Female Keets Laying Eggs

User Question
I have a 4 year old female parakeet, Penelope. She is happy and healthy and we all love her very much. I have been trying to find information on her laying an egg. My books say nothing about it. However my friend has shared a story of hers to me, telling me that her bird died when trying to lay an egg. She is the only bird that we have, and I am not sure what to do or expect. Any help that you could offer would be a great!

Lisa's Answer
You're talking about egg binding. That only happens if a female tries to lay an egg of course, and most females only try to lay eggs if a male is around. I have three females that are 8 and 7 years old and none have ever laid an egg. Even if your keet did somehow fall in love with something and decide to lay an egg, most of the time the egg just comes out (unfertilized of course). So it's a very unusual set of circumstances that cause a single hen to get eggbound. I have a page on it here -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/medical/eggbinding.html

so sure, if your keet starts to look eggbound, simply call your vet. But other than that I wouldn't worry about it.

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