming ill, etc.  Be sure to only allow your tiels 12 hours of light per day in order to discourage egg laying, and be sure to remove the nesting box ASAP after this clutch has hatched/eggs abandoned.

Come back with any additional questions.

Chrys