Maybe Mary could be trying to out do Crapper in the poop size competition :)
How many eggs has she layed, and when was the last one?

I'm told that's really important for egg-laying birds to get a lot of calcium, so you might want to look into ways to increase her intake. Then again maybe she's already doing what she can to increase her intake, hence the giant poops? I dunno... If you're REALLY concerned it would probably be a good idea to talk to a vet.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

lol! i am THIS >< close to changing her name to her indian name, Mary Poops A Lot. (gag)

she has laid 6. seems to be one every other day and the last one was yesterday. she never lays them when i'm around, but i'd love to see what it's all about.

yeah, i keep reading about the calcium. she has a block in her cage and she picked at it a lot more recently than she ever has, but seems to have laid off it since the eggs started coming. i read at the cockatiel society or whatever the name of that organization about someone who finally had to give his hen away when she laid 20 eggs and it interfered with her health. he had to give her to a breeder, since she wanted desperately to have them babies!!

i think IF IF IF IF IF IF it gets to ten eggs, then i'll call the vet. so far, she's acting just as healthy as before and she has no reason to not be healthy (plenty of fresh food, water, calcium, things to chew on and get her aggressions out, etc.). so IF IF IF IF IF IF she hits ten, then i'll start to worry.

i just don't know if i have the heart to start confusing her and throwing her off kilter. she's so used to things the way they are and she acts like such an old bitty, i'm afraid that the changes would be so much stress. :(

but those poops! ugh!

i think i should change MY name to anonymous...or my more indian name...can't figure out how to log in first.

Keep plenty of calcium sources available for her. DON'T move the eggs yet; the theory behind that is that if she sees eggs missing, she'll lay more to compensate. Six is about an average clutch, laid every other day. Let her sit on them until she gets bored.

If she continues to lay you may want to talk with your avian vet about HGH hormone, which worked wonderfully for my cockatiel hen. My avian vet suggested keeping the hen in total darkness for several (12) hours a day to disrupt the cycle, but I didn't have the heart to do that to her. However, if you normally cover her at night, stop doing that for a while; and vice versa if you don't normally cover her at night. The idea behind this is to disrupt the light cycling enough to slow down the egg-producing hormones. No soft or warm foods right now, either, because an abundance of soft warm foods encourages laying -- stick with pellets (if she eats them) and seeds and so on, but no oatmeal or warm scrambled eggs. By the way, cold hard-boiled eggs would be a good source of calcium for her.

The large poops are perfectly normal and should go back to "regular" size when she stops laying. ;-)
_______________________
www.scritches.com
everything but the bird
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There’s calcium and there’s calcium. The calcium in most high quality bird vitamins is the fast absorption type. This allows you to know they absorb what they get. The big question is how much do they need? Even the bird nutrition experts hedge this by saying only a blood test will tell you for sure. You can overdose them on calcium as well as other vitamins. I have used ‘Prime’ vitamins for this because they are fine sweet powdered sugar type product that I dilute in water than give the exact dose in a feeding syringe. The tip I give people is to never completely wean you bird off hand-feedinging formula. I always keep some around and give my birds some every few days. They think it’s the best treat they can get. It’s the great source of calcium as it is for just about everything else and grate for sick birds, breading birds or as a supplement with no fear of overdose. I always know that I can balance a diet any time simply by supplementing formula. It’s cheaper than pellets because it’s more nourishing and theirs on waste. My birds act just like babies when I give it to them and it can become addictive.
CAUTION! Unless you are completely competent at feeding your bird from a syringe do not try this! Put some in a spoon. Birds choke to death or worse every week from being hand fed formula from a syringe by novices.

Mike Bross
Phoenix AZ

I have had this problem with my beloved tiel, and the things I found that helped are:

1. Don't remove the eggs until she loses interest. Removing them just encourages her to lay more.
2. Temporarily cut back on the fresh foods and rely more on pellets.
3. Move her cage to a different location and rearrange her perches and toys. If you have an extra cage, consider moving her into it temporarily.
4. Give her more hours of darkness for sleeping.
5. Cut back on the cuddles (This was the hardest one!).

As it's been explained to me, cockatiels are very prone to egg-laying if they feel that they are in a good situation. By shaking things up a little as described above, you give them the impression that the situation isn't right for them to get started on their imaginary families.

One other tip for this time of the year: be very careful about letting your tiel see any jelly beans or other small, egg-shaped treats. Mine got very excited once when she got ahold of a white jelly bean, and tried to sit on it.

Hope this helps!
Elise in Massachusetts

I have two cockateil and they keep laying eggs but nothing never happens. i have a yellow with orange spots on her face and a gray with orange spots on his face. the lady i got him off of said that he was a male bird

With most species, it's difficult to be sure if a bird is male or female... But when a bird lays an egg, that answers the question for sure!

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

cotero@uccs.edu

I'm sorry but I am apachie, and I find that insulting to my race. Please take me off of your member list and I will be grateful. I will not tell any of my friends about this, but at the same time I will not tell them about your web site.

to: jackal64 from ninas1782:
this website sent me your posting and I have nothing to do with whatever you are talking about. Were you intending to send it to Kate?

I am confused - what's offensive about this web site?

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Nate.... I think this person took offense to a tongue in cheek comment that was made at the very beginning of this thread (04.06.94) about changing the birds name.

Debbi
NZ