BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Birds Eggs on the bottom of cage.

Can anyone tell me why both of my female budgies are laying their eggs on the floor of the cage. Both pairs have separate cages and nest boxes in place but the female will go in and then come back out and lay the eggs on the floor. Sometimes she will be inside for an hour or more but never stays for any extended period of time. They each have 4 & 5 eggs but do not sit them. Are these duds or is there still a chance. I have seen 1 pair actually mating but not the other. The mothers will sit on them if they are on the floor. One is a first time mother the other is the second time. (First time she layed in the nest box and stayed with the eggs)

There is still a chance (if the eggs are fertile), but not if the eggs are not incubated. It is possible that they both abandoned the eggs because they are not fertile. There could be a few different reasons why they chose not to lay their eggs in the nestbox. There might be something they do not like about the box - too small - too large - too dark - not dark enough - wrong location - somethng disturbed them while in the box, etc. Budgies can and do raise clutches on the floor of their cages, although this is not the best place for you to then try to keep clean.

Thanks for the reply, I will try moving the cage and if that doesn't work then I will just leave them on the cage floor, it will be a wait and see.

My budgies is still laying eggs on the bottom of the cage. She does not know when to stop. This has been going on now for nearly 2 months. Every other day there is a new egg. Generally they get broken and I just throw them out but the rest is still there. She will sit on them most of the time but nothing is born. What can I do to stop her having any more eggs. The male budgies is in the cage with her. I have not seen them mate for this entire time. :confused:

This is way too many eggs for her to be laying. She is depleting her calcium levels and is in serious trouble of egg binding if this continues. Immediately start decreasing the daylight hours for her - cover the cage with a dark cloth or move her cage into a dark room so that her daylight hours decrease. Don't do it drastically, but reduce by 1/2 hour the first day and an additional 15 minutes per day after that until you are at winter daylight hours. If she continues to lay, please take her to an avian veterinarian. The fact that many of the eggs are breaking could be due to thin shells which indicate calcium problems.

My female has stopped laying last week, she is now sitting on them. Before she would sit a while and then stop. I will reduce the daylight hours and hope for the best. If no little ones are born within the next couple of weeks then I will remove the nest box completely. My second female has stopped laying and has no nest box available, she is very active and as playful as any of the rest of my flock. I really have no more concerns about her, thanks for the reply.

Both of my females are in good shape now. There were no new babies and that is probably the best as I don't want to let them go once there are here and I have 15 now plus 3 cockatiels and that is enough for me to look after.

Thanks for the update. Glad things are going well.