My cockatiel mates with her toys...

**Aimee** · 10-17-2011, 02:03 PM

Hello,

My name is Aimee, and I have 2 cockatiels named Steve and Martin (who both, ironically, are girls). Both of them have been desexed due to chronic egg laying and we try to make sure we don't encourage any mating habits (e.g. by putting them into bed early to reduce their daylight hours). Unfortunately, Steve tries to mate with every toy that I put in their cage. She sort of puts her head up against the toy or under it and does the mating call. Does anyone else have this problem?

It is a bit of an issue as we end up taking toys out to try to discourage her mating habits, but then they both get bored.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Aimee

**FlyingCircus808** · 10-17-2011, 04:17 PM

Hi Aimee, what do you mean by "desexed?" Perhaps I'm not up on current treatments for chronic egg-layers. If indeed the hens can't possibly lay any more eggs, I see no harm in letting them do as they please.

**Aimee** · 10-18-2011, 12:24 AM

To desex a cockatiel the vet removes the oviduct and in most cases, the cockatiel does not get the urge to produce eggs. They still mate and everything, it just does not translate into them forming an egg.

In some cases they still get the urge and try to form the egg, which results in them getting sick. Our vet said we should just try and continue to avoid encouraging laying behaviors, which is why I am concerned about how Steve reacts to her toys.

I have only met a couple of other people who have had to get their cockatiels desexed, most just get hormone injections and it stops there. Unfortunately, both of our girls are hormone resistant, and were very chronic egg layers!!

**maxollie** · 10-20-2011, 06:00 PM

Hi! Aimee, Thank you for posting the information about desexing your tiels. I also was wondering when I read some of your other posts what you meant when using that word. I have a little female tiel who is not yet a year old (at least to my estimation, I purchased her at a Pet shop the first part of June) and she already has begun laying eggs. I don't have any other tiels in my home so she is a "single" hen so to speak. She has laid one clutch of 5 eggs and one of 3 eggs in the past two months. I am hopeful it is just the fall season and that I won't have a chronic egg layer on my hands. As to the toys in her cage, I have removed the majority of them. And I took all of the bells off of any she had. I also don't put mirrors in the cage. I also put her to bed early at night so she gets about 14 hours of sleep a night. And, like your tiels, she still gets "clucky" now and then. I try to discourage the behavior, and I am very careful to not give her very many scritches (if any), and don't touch her at all, because that in itself can begin the hormonal cycle. I agree that at times I think she gets bored without all of the toys she used to have, but I'm trying to prevent having to give her medications. I also wouldn't want to have the surgery unless it is the last resort. I hope my information about the toys is of help to you.

**Aimee** · 10-21-2011, 12:43 AM

Hi Maxollie,

I don't think desexing is very common, and it was a last resort for us as well. Unfortunately we tried every hormone treatment available and neither of our cockatiels responded (which is quite odd because generally they do and my cockatiels are not related to each other).

My birdies were laying around 30-40 eggs before they had a break, and they usually only stopped for a week or two before they started again. We had them both on calcium supplements and other medications, but they were both struggling and had been egg previously.

I don't think vets perform the surgery, but hopefully you can find someone in your area if you need too! Or even better, hopefully you don't have a chronic layer!

Thanks for your info about the toys, I might start leaving a radio on for them through the day to relieve boredom instead of toys.

**maxollie** · 10-21-2011, 09:18 AM

Aimee! Leaving the radio on is a great idea. In fact, I have a small CD player that plays CD's throughout the day and my fids love the music. Along with my little tiel, Ollie, I also have a parakeet, Maxi. He is 5 years old. He and Ollie are in separate cages. Another suggestion that you might consider is playing TV cartoons for them. My fids love the cartoons. I think it has something to do with "kids" voices, because my birds love people, especially kids.

I didn't realize that tiels could lay that many eggs. That really IS scarey. Thankfully you were giving them plenty of calcium. I was giving my tiel kale every day before she began laying. And that was just by accident, because when I went food shopping one day they didn't have the usual leaf lettuce that I always gave her, so I picked up a bunch of kale. It is full of calcium. And when she laid the first egg it was firm and she didn't get egg bound. That was a miracle considering that I never expected her to be laying eggs. Thanks for the nice response to my post.