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My Posey is finally starting to come around. We got her back in April, where she was an attempted breeder bird. Because the breeding was never successful, the previous owners/breeders decided to get rid of her...so she was ours. I've been working with her so much since we got her.

Finally, I am able to pet her...but not much. She will sit on my finger for a few minutes before flying off. She loves to sit on my lap though. I am able to slowly pet her but just on the back; I'm not too fond of petting birds on the back but since she let me, I was doing it. It only lasts a few seconds though. I realize she may never be a very cuddly bird but she has turned out to be so sweet considering her circumstances. She loves to chit chat with people and makes the sweetest cooing noises whenever anyone says her name. She's no longer afraid of hands around the cage either....if a hand was seen she would flap over to the farthest corner to get away, but she no longer does that.

I'm so happy she is starting to come around. Even though it has taken eight months to get this far, I am willing to give whatever it takes and I am happy with the improvement so far.

I am a bit worried about one thing...I've got three birds. One of which is a cockatiel; she is laying eggs...has been non stop for about two years now. She's not been bred and lives on her own. We've done everything we could to stop this behavior but it just continues (she's been to the vet, had testing, given injections, etc.). Anyway, Paisley (the tiel) spends all of her time on her eggs, down in the corner of her cage. Posey (the IRN) and Ruby (the eclectus) can see her. Because it is winter here and we want to keep them as warm as possible, all the girls are in the bird room with additional heating; therefore, they are able to see each other. Anyway, both Ruby and Posey are now spending a lot of time in the corners of their cages. I can watch it happen. Posey will get as close to Paisley's cage as she can, and watch her for a few minutes and then climb down to her cage bottom and mimic her. Ruby does they same thing! And they will turn around and make sure they can still see Paisley too. This won't encourage any egg laying habits will it? I'm not too worred about Ruby yet, as with her breed she is not yet to the age of displaying that behavior and the ekkies aren't as likely to do that. but I wasn't sure about the ringneck. I'm not sure how likely they are to lay eggs without a mate, etc....like the 'tiel does.

Thanks so much. I just wanted to post how excited I am about Posey's improvements and to ask my quick question.

What wonderful patience you have! It took me about that long with Mazzie too, and the payoff is so worth it. Six years from now you'll look back and say "Wow? My bird bit me at one point??". Mazzie hasn't bitten me at all in over a year, and the last one was meant for my other IRN I just stuck my hand in the way LOL.

As to the laying, I doubt that it will encourage either of them to lay. Mazzie has never laid a single infertile egg, but then again she has no interest in male birds... no breeding instinct in her at all. She does consider me her mate, and I do pet her all over (in ways that could stimulate her I guess) without any nesting/egg behaviors.

They might just be curious, I have a hen teil who is the exact same way, nothing stops her from laying. We tried lupron, light levels, diet, you name it... nothing helps. She just likes to sit on eggs. We have another teil hen in the cage across from her who has never laid an egg.

Athena

Thanks so much. It's good to get another opinion about the egg laying. Our tiel girl has been through everything and we've modified everything imaginable to get her to stop laying; I lost count when she made it to 100 eggs being laid and that was at least six months ago. She just goes constantly. I am relieved to hear that it's not likely the other two girls will start laying; since we are having such a hard time with Paisley (the tiel) I am paranoid about it happening with Ruby and Posey.

Thanks so much.

In my experience, tiel hens will lay all the time. I really haven't seen other birds that do it so prolifictly. My old hen used to lay and lay and lay...Prinny hasn't yet but then again she is still young. I am hoping that we don't have to go through with that mess

Dani and Prinny

Do you leave the eggs in? I didn't think to mention that, but I shouldve...

If we leave the eggs in the cage our hen will sit on them for about 2 weeks before she gets bored and abandons them. Since she is caged with a male we just shake the eggs really well to make sure we don't get any babies .

Now if I could just figure out how to get this lovebird to stop laying and breaking her eggs. I'd let her sit if it wasnt so disgusting!!

Athena

Yes, we do leave the eggs in until she gets bored with them. The problem with Paisley is that this never seems to happen. She will get bored with some but just lay more right away, before we even remove them. She will push away the ones that she is bored with, lay more, and sit on those. I get paranoid; in my opinion she's too old to be doing this. She's never done it in her life and all of a sudden at 9 years of age, she starts laying eggs and won't stop. We've tried changing the environment, changing the way she is handled, changing her routine, taken her to the vet where she was given hormone injections (this was the last stitch effort), we've changed everything imaginable. She's in her cage alone. She's been alone her entire life except for a year or so a few years ago; we had two budgies and when the one passed away, it left the other one lonely. He (Picco) and Paisley got along so well they moved in together on their own. He later passed away too (they were very old budgies) so other than that time she's been alone. I am thinking of doing the opposite of what I should; perhaps if I get her a male, she'll stop! (I'm just kidding).

I counted today and in her cage are 15 eggs. whew! It's going to wear her out and wear her down.