A night light is OK. It shouldn't make the room seem any brighter than a night with a full moon, which is something that birds sometimes have to sleep with in the wild.

Ok, these two birds are gonna be the death of me. Three days ago they started to be interested in the dark spot under the bed (that's where they started nesting before I put the nest up in the cage, about 2 months- 3 months ago), and now they have eggs there AGAIN

I need help. What do I do now??? I still have the older eggs in a bowl, and was thinking to put the nest back and add those eggs hoping they will be satisfied by the number and not lay more. Some of them looks as good as new.

Other possibility is to leave the new eggs where they are and add the old eggs, under the bed, and let these two scoundrels nest there.

Last possibility, very tempting right now, is to kill both Trilly and Frank lol.

Now, now, let's not have any bird murder lol. Since she's laying eggs she needs a nesting spot, and you can choose whether to let her do it under the bed or somewhere else. You also have to decide whether to let them hatch out the clutch if the eggs are fertile. If you want the eggs to hatch then you need to provide a real nestbox.

If this was my bird and I did NOT want the eggs to hatch, I'd provide an open box or basket in the bottom of the cage and put all the old eggs in that. Make a small mark on the old eggs with a felt tip pen so you can tell the difference between old eggs and any new eggs that she lays. An open box will not feel as safe and secure as a real nestbox, which might help discourage her from laying too many eggs.

The reason I wouldn't let my birds nest under the bed is because I don't want them to start thinking of this area as a permanent nest spot. When Buster and Shodu are getting hormonal they start spending time under a bed, so I put something under the bed to block them out.

The situation is again precipitating into emergency, Trilly is sick again. I have an appointment tomorrow late morning but I am so scared that she's not gonna make it through the night. Reading about poor little Muffin has made me even more worried, I know it's not rational but still.

When they started nesting under the bed I moved the old and the new eggs together to the nest again, leaving the nest top semi-open so that they wouldn't relax too much. I noticed from past experiences that other birds peeking into the nest unnerves them.
The cage they are in, a Double Vision, is too tall for putting a basket anywhere; I couldn't suspend it because the cage is too narrow and the bottom is so much down below, they'd have just abandoned the eggs.

I marked the old eggs, checked now and there are three unmarked eggs. Idiot me, I don't remember whether I marked the 2 eggs I found under the bed.

Just like last month, when I went to open the cages this morning she was sitting on the perch with the eyes half-closed. She wasn't particularly puffy but she's always very vocal at that time, instead she was just not interested in coming out.
And again, just like the last time, she hop on my finger and stayed there just looking at me.

I arranged a hospital cage in the bathroom with the hot water running and put a hot water bottle on top, above where she perches.

Later today I found an old gadget, one of those vapourisers ladies use to open the face pores, I bought it years ago and has been gathering dust in a cupboard since... But I thought maybe it would provide continuous steam if put next to the cage.
It's identical to this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006TVE0EG/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3/275-4728619-9802069?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_r=12PMD1VBZQEXEGHHFEVR&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=569136327&pf_rd_i=B001VNCB1G
The cage is now on my desk, with this thing in front of it and both covered with a blanket so that the steam doesn't escape out in the room.
I also keep the hot water bottle on top of the cage, every now and then I put it in the microwave so it stays hot.

I have a infrared reptile bulb but I don't have a lamp that fits a bayonet type, only got lamps that fit bulbs with a screw type fitting, damn. The lamp is a 100W so maybe it would be too hot anyway. Which wattage should be the best to keep a bird warm?
I need to buy the right one, for these emergencies.

I raided supermarkets and chemists for Gatorade or Pedialyte... in the UK they don't sell either.
The most common equivalent of Gatorade is called Lucozade but it contains caffeine so I went for a can of stuff whose ingredients seem similar to Gatorade. Trilly didn't touch it, but I left some in the cage just in case.
At the chemist I got something called Dioralyte, for children, and I think it's like Pedialyte.
http://www.boots.com/en/Dioralyte-Blackcurrent-6-Sachets_6229/
I put some in a bowl and with a syringe I wet her beak so she had to lick some up.
Is it the right thing to give her?

She is not vomiting this time, but she isn't touching food. I made her an egg and she looked at me with a totally disgusted face

Since this afternoon she only had one poo, quite large but not enormous as you'd expect from a laying lady; the consistence is loose but not liquid.
She is bobbing her tail but not too much.
When I took her out of the cage a couple of hours ago she was shaking, poor baby, but she stopped as soon as I had her on my chest covered with my hands.

Is there anything else I can do? Is the Dioralyte ok? What about the steam machine, is it ok to use it?

Please everyone if you have any idea or suggestion I'll be immensely grateful, I am worried sick and I have no idea whether the things I am doing are correct. Thank god she is perching and not sitting on the bottom of the cage, I pray it stays this way.

Yes, the Dioralyte is fine. It's an electrolyte replacement solution.

Is she able to move around on her own? If she is, you can simply apply heat at one end of the cage, and if she gets too warm she can move.

If she is eggbound the steam will be helpful. Heat and humidity are good. There's more information on dealing with egg binding at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... nding.html

I hope that she feels better soon and everything turns out all right.

Thank you Tielfan.
Do you think that steam machine is ok? I need to add water every 30 minutes because the "tank" is minuscule, but it seems to produce some vapour.

Yes she can move on her own. She also tries to fly but crashes after a couple of ft. I added a small table lamp so that she has some heat if she likes - and she does because she's been sitting in front of it. I think she is feeling cold, she was shaking again when I took her out a few minutes ago to give her some Dioralyte.

The steam machine should be OK. Keep her warm and keep an eye on her to see if she's making any more poop. If she is, you can encourage her to eat by holding seed on your finger for her to eat (if she is comfortable eating this way).

How is Trilly doing today?

Sorry for the late update, after the vet visit I had a lot to digest and I am not even sure I remember everything he said. She was in bad shape yesterday morning and I was fearing the worst. They kept her hospitalised. She passed the egg this morning and seems in good spirits, I am told.
I am just going to collect her now.

Anyway this is what Dr Brian said.
We obviously need to stop her producing eggs because sooner or later she's gonna die if we don't do anything.

I have an appointment in a week's time to bring her back and the vet will insert a Suprelorin implant. There are a few things I will need to do after the implant is in place, I forgot most but one of them is to keep her in constant light for 72 hours. This has to do with hormones. Sorry for the vagueness of my description but I am really ignorant about these things; I even googled Suprelorin but apart from an interesting thread on Avian Avenue I didn't find anything worth repeating... apart from a man on MyToo accused of animal cruelty for having his bird implanted.

The reason why the vet doesn't want to put the implant in now is because she needs to get better, he has found her muscular mass quite reduced and, well, looking at her you can see she's not well as se used to be.

In the meantime I must take off the nest and everything nest-related, so I will move her to a different cage.
I am tempted to keep her here in the living room instead of the bird room. It's much quieter in here and easier for me to keep an eye on her.

Do you have any suggestion about her diet? She mainly eats seeds but will chomp on veggies sometimes. Should I add fat and carbohydrates? she loves rice.
She needs to recuperate her strength otherwise the vet won't put the implant in place.

EDIT: One of the posts I read on AA says that there are two different strengths, one that lasts 6 months and one that lasts about one year. Does anyone know about this?

I just learned about implants being available for cockatiels a few days ago, and most of what I know about them came from that same Avian Avenue thread. It's here if anyone else wants to read it: http://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php ... rds.19109/

BTW the person who started that thread is Bea, who used to be a good member here - the blue budgie in the middle of our banner is her boy Blinkie. She was also one of the founders of TC.

So I can't tell you anything about the implant that you haven't already seen on Avian Avenue. Your vet will be the best person to ask.

You can let her eat all the sunflower seeds that she wants until she's stronger - they're high in both fat and other nutrients. If she's willing to eat handfeeding formula for baby birds you could give that to her too, it's also high in fat and other nutrients. If you have access to Harrisons High Potency pellets and she's willing to eat them, those are also a good choice. The nutritional content is very similar to handfeeding formula. A little cooked egg would also be good but don't go overboard on it. Basically any kind of bird-safe food that's high in both calories and nutrients will be good for her now.

I'm glad that she made it through the crisis - I was worried about her!