Have just seen an egg that must have only just been laid being eaten by the hen. She was the very first of my hens to lay, but her first egg was stuck to her chest & was bumped off & broken, which was weeks ago & this one was the first (that i am aware of) since then. Is this unusual for the hens to eat their eggs?? She has plenty of fresh veges as well as seed. :bluebudgie:

No it's not unusual for them to eat the eggs. I read in one of my parakeet books that the hens love the taste of the insides of the eggs and that if a chick has a hard time getting out of the egg the mother will help it out by eating it which satisfies her craving for the inside of the egg.

i would say its not unusual but its not really commen either but if you have a hen that eats here eggs it is very difficult to stop her and myself would not try to breed her

i would say its not unusual but its not really commen either but if you have a hen that eats here eggs it is very difficult to stop her and myself would not try to breed her

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I agree with hath Bev when they get the taste for egg it is hard for them to stop eating.. Good luck with your other hen.

Have you got shell grit for the birds mine go mad for it and do have it all the time.

Also the cuttlefish is good for them.

Cuttlefish - fine.

 

Grit - not so - that is a WAY out of date thing to feed budgies. I don't care what it says on the packet, what the guy at ther petstore told you and what most breeders and keepers tell you. It does NOTHING useful - seed grinding in the gut being the most common claim. Budgies shell their seed before eating (go look at the chaf fin the seed bowl). It does many things harmful including increasing the risk of impaction in their guts.

 

You will find about 19 web sites in 20 still advise grit is a good thing but do some digging and you will find the ones that do not recommend it are based on SCIENTIFIC studies of avian diet.

 

You will find a thread in the forum about it here.

 

They get plenty of calcium from good diet and a cuttlefish bone to grate at.

 

(I should point out that for other larger birds grit IS necessary.)

This usually means lack of calcium.

This usually means lack of calcium.

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That makes sense to me being a lack of calcium, but as it is only the one hen that has done this it makes it difficult for me to assess why. This little hen is the only one in the avery that used to be an indoor pet, she was very rarely in her cage & to be honest was a bloody nuisance at times (Laughing out loud). Once I really got bitten by the budgie bug, & started to buy more, the outside avery was a must.

Would this have anything to do with her being an egg-eater?

Hi Bev I don't think her being an inside bird would lead to her eating eggs, she may have got the taste for them when she had to clean it off her chest. As for the calcium I think you can buy calcium blocks from some pet stores or the produce stores.