female parakeet

Question
QUESTION: Hello -my parakeet has laid 6 eggs this last week and a half; she is in a cage with two males. she keeps pecking at her eggs until they crack. have any idea why she is doing this? I am worried about her laying too many eggs; I have supplements/vitamins in their food/water. what should I do?

ANSWER: If she has enough nutrition, she shouldn't be cracking them open.  They usually only do that when they're craving nutrition, and don't have enough to handle egg laying.

How old is she?  Sometimes if they're too young, they don't really know what to do with the eggs and either ignore them or eat them.  They should be at least a year old before they start breeding.

Six eggs is quite a few, but not unheard of.  Some budgies lay up to eight and hatch them.  As long as she doesn't start laying any more, she should be okay.  I would take out the nest to discourage her from laying more, and if necessary, separate her from the males.   If she continues to lay more eggs, and lays more than around ten even after you separate her from a nest and mates, you can take her to a vet and they can give her a hormone shot to stop her from laying.

Keep me posted!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for answering so fast : ) I have had my 3 parakeets for aprox 2 years. This is the first time she has ever had eggs. Both males appear to be very nurturing with her by taking her food while she is in the nesting box. She has been spending a lot of time in her box throughout the day. The eggs are cracked just a little; she's not eating them. I will try placing her in our other cage for awhile and see what happens. I had birds growing up, but none of them ever laid eggs.

Answer
That's strange.  Most of the time they either raise them or eat them, but rarely do they just crack them.

How bad are the cracks?  Believe it or not, if the cracks are very faint, you can use Elmer's school glue on the cracks in very thin layers, and the eggs will usually survive!

My guess is, she's confused.  In the wild, they're exposed to other budgies mothering their babies.  Since she hasn't had that experience, and she's never had eggs it's possible she just doesn't know what to do.  

If the eggs are still mostly intact and she wants to care for them, let her.  Remove any badly broken eggs, because these will rot and get gross, and could cause the birds to get sick.

Not all birds lay.  They usually won't unless they have a mate and a nest box and the conditions are right.  So it's possible to have them for years and never have eggs.