Does anyone know how to stop a Parakeet from gettin' horny?

morningstar

Cathlete
Hey chickadees,

I have a single female Parakeet. Here's my question: does anyone know how to get her to stop laying eggs so often? She nests frequently, each time laying 4 (obviously unfertilized) eggs and brooding for 3-4 weeks each time. She usually only takes a couple of weeks, maybe as long as a month at the most, between layings.

I worry about her on both a physical and psychological basis. It takes a lot of calcium to lay eggs. It must be hard on her emotionally to never see her babies get born.

She is human-imprinted, so when she gets all hot and bothered, it's humans she wants to hang with. I can always tell when she's about to go into egg-laying mode, because she starts to come on to me - it's quite blatant, little tramp that she is! I'm not sure it would even work to get her a real male Parakeet to mate with, even if I had the space, energy and time to raise baby birdies. She's also somewhat of a rare species in this part of the world, so it might be hard to find an appropriate studmuffin.

She's such a good momma, so dedicated to her eggies. It breaks my heart sometimes. If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it.
 
Hi,

I have no suggestions, but I did a Google search on "parakeet laying too many eggs" and there is a lot of info and other people out there with the same problem..hth..
 
Hi!! I have a female lovebird that LOVES to try to mate with anything! She used to lay eggs all the time-the vet put her on Lupron shots and we took ANYTHING out of the cage that she could use to nest with. She has not laid any eggs in years. When she starts her mating behaivor I ignore it and put her down. Dont encourage it. I wish you luck I know how frustating it is. Cecil (thats my lovebird) used to try to mate on my ear!

Start by taking out any nesting material or anything she could use as nesting material out of her cage.

Good Luck
Lisa
 
I don't have any suggestions for you (sorry!), but this brought back memories of the trampy female cockatoo I used to have. She was totally in "love" with me, and would burrow under my shirt and do a lot of heavy breathing...

She was quite the conversation piece and the subject of lots of laughs. Thanks for taking me for a stroll down memory lane!!
 
Thanks for the giggle! I just picked up my parents parakeet while they're on vacation and placed him next to my two keets. The two males are all puffed up, checking each other out, it's so cute.
 
I have no idea, but your thread title gave me a good laugh.

You win "Thread Title of the Month" award;)

Nan
 
I have a cockatiel that used to lay eggs a lot. I took her to the vet and she basically said it could be because 1) she's very happy/content and 2) she has a high fat diet. No matter what I try to feed her, she only wants sunflower seeds and millet. She won't touch fruits or veggies or fortified food. The vet wanted me to try to change her diet, but I gave up after several (expensive) attempts.

She laid eggs for a few years and now it stopped for ?? reasons. She still seems as happy, so not sure why. When she gets "horny" I don't pay attention and leave her alone. Physically laying a lot of eggs did not seem to harm her in anyway. I always felt bad taking the eggs away though--she was a good mama too!
 
Get a male parakeet? :)

Just kidding! I think all our pets must be sexually frustrated if they don't get to reproduce. I don't mean to suggest we should all stop spaying/neutering/otherwise preventing unwanted baby pets, I just figure it's the price pets pay for the security of a home and free "health insurance," etc. - but still, I doubt your parakeet is alone.

Do parakeets play games or have toys or anything? Maybe she needs distractions?
 
I don't have any help just a story to share.

My parents had a chicken arrive at there house one day so they built her a house and she roamed the yard. Well, that little lady wanted to be a momma in the worse way. She roosted on every egg she laid So finally my dad bought her 6 fertilized eggs. She hatched those chicks and so just so darn happy. It was funny to see because she was just a Banny hen (very small) and my dad got her Rhode Island Red eggs (a very large chicken).
 
I had a birdie ("her" name was Seymour- which didn't change after we discovered Seymour was actually a girl".... Seymour would also lay eggs constantly. It got so back with her nesting on them that she ended up with nerve damage in one of her legs. We ended up putting her on Depo Prevara and the egg laying ceased. She lived a long and I presume happy life!

Good luck!
Pam
 
...this brought back memories of the trampy female cockatoo I used to have. She was totally in "love" with me, and would burrow under my shirt and do a lot of heavy breathing...

Why, this thread has gone practically pornographic! I'm getting SUCH a funny picture in my head :D Surely there must be some sort of family planning guidance available for winged creatures. Birds these days just have no sense of morality ...
 

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