These in the title are the mildest adjectives I could find in my head.
I joke about it, but I'm pretty appalled and worried.

Last Thursday I was doing the usual morning routine, opening the cages, and I saw Trilly sitting on the bottom of the cage. I was worried because I thought she was sick, usually she can't wait to get out, instead she was just sitting in the corner.
When I put the hand inside to touch her, she freaked out and started climbing the bars, and I saw a little egg: that's what she was doing, she was sitting on her egg
I was in shock and had to go sit down
She immediately went back to her egg, desperately trying to protect it, rolling it in a corner. I will not write down the insults I threw at her, they will get me banned lol.

I thought of leaving the egg on the bottom of the cage, but then I thought better not because the other birds would try to get in (they all go to each other cages during the day) and fights would ensue.

After long thinking I decided to move trilly and Frank to a bigger cage and put the nest in. They were pretty chuffed of course, going in and out of the nest and admiring their little egg.
After about one hour, they completely ignored the egg and the nest, and that lasted two days. Then they started sitting on it.

Trilly had babies a few months ago, the clutch started hatching at the end of October. Isn't it too early for her to have more now?
She was doing so well, no hormonal behaviour, no eggs... then two weeks ago she and hubby started to look for nests and I immediately stopped soft food and covered them for very long nights. Obviously I failed.

I am worried that these eggs are coming too early, too close in time to her last babies.
Is there anything I can do to at least reduce the number of eggs that she's gonna lay?
I don't think I will let them hatch, even though my partner is saying that it's very unfair of me to boil her eggs. But he is not the one who has to care for them, so easy to say for him!

What is the procedure for boiling the eggs without destroying them? they look so tiny and fragile.
Otherwise I can get dummy eggs but i am not sure about the size. On eBay UK they sell dummy eggs for various birds. Excluding the obviously wrong ones, this is what I can get:
large parakeet - 24mm (that's almost 1")
budgies - size not specified
pigeons and doves - 1.5"
This seller says that his pigeon eggs are suitable for cockatiels
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TOP-QUALITY-PLASTER-PIGEON-PARROT-DUMMY-EGGS-MULTIPLE-QUATITIES-AVAILABLE-/131009000799?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Poultry&var=&hash=item1e80beb55f

There is one last think I'd like to ask. I know that the whole process is very tough on both parents. But I'd like to know which part of the process is actually the most challenging for their body: The egg laying/sitting on eggs or the chick raising?

srtiels says that raising babies is the most stressful part. How many babies did she have last year? If I remember right it was something like 3. That's just one clutch and it's OK to have two clutches in a 12-month period without putting a lot of physical stress on the parents.

Make sure that her intake of calcium and vitamin D3 is good. Calcium deficiency is the #1 cause of egg binding. A little bit of cooked egg every day during the breeding period will help with nutrient intake.

This seller has a variety of fake eggs: http://www.dummyeggs.com/#cockatiels The cockatiel eggs are 1 inch long and 3/4 inch diameter = 25x19 mm. They are very realistic, and if I have fake eggs mixed with real eggs I have to look carefully to figure out which one is which. The 24mm eggs sound like the right size for you.

I've never boiled a cockatiel egg, and I'm not that good at boiling chicken eggs either lol. I would suggest heat that's not too high, just barely at the boiling point, to help avoid cracking the egg.

She had 7 eggs in total (8 counting the one that she laid on a high perch and splatted on the floor) but only 4 hatched.

Once I get the dummy eggs in place, what will happen if I leave them in the cage forever? Will that stop her from wanting to lay new eggs? Or she will just lay new ones in a few months even with the dummies inside the nest?

I was seriously worried about Frank about 2 weeks after the eggs hatched, he really was the shadow of his own self. He was very active with the parenting but I could see that he was exhausted and sometimes confused. He is the main reason why I am not keen at all about them parenting. Trilly is a powerhouse and apart from being a bit skinny she was fine, but he is such a tiny boy

I bought crushed oyster shells and added very small quantities to the seed bowl, but I am not sure whether they are picking them up.
I found out that if I slice an entire broccoli head in half and put it in a plate they all eat it. The chop has never been a big success but the entire half head must have a toy aspect that attracts them.
They have cuttlefish bones and mineral blocks... and that's all the calcium they get, together with the quinoa. Most probably not enough.

I don't know what to do about the D3, should I consider buying the light bulb? I doubt if I will ever be able to choose the right one, but while I live in this flat there is no other way for them to get D3 naturally.
I was thinking, if I buy the supplement and spray it on their chest will they lick it? I have been thinking of ways to avoid them to OD on it, this trick works with dogs... would it work with tiels too?

Broccoli florets look like unripe seed heads. There's a lot of tiel appeal in that!

Full spectrum lights are iffy, there's no guarantee that they'll actually deliver the UVB. It might be best to get a liquid calcium supplement for birds and follow the directions. Don't spray it on them though, it's not designed for that and I have no idea how well it would work. Here's the brand that I have: http://www.morningbirdproducts.com/prod ... mplus.html The link shows the ingredients and the dosage instructions. There are a lot of other brands that seem to have the same formula, so use whatever is most easily available to you.

Will your birds eat sprouted seeds and grains? If they will, you can mix the liquid calcium with that. Any other moist food that they're willing to eat can be used to slip them some calcium.

How do you make sure that they only take the right quantity? I am scared of possible overdoses. They all share water and food, I have no idea how to monitor the intake.

Do the parent birds keep the other birds away from the nest area? If they do, you could put some special food in the area that they're guarding so that only the breeding birds get it.

I can put the bowl inside the cage and keep them both inside when it's supplement day. The other birds always hover around so I wouldn't know who ate what otherwise. I can do that twice a week, not every day of course

I have one question: if I only leave ONE fertile egg and swap the others with the dummy eggs (I just ordered them), will that be less stressful for the parents? Or the raising stage is stressing in the same way no matter how many chicks they have?

Fewer chicks means less work but you don't have to cut the number down to one. If it's three or less it won't be a huge burden on them. I think a single parent could manage three chicks if they had to, and two parents can handle that number just fine. There would be a lot more work if they had five or six.

This girl is UNBELIEVABLE. We just moved, she and Frank only abandoned the nest about a week ago, the place is a mess and surely can't seem a safe environment for a momma bird... And still Trilly is dropping eggs everywhere!!!
I found one two days ago and one this morning, both of them on the floor, one cracked and one miraculously intact.
I am literally banging my head on the wall, well, almost.
This is such a hostile place, I can't understand this girl

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I didn't consider the injections before, but maybe at this point it's the lesser evil.
Every morning when I walk into their room I am terrified of finding her moribund on the bottom of the cage.

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