Eggs and Biting

[Taryn]

Alright, so here's the story:
After the loss of one of my two budgies, I felt sorry for the other one not having her friend around anymore. So we got a lovebird (not housed together, but within sight) and they were good together, always wanting to be around each other when they were out. Little did I know that my lovebird REALLY liked my budgie and was always trying to get the budgie to mate with her. This was really funny because, well, they're both female :lol No matter how many tmes I split them up, she was determined and always found a way to get to her buddy :P

Anyways, I guess she's reached sexual maturity and is always shredding paper, making nests, laying eggs.. Even after the loss of my second budgie a few weeks ago due to old age, she still continues. It's hard to get my hand inside the cage to change her water because she's always on guard. I'm really worried about her getting eggbound, because I've lost a couple birds because of it.

What can I do to make her stop laying eggs? And hopefully the biting will go with it?

[Janie]

Unfortunately you can't make her stop but you can rearrange things in her cage, remove all nesting type toys/materials, and hopefully distract her from laying. If she has eggs now, do not remove them. She will only continue laying, replacing what has been removed. She'll need to sit on them till she's ready to give them up and then you can move things around (maybe even move her cage to a new location) in hopes of distracting her. Good luck! :)

[bellarains]

You may be able to put off egg laying for a little while, but it's nature at it's finest, and it is inevitable. You can however make sure that she has foods high in calcium, a cuttlebone at all times, and I even shave cuttlebone into Lacey's seed dish when she's in egg laying mode.

The first sign of egg binding is lack of elimination, so when she is in egg laying mode, put plain white paper towels in her tray so that you can monitor them better. They eliminate less often, but the size makes up for it:omg:

Good luck!!!!

[LauraO]

You've gotten some great advise so far I just wanted to say a biting lovie is normal during nesting time. All my lovie hens are in the mode and they are getting very protective of their cages. You'll find most lovies calm down after their down nesting and will stop biting. However, there are some hens who will always bite when around their cage, but once out of sight of the cage they calm down. I, personally, love nesty hens and when they try and bite me I tell them their good mommas cause that's what they are; mommas protecting their babies.

Good lUck and let us know how it goes:)