???

Question
I have a male and female budgie that have had 4 babies in November, 4 babies in Feb. and she just laid another 5 eggs.  How can we stop this mating?  Its getting out of hand, soon we will have 11 birds flying around. haha. Some of the babies didn't make it but if all 5 eggs do that will be 11.  Please help.  Can we remove the eggs? Or can we get the male/female fixed somehow?  We let them out to fly but the father tries to mate with the babies.  What do we do?

Answer
Hi, Laurie.  Thanks for posting!

Are they laying eggs in a nesting box or on the cage bottom?  If in a nesting box, you need to remove the nesting box and limit their available light to 8-10 hours per day.  If this doesn't work, you'll need to separate the male and female.  Another option is to take your female to a certified avian veterinarian for a hormone shot, which will stop the female laying for a period of time.  

If you don't want the eggs to hatch, you can remove them, boil them for about 5 minutes, let them cool down, and then put them back...let them abandon these eggs on their own.  You can pull any laid eggs period before they get to be 7 days old (once the female starts incubating, a baby forms inside the egg).  However, doing this will result in the female laying eggs again really soon.

I'd recommend you house your birds separately (the offspring from the parents, and then the female from the male) in roomy, large flight cages.  Then you wouldn't need to let them out to fly.  Free-flighted birds in a home is not only unsanitary, but very hazardous for your birds.

Chrys