so, today, munch was sitting a little funny on her ledge. it looked like she was "incubating". then she shifted and laid down on her belly and started falling asleep. the lovebirds frequently sleep on their belly so this is not abnormal, but the way she was sleeping made something a little apparent. shes got a slight bulge that looks to me like an egg bum. her poops havent been much bigger than normal, though they have SLIGHTLY increased in size. but not egg poops... i dont know. she stands up and the bulge isnt so noticeable. regardless if she lays or when she does i have to boil them as shes been mating with her brother out of cage... shes been going nuts at her cuttlebone too these last two weeks. i put a new one in her cage today and shes been going at it for an hour.







what is your opinion on this?

It definitely sounds like nesting/egg laying behavior. You could start her on long nights but if she's about to lay an egg it's already too late.

You can buy fake eggs at http://theeggshop.com/ If she does start laying eggs it's possible that you might convince her to lay fewer eggs by slipping several of these under her so it looks like she already has a full clutch. But I've tried this with Shodu and it never works. She's programmed to lay 5 eggs in a nestbox no matter how many eggs are already in there.

she IS on the long nights treatment and has been for a long time. she gets 14 hours of sleep, shes got no "nestbox" but it doesnt matter there ive caught her making nests in the bottom of her cage, under her food bowls, top of the cage (out of cage time), IN her food bowls, on her sleeping ledge... its beyond me that one... shes determined.

Some birds just can't be stopped. If egg laying becomes excessive your vet can provide hormone shots that work with most birds.

If long nights don't work you could try her out on 24 hours of light, that's supposed to throw some birds off. I don't know the details of how that's supposed to work though. If she's already hormonal and laying eggs I don't see how it could do any additional harm.

my fiance would KILL me, theyre in our bedroom and im sure our already idiotic rude neighbours would be rather P.O. ed too with the noise they'd make all night. they're noisy birds... so thats not an option for us. if she lays constantly i will go for the fake eggs, as that may help, but i think devin wont let me get them unless laying becomes a problem... he does the budgetting.

ive left her cage uncovered before, she wasnt too bad for nestiness, but its getting too cold. maybe i will leave the front uncovered like i do during the day

this is their cage during the day. so ill try not covering their cages at night to see how that helps...

The 24-hour daylight concept seems weird to me anyway. I don't know anybody who's actually tried it.

It looks like they're in two different cages so one breeding stimulus has already been removed. At http://www.lovebirds.co.nz/breeding/index.php it says the male is supposed to feed the female while she incubates during the day and roost with her at night. That obviously isn't happening, so maybe you'll get lucky and she won't actually lay an egg after all. But single lovebirds do lay eggs sometimes and it sounds like she might be going for it.

You might want to take that ledge out of her cage, since it looks pretty comfy and may be her chosen nest spot. She'll probably just go down to the bottom of the cage instead, but that's probably less inviting than the ledge.

It's probably a good thing if it's cool in the cage at night - that might help discourage egg laying. You don't want the birds to actually be cold of course.

that might be an option. but as said ive caught her making nests elsewhere too

i will not cover the cage anymore either.

ok, does this look like an egg bum? when she laid down yesterday you could really see it but once she stood up it wasnt as noticeable

today standing up


yesterday laying down



was it just a trick of how she was laying down you think? its normal for them to lay on their bellies, both do it when theyre resting. its rather cute lol

I'm no good at recognizing egg bum so I can't help. I can't even see it on my own cockatiels when I know they're almost guaranteed to lay an egg in a few hours.

no egg today, no big poops.... but i do think eggs are inevitable with her.