Canary has laid eggs. Anything I should do

[Threadworm]

I've had my canary for about 18 months and for the first time she has produced eggs.

They can't have been fertilised because her companion is a male parson finch rather than a canary.

She's laid them in the metal cup I use for putting greenstuff in the cage. She's been trying to put nesting material there for a while -- shredding the sandpaper for that purpose.

Should I give her nesting material? Should I take the eggs away? Should I just leave her alone?

.

according to what I've been able to find on google, the best thing, if the canary is intent on making a nest, is to allow her to do that, but to remove the actual eggs and replace them with artificial ones. (might be worth talking to a local breeder/avian vet?) and to then let her incubate these eggs for as long as she wants. Then when she abandons the nest, remove it from the cage, and remove anything that will encourage her to nest again.

Don't remove the nest before she abandons it as this will apparently cause her to become depressed

Thanks very much wannabe. I like the idea of the artificial eggs -- I suppose the real eggs would just start to go bad before she abandoned them.

I'll check out the local petshops.

If you can't find artifical ones just boil the eggs that are there for 5 minutes and put them back in.

My birds constantly lay eggs and if you keep removing them then they keep laying and can become ill (calcium depletion amongst other things)
Might be worth adding some more greenstuff for the nutrients as well just to make sure she keeps healthy.
It won't do her any harm to have a nest of eggs and sit on them for awhile, I am not sure how long canary eggs take but she will reject them after a few weeks and you can remove them then.

On a plus side she would only be laying if she was very happy and feels safe so you are obviously doing a fab job!

The eggs -might- be fertile, as its not unheard of cross breeding - i know the various finches can interbreed but the offspring are "mules" so infertile.

Also there is no need to try and remove nesting material, they will make nests out of anything to hand so it might be difficult to do anyway, they don't lay all year round so you will probably find she lays a couple of clutches and then leaves it for 6 months or so.

(I have never had female canaries so don't know about their 'cycles' though!)

And NutterlyUts is quite right, they may be fertile, if you google 'candling eggs' it will show you how you can have a look.

I don't candle mine as we can't afford to have babies hatching out at the moment, I just make DH boil them while I am out (I am such a wuss!)

Oh thanks chirpy girl. Only just read this. Will make extra sure she has plenty of goodies to eat.
Actually she has damaged the eggs and only one remains .
Interesting to hear that if all eggs go she might keep laying and make herself poorly. Will keep an eye on that.

You must be a birdy expert. Hence the name I suppose!!

(Oh, I am Threadworm btw: have gone all Halloween.)

One of my birds has this calcium deficiency problem, I don't know how common it is but I do know that most breeds will keep laying to replace ost eggs, that's why chickens constantly lay. If their eggs were left they would stop laying for a few weeks ot hatch them, but as they are removed they keep trying to replace them, it's quite sad really!

Don't worry if she has damaged the eggs, just clean it out and leave the other one. This is the other reason I boil them, even if I know they are unfertile, they can stink something awful otherwise!

I am not so much an expert as I was forced into it! Our birds constantly lay and after we had to handraise a load of babies they abandoned there isn't much I don't know (apart from hand feeding newborn chicks every 2 hours day and night is not as satisfying as feeding a baby every 2 hours)

(Chirpygirl was the name of our first jointly owned bird-she lived with Chirpyboy...such imagination!)

My first pair of canaries were called Pearl & Dean, which was good, until eventually the female died and we were just left with a bird called Dean.

Sadly my current canary has now destroyed the last egg ( or her boyfriend has). If she lays anymore I will be very careful to hardboil them, or get some pretend eggs so that she doesn't keep laying and make herself ill.

The male bird is a parson finch. It would be nice to think that they could produce offspring together but I wouldn't know what to do with them if she did!

Oh, PS, I noticed on another thread that you are close to having your new baby. All the very best wishes. Picturing you sitting cosily on a lovely nest....

Thanks and at nest!

Funnily enough, one of my breeding pairs laid an egg this morning, and we discovered another one in another pair's nest box earlier. They must be reading this over my shoulder!