Green Singers laying "dud" eggs - how to increase

[Nipper06]

I have a pair of Green Singers that are laying lots of infertile eggs. They successfully hatched a baby last year but even then, had infertile eggs in the clutch. This year, they've laid 2 clutches of infertile eggs. Is there anything that can be done to increase fertility? They could be on the old side and that may be the problem - but otherwise, they seem keen to breed.

I am letting them try one more time. They have water with Calcivet in it for calcium right now - don't think that's the problem but calcium supplements never hurt. They also have plenty of insect food - dried and live mealworms - as well as eggfood. They are enthusiastic about building a nest and laying eggs - but eggs have been infertile. I stupidly forgot to look at their bands when I bought them so I don't know how old they are - but I hate to catch and scare them, especially now while they are attempting to breed (they want to breed in fall because they are southern hemisphere birds from Africa).

Here is the female on her nest (being canary relatives, they use an open cup type nest):



The pair has this big cage all to themselves (not an aviary but lots of room, all to themselves):



Here is last year's baby (he was briefly tame when I banded him):



Here he is a few months later:

[Sally]

I had no luck with my Green Singers. They were imports, and never settled down to breed at all. Then I lost the male, and I really hate to get another, since it is the hen that is so flighty. I have a male that is the really large variety, have been told that he is South African, but he is extremely aggressive and has killed his mate in the past.

My Gray Singers, closely related to the Greens, are just hatching out a clutch of 3. They hatched 2 out earlier, but then didn't feed (I may have peeked too much), and they died.

The only thing I can think of to increase fertility is to add a breeding supplement to their eggfood. They also like more greens than most species. Is the light a full-spectrum bulb? Also, is it on 12-14 hours a day? There is a Green Singer forum in yahoo groups--Fumi is one of the real experts on this species and very helpful.

[Nipper06]

Sally - my green singers are the smaller variety. They were captive bred because they have closed legbands on. So they are not especially wild. I suspect they are possibly old. I need to catch them and read the legbands (I forgot to do so when I bought them).

I have them with a full spectrum light on 12+ hours a day and I do give them lots of greens - they love dandelion leaves. I saw the male feeding the female and that's a sign of breeding so my guess is they will lay again. I just started putting live mealworms in, in addition to dried insect food, and they are eating them so maybe that will better stimulate them. However, I worry the real problem may just be fertility in this possibly old couple!

Their one baby was born around XMAS last year. I recently got him a mate from PetSmart with no legband - so she's possibly wild-trapped. I may set them up for breeding soon so I may get more green singer babies after all.