# When will she stop sitting on the eggs?



## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

So my pigeon layed her eggs almost a month ago, she is still sitting on them constantly. She sits on them all day, doesn't get up to do anything. We have to bring food and water to her or else she won't eat or drink. 
She does get up about twice a day for less than a minute to do massive poops, is that bad for her? Since she never poos on the nest, I guess she holds all of them in. 
She never fly's anymore or goes outside. Should I take her away from the egg for a couple hours a day to let her do normal pigeon things? I'm worried it'll distress her too much :s


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## Cyreen (Jun 6, 2010)

I don't know what to tell you. I can tell you that normal gestation is 18 days and you girl is well over. The idea in allowing them to sit is to discourage excessive egg production, calcium depletion and potential egg binding. 

I can tell you that when my girl did something similar, I pulled her eggs (and the nest) when she started dropping weight and tweaking out. Honestly, she seemed relieved when they were gone. 

I don't encourage her to nest and replace Ollie's eggs with dummies when she lays. She does 2 cycles a month and she goes through a lot of cuttlebones and ground egg shells for calcium. Whether this is the best approach... well, Ollie just turned 4 years old and happily stalks kitties in her spare time (a fascination with fur), it seems to work for her.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Cyreen said:


> I don't know what to tell you. I can tell you that normal gestation is 18 days and you girl is well over. The idea in allowing them to sit is to discourage excessive egg production, calcium depletion and potential egg binding.
> 
> I can tell you that when my girl did something similar, I pulled her eggs (and the nest) when she started dropping weight and tweaking out. Honestly, she seemed relieved when they were gone.
> 
> I don't encourage her to nest and replace Ollie's eggs with dummies when she lays. She does 2 cycles a month and she goes through a lot of cuttlebones and ground egg shells for calcium. Whether this is the best approach... well, Ollie just turned 4 years old and happily stalks kitties in her spare time (a fascination with fur), it seems to work for her.


I agree-- I just let Lita and Ed sit on their fake eggs. So long as they have lots of hi-cal grit they do fine. It might be harder for a single bird--with nobody to take shifts with. 

On the fur fascination--my young ringnecks are that way with our elderly dog. (The dog, at 16, basically spends her whole life asleep now, and I always put my hand by her face when the doves land on her side just in case.)


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## Cyreen (Jun 6, 2010)

Libis said:


> On the fur fascination--my young ringnecks are that way with our elderly dog. (The dog, at 16, basically spends her whole life asleep now, and I always put my hand by her face when the doves land on her side just in case.)


My cats are about the same age (15 years) and Ollie is a slow stalker and always does an excited little dance before she pounces. The cats play possum and purr themselves silly until Ollie dances and then they move to the other end of the couch and the game starts all over. It's always supervised, I'm usually pretending not to notice while curled up reading - no worries.


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## Libis (Oct 8, 2010)

Cyreen said:


> My cats are about the same age (15 years) and Ollie is a slow stalker and always does an excited little dance before she pounces. The cats play possum and purr themselves silly until Ollie dances and then they move to the other end of the couch and the game starts all over. It's always supervised, I'm usually pretending not to notice while curled up reading - no worries.


Yeah, once they get to a certain age the birds are faster.


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## msmely (Feb 13, 2011)

Thanks guys. Luckily she is off them now and as happy as ever!


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