How to prevent cockatiel breedings

[Shamrock]

My adult daughter was given two cockatiels by a former neighbour about a year ago. She was told they wrere approx 10 yrs old. They've adjusted well and have seemed content and happy.

She recently bought them a birdie bath, which they loved and used at once.
To her astonishment - the very next day they began mating.
She removed the bath, but the breeding went on, and so she bought them a nest. Now they are both sitting on five eggs.

Its been about a week or ten days now, and my daughter is trying to learn about all that this entails.
('If" these chicks successfully hatch and survive, she will give them away.)
She has found out some basics to do with the hatching, hand-feeing, etc

Some things that, so far, she still doesnt know:
-Why after all this time, and "off-season".. did these two mate?
-The introduction of the bath was the only "change' - was this alone the reason, one factor only, or just an odd co-incidence?

Would the birds rather advanced age be a detterrent to the health/survival of the chicks?

As she wants to ensure they dont breed again, she needs to know what prompted their mating behaviour.

I dont know the first thing about birds. Just did a bit of online search, but didnt really find the answers to these questions.

Any info that might help her would be greatly appreciated.

[Prin]

I don't know about birdie breeding, but maybe they both needed a good shower to be fresh and ready for action?

How long to birdies like these live? If they live 10 years and are 10, I'd worry... Is there an exotic vet in your area?

[papillonmama]

Seems like your daughters birds have finally settled in and decided that they are comfortable enough to start breeding, from what I've read cockatiels can breed at anytime but from the age you're saying that they are they should be slowing down. when they lived in your neighbors house were they in the same cage or were they in seperate cages? If your daughter doesn't want anymore chicks that is the solution, put the cages side by side so that they can still enjoy each others company.
Cockatiels actually become better parents as they age, the male will be a bigger help in the rearing.
It's possible that the bath was just the last thing to let them know that everything in their world is now good enough for them to rear their chicks.
An avian vet is a must, I asked our vet if they could give me a list of avian vets in my area.

http://www.cockatiels.org they had some interesting articles on breeding as well as other topics.

[RaYne]

Is she sure the eggs are fertile? I had 2 females that would take turns laying and care for the eggs together.

Here is an article on candling eggs to check and see if they are fertile.

http://www.cockatiels.org/articles/b.../candling.html

[Shamrock]

Thanks very much for those links. That is a big help - I will forward this information over to her, and let her know she needs to find an avian vet for this undertaking.

I dont think she considered that the eggs might not be fertile - just assumed as the parents were sitting on them...that they were. That is something she needs to check first.
These birds have always been together in the same cage, and because of that, she didnt really want to seperate them once this is concluded.
But, sounds like side by side cages would be fine as a solution.

How the bath prompted this is a mystery, but seems there was some connection to the "birdie hot tub" and their amorous behaviour.

[Melinda]

cockatiels like a nesting box, if the bath was one that you hook on the outside of the doorway, then to them it looked like a nesting box, eggs in a nest really won't do that well out in the open. When ours were nesting (35 pairs) we'd separate the male with a sliding wall. they were still close, but he couldn't "take over", my dad was a registered breeder, before anyone comments *L*. He also bred, love birds, finches, canaries, budgies, a few other "odd" species, and was a part of the humaine society to take in injured or abused birds, and believe me, there were/are plenty.