Recently, my pair of cockatiels just laid two eggs, and we are expecting another one tonight (11/06/08), since every other night Grey Grey has laid her eggs, and she has verly large and smelly droppings, and a egg shaped vent. And she has been doing very well with the eggs! Along with her mate and the father of the chicks, Diablo.
But the problem is, Diablo is over-protective. It is a good trait in parents, I understand that, but this is goes way too far. Whenever Grey Grey leaves to drink or eat, or say hello to us, Diablo takes over the sitting. Which is good, but, Diablo won’t let Grey Grey into the nest box! He stampedes out of the nest box and attacks her by biting her in various places, trying to attack her, and trying to attack us to get to her when we are holding Grey Grey. And he keeps trying to mate with her, so we separate them at that time. Grey Grey likes to be picked up, and comes to us, so we don’t really interfere with the eggs. But still, he won’t let Grey Grey in at all, to lay or incubate the eggs.
We have a spare cage for any of our birds (cockatiels/parakeets), if a problem occurs, and Diablo is currently staying in there while Grey Grey is incubating and doing the motherly roll. And Diablo gets a little mad at first, but he is settled down and Grey Grey is sitting in the cage as we speak.
My question is, should we keep Diablo separated from her permanently? Grey Grey is doing a fine job of taking care of the eggs, but I was wondering. And I was reading, and I read that cockatiel eggs can stay viable for seven days, and the maximum time she is gone is about five minutes, and it is room temperature around their cage. But still, my question stands, should we separate Diablo from the mother and eggs? If so, can Grey Grey fully take care of the eggs on her own? We are pulling the chicks at two weeks of age, if that matters.
FIRST EGG- Laid Monday, November Third, 2008 at night. Due to hatch in sixteen to nineteen days.
SECOND EGG- Laid Wednesday, November Fifth, 2008 at night. Due to hatch is seventeen to twenty days.
We are expecting a third egg, and we are goig to candle them in about a week to see if we have fertile eggs.
