english budgie eggs

Question
Hi
 I have a 2 pairs of eglish budgies, in different cages. My older pair has eggs right now and she has been incubating them for about 10 days now. My other younger pair has been laying eggs but right after laying them she eats them. She has eaten 2 so far. And i dont know what to do,she should lay another one on sunday and i dont want her to eat that one. is it possible if i could put her next egg with my other pair that has eggs.
Thanks,
      Brian

Answer
Hi, Brian.  Thanks for posting!

Yes, you can put any new eggs from the other pair in with the pair that currently has eggs.  However, be aware that because the other pair have already been incubating for 10 days, there will be a large time lapse in hatch dates between the different sets of eggs.  Therefore, not sure how the female may react to this...every bird is different.  

The other problem would be that as you remove eggs from the second female, she will most likely keep laying and laying and laying.  You don't want this to happen because it can affect the health of this bird.  Therefore, you need to STOP her laying altogether, especially if she's an egg eater.  Egg eating is a bad habit that usually can't be broken UNLESS you can figure out why the bird is eating her eggs.  Some birds do this because they fear for their offspring's safety if they would hatch (something is wrong somewhere in the cage or environment).  Some birds do this because they are too young to breed.  So, you might need to take a good look at your setup to see if this might be the reason this bird is eating her eggs.  To keep the bird from laying and laying, an avian veterinarian can give the bird a hormone injection.  You need to remove any nesting box from this cage, as a nesting box is incentive for the birds to lay eggs.  Limit available light to 8-10 hours per day to discourage egg laying.

Do you plan on handfeeding babies?  If so, let me know because you'll need more information on how to handle this situation when the babies hatch.

Chrys