Keet making nest in swim schedule???

Hi I have a pretty blue, greywing female budgie, Angel. Umm.. But starting awhile ago, we let her fly around the house with supervision. Yeah, well she found a new toy, consisiting of her favorite-paper. Well, my swim schedule actually.. :lol: She seems to want to mate regularly, cause she "poses" for me, I think she thinks I'm a male budgie..? :-s Anyway, the thing is shes working hard on this "nest" and is chewing the paper to pieces, and we actually had to use paper towel tubes to hold it up. She goes down it, when its folded and does this thing with her feet, much as would a rabbit kicking dirt out of his hole. Shes also VERY protective over this area, and wants to stay there forever. She makes a HUGE mess but she hates when we take it away so I have to clean after her. What I'm wondering is I heard they can lay eggs without males, and they do it in wood I think? Could she think the paper is wood? She has been nibbling on her cuttlebone lately.. I don't really want her to lay an egg, and if she did, what do I do with the egg? AND what if she gets egg binding? Please help :cry: Should I take it away cause I don't want her to get hurt...

 

Hi firstly if she thinks this is her nest you need to remove it and stop her from making a nest.

Yes female birds will lay eggs without a male being present and once they start laying there is nothing you can really do but let her finish her cycle.
Never take any eggs away from her as this will just make her lay more eggs to replace the ones taken and this can be fatal due to her calcium levels becoming depleated.

The eggs will not be fertile so just leave any eggs she does lay with her for the 19day incubation period or until she gets sick of sitting on them then you can remove the eggs.

But the main thing is to stop her from making a nest female birds when they have a nest or they find somewhere they think would be ideal and safe place to lay there eggs they can become very aggressive even the most tame of female birds will try and protect there eggs...

Allowing a female to lay eggs that is not being used for breeding can cause problems which include egg binding there are some simple steps that you can take to stop her..

Reduce the amount of light she gets per day birds need 14hours of light to stimulate them to lay reduce this to about 8hours of light.
Remove anything from her cage she could use as a nest also reduce the amount of soft foods such as fruit and vegtables these again are a stimulant to start the egg laying process.
If possible move her cage to a different location and re-arrange toys and perches as this puts the bird on egde and they think its not safe to lay eggs or raise a family.

Also if you mist your bird or allow her to have a bath reduce this aswell as the water makes them think spring is here and its time for breeding.

If possible when she is out of her cage anywhere she goes to make a nest try and remove the object or if possible block access so she can not get to it or if this is not possible as soon as you notice her starting to rip paper or hide place her back in the cage..

The best way to reduce light is to cover the cage...

Mike

 

thanks for the help

Thanks Mike! We just removed the nest, yet she still flys to the spot. She was REALLY angry when we took it, screaching and landing on my hands, biting them. She drew blood from my mom so this has to stop. We move her all the time, so shes pretty familiar with the house, but I put her in my living room. Its dark, but theres noise and action so she doesn't feel left out. We won't let her around the house for a week and see if she forgets about it. We don't feed her vegetables or fruits for we can't get her to touch them.. I will go and change her perches and things now. Thanks alot for your help! I hope she doens't lay any eggs...

 

pictures of mass destruction

heres some pictures so you can get the idea of what shes been doing for awhile now. I hope it isn't too late to stop this, and we don't want to remove the wood thing but we may cause we hardly use it anyway. But she flys and sits on it so we're going to stop letting her out around their for awhile. Oh and the brown tape is taped on the other side so her feathers wouldn't stivk to it, and yes, theres a piece of tape with seeds stuck to it cause she forgets to eat sometimes...

side view
http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/000_0002.JPG
top view
http://www.2and2.net/Uploads/Images/000_0003.JPG

 

Hi by the looks of her cere she is more than ready to want to breed and lay eggs.
The look of things is she has made her nest and is happy with it and if left will lay eggs within a few days.

SHe is a very pretty bird and hopefully moving things and disturbing her nesting site will be enough to stop her laying eggs..

Mike