# HELP! How can I stop my pigeon from constantly laying eggs?



## Pigeonfriend

My pigeon, Peach, came to me last November, with a suspected case of PMV. She has been doing fine, and she is my only bird. This August, she suddenly started laying eggs, and she has been laying them non-stop ever since. At first, I thought I wasn't giving her enough time to sit on them. This time around, she sat on them for over 20 days (one broke towards the very end of that period). She seemed to lose interest in the other one. 

However, just a few days after the last one is gone, she is once again acting like she is about to lay eggs (I won't go into all the details, but we all live in the same room, so I think I am pretty good at reading her behavior changes).

I don't know what to do. I know it's not good for them to keep laying eggs over and over again. When she lays eggs, it also seems to bring back her PMV symptoms. She doesn't eat as much when she is sitting on eggs. Her poop becomes very watery and irregular. It just doesn't seem to be doing anything good for her. Also, I am trying to give her more time outside the cage, which requires bird diapers, and the instructions on them say not to use them on a hen that's laying eggs, so I get to use them for a few days and then have to stop for the next 20 days.

I just want her to have a nice life. Is there anything I can do to discourage her from laying eggs all the time?

P.S. She doesn't even have a nest bowl or anything to make a nest with (I will provide it this time around, if she lays eggs), but she lays them anyways and sits on them right out in th open


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## Charis

The only thing you can do is have a vet give her hormone injections to stop the laying.


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## Pigeonfriend

Ick! I REALLY don't want to do that!

However, do you think it's damaging to her to keep laying eggs?


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## tjc1

Maybe give her a bowl , let her lay her next batch and then change them out with fake ones and let her sit on them. At least then she wont lay an egg for a while. It wont tax her body. Also make sure to give her calcium and vitamin d so she is not deplete of that nutrtition as that will cause her to be weak. Maybe that will help


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## abluechipstock

give her the nest bowl, give lots of oyster shell in her grit and get some fake eggs or get her a "friend" a let her raise a few


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## Pigeonfriend

I will definitely get her a nest bowl. She already gets oyster shells 

I am letting her sit on her own eggs, rather than buying fake ones, and except for the one that I broke by accident, we haven't had any problems.

Unfortunately, it's not possible for me to get any more pets. I am absolutely at my limit, both financially and time wise, and if I get any more, I don't feel I would have an appropriate amount of resources (both time and money) to take care of them. Same goes for the babies. If I let her have babies, I would consider them my responsibility for the duration of their lives, and I am at my absolute maximum with pets.


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## Charis

Pigeonfriend said:


> Ick! I REALLY don't want to do that!
> 
> However, do you think it's damaging to her to keep laying eggs?


Not if you allow her to complete the cycle, which it sounds like you have and make sure she has calcium and vitamin d3. The only benefit of the hormone shot is that the shot would allow her body to have a rest, from egg laying, which may help her with the reoccurrence of PMV symptoms. It wouldn't need to be forever...maybe a year or so.


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## SilverFeral

Hello,

I have the same problem with a rescued female that can not fly. She laid forts eggs which were infertile and were changed with fertile ones. She brought up chicks. Then laid one infertile batch, laid on them and abandoned them at day 14. Then laid another batch I was sure were infertile but she mated with a feral and she had chicks, raised them. The chicks are now 28th day and she laid again... Important to note that she does not feed them on her own, I take the "male shifts" and even feed during the night.

Vet doesn't have hormorne injections for birds. Do you think this can be stopped if she doesn't have good nesting places - they are all blocked? Can food help? Some pigeon keepers told me to give her plain barley. Maybe I stop any contact with her because she sees me as a male. I don't respond to her breeding behavior but I am guilty of petting her and letting her sleep on my shoulder. Some pigeon fanciers also told me to get rid of the eggs as soon as she lays the second one and remove the nest bowl and block all places for nesting. I actually saw one pigeon fancier just throw away eggs as soon as they are laid because he has too many birds.


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## Jay3

You aren't going to stop a pigeon from doing what they live for. They reproduce, that is what they do. Taking nesting places away isn't going to stop her. And you know that any eggs you take must be replaced with fake or she will just lay right away again.
Don't pet her as that doesn't help. She is doing what they do naturally. Make sure she has calcium/vit. D3 supplement.


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## chayi

Why don't you separate the male from the female?


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## Jay3

Doesn't sound as though she has a male. Don't understand then, how she mated with a feral. They didn't explain very well.


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## cwebster

Lovely birds!


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