Question: Things to do and NOT do so my hen does not start laying eggs

[WendyK]

Hi,

I would love to hear people's ideas in regards to the following: I have a young friendly hen (10 weeks) and I would like to know everything I need to do so that she does NOT start laying eggs (hopefully). She is in a cage by herself in a room with 9 other birds - two of which are lovebirds. Thank you in advance.

Wendy
NY

[linda040899]

Eventually, all parrots reach sexual maturity. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to stop that. However, in the wild, lovebirds only reproduce once/yr because the weather is only conducive to raising a family during the rainy season. The signal is availability of food.

Also in the wild, parrots spend most of their time foraging for food. In captivity, food is readily available 24/7/365. Some of us have found that if you let your lovebird forage for food, it will keep her mind on survival and off of other things. This has also helped, to a point, with behavioral plucking.

I would not give her a hut to sleep in but if you decide to do this, put it in at night and remove it in the morning.

Hope this helps. Others may also have suggestions. :)

[WendyK]

Thanks Linda - for your response. I know about not using happy huts - but what about "preening swings" - these are swings where the bars that connect to the top of the cage (the legs on the U shape) are covered with a cottony rope material for the bird to nibble on while sitting on the swing. I do have these swings for 3 of my birds and they like to snuggle on these - especially for sleeping. Do you think these swings are OK since they are not enclosed like the happy huts?

[linda040899]

As some of us have found, those string things are not safe for lovebirds to preen. Dave (z28taxman) had an episode with his lovebird, Ditto, where Ditto managed to swallow a piece of string and it took a while for it to pass through his system. Had the string not passed, there could have been more serious complications. Swings are OK, just not the string attachments. Perhaps thin strips of untanned (or even vegetable oil tanned) leather might work well. I make half coconut shell swings that mine absolutely adore and I've never had a hen use one for a nest.....at least not yet!

[Z28Taxman]

As some of us have found, those string things are not safe for lovebirds to preen. Dave (z28taxman) had an episode with his lovebird, Ditto, where Ditto managed to swallow a piece of string and it took a while for it to pass through his system. Had the string not passed, there could have been more serious complications. Swings are OK, just not the string attachments. Perhaps thin strips of untanned (or even vegetable oil tanned) leather might work well. I make half coconut shell swings that mine absolutely adore and I've never had a hen use one for a nest.....at least not yet!

Yeah, no more strings for Dittobird. He was fine with them for 8 years, then one day he managed to swallow a pice almost 2 inches long and it caused no end of problems. Fortunately it didn't cause a complete blockage but it did slow down his digestion enough to cause yeast to grow in the crop. He was pooping seeds and vomiting for a month. It took 5 weeks of nystatin to kill the yeast and pass the string. We got lucky that the string didn't get knotted up (it stayed straight) and passed through. But even after that it took almost a month for his poops to go back to normal.

He lost 10 grams during that episode. :omg:

Now anything with loose strings gets trimmed before it goes in the cage.