need help discouraging egg laying

kaluc66 · Post by **kaluc66** » Sat May 03, 2008 1:02 pm

I hope that someone is able to give me some advice. I have two zebra finches. About 5 days ago, I removed the nesting box after the two eggs that they had did not hatch. She laid them over 3 weeks ago and she was no longer sitting on them. I did candle them an one was empty and the other one looked like it started something but then dried up inside. My problem is that they started laying eggs again. She has been laying them on the botom of the cage. The one she laid today hasn't fallen through the bars on the bottom. This last clutch was their third and I wanted them to take a break from laying. I was reading some things but can't seem to find how much sunlight to give them to discourage their egg laying. Not sure if they are getting too much or too little. I have decreased their egg food that I mix in with their seeds. I'm not sure what else to do except separating them. I'm hoping that I wont' have to do that since I only have the two. We will be going on vacation for a week this summer and a friend will be taking care of them for us but I didn't want them to have to worry about babies. Any advice I could get would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing some suggestions. Thank you.

chrischris · Post by **chrischris** » Sat May 03, 2008 9:52 pm

I would change the cage around i.e. feeding trays, water dish locations and any toys in there. Make it feel like it's a new enviroment. Move the cage to a new spot too. In time they should atop laying when she knows it's useless. However there are some birds that would just keep laying and laying. Usually the laying period will stop with a molt some time in July. Hope that helps.

chris

Post by **Sally** » Sun May 04, 2008 1:20 am

There is an excellent article at the FIC, linked at left. Look under Breeding, and at the bottom is an article about discouraging breeding and egglaying. One of the best recommendations is to change the diet to an austere, basic one. Rich diets trigger breeding.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sun May 04, 2008 7:18 am

I would try a couple of weeks of only feeding them dry seed, make the little blighters think that there is a drought happening. normally when there is no rain, there is no green food so the birds stop breeding until the next rains