societies loosing eggs

[ac12]

Well not loosing but I think the male may be eating the eggs.

Male1 with hen = 2 clutches of dud eggs
I swapped in a new male, male2
I saw an egg in the morning, and it was 'gone' in the afternoon.
I put in 2 fake eggs, which being plastic, he can't eat.
Then I put in a real egg a week ago.
Today when I went to candle the egg, no egg ????

I conclude it is the male2 because with male1, none of the eggs were 'lost'

This is the first time that I've had a society "loose" eggs.
And strangely, in a trio of males including this one, I never "lost" an egg.
Any ideas on what to do, beside pull him from mating/fostering?

[slwatson]

ac12

Have you tried offering crushed egg shell at all times in the cage? Maybe the culprit (probably male 2) will go after that instead of the society eggs.

[ac12]

slwatson
You may be on to something.
They prior tossed an egg, without the shell.
And today I found another tossed egg, without the shell. ????

I gave them a dish with egg shell, so they get all they want in addition to the shells I give them with their egg.
Plus I just added liquid calcium to their water. That should take care of calcium deficiency.

Fingers crossed that the problem was low calcium in their bodies.

[paul-inAZ]

Egg laying is a major drain on body calcium. Its been estimated that making one egg shell uses 10% of the hen's TOTAL body calcium, most of which is in bones. Imagine depleting 10% of your bone calcium every day.

So I wouldn't be too quick to blame the male. It could be the hen trying to keep her bones from melting away.
They will go through a fair amount of crushed up eggshell when laying and also when feeding youngsters. The kids' bones are growing very quickly and need calcium.

[ac12]

They have had egg shells with their egg food every day, and they don't eat all of it. That is why I had not considered calcium deficiency, before. I figured she had eaten all she needed.

We shall see what happens, now that I put liquid calcium in the water.