Breeding cockatiels

[Granny]

Hi everyone . I hope this is the right spot to ask questions. I have a male and female cockatiel. They have bred and laid eggs twice this year. I noticed yesterday that they were mating again. Both previous clutches were not viable Am I doing anything wrong? Are they always going to have dud eggs. I don’t handle the eggs until after 28 days of them not hatching and I have never seen any veins or signs of life in them. Is this normal? I feel I’m missing something….

 

[Shezbug]

bump

 

[BrianB]

How old are they? If they are young, they may be going through the act, but not quite getting things together for fertilization. The female will still lay and sit on the eggs. If they are adults, then one of them may not be fertile.

 

[Granny]

How old are they? If they are young, they may be going through the act, but not quite getting things together for fertilization. The female will still lay and sit on the eggs. If they are adults, then one of them may not be fertile.

Unfortunately I have no idea how old they are. I got them from someone who didn’t want them. If I had to guess I’d say 2-3 year old. I feel bad for her because she is a really good mom, sitting on the eggs etc. I’m not really wanting babies but it’s their natural instinct to have babies so I gave them a nest box and make sure to feed them well and provide cattle bones for her. Neither one likes fruit but love romaine lettuce, and shortbread cookies (but too much of that lol). If they can’t hatch any eggs it’s because of the birds not me doing something wrong? Thank you for your time and response to my question

 

[BrianB]

It might be that one of the birds is not fertile. When you look at how birds lay eggs, it's just what that organ does. Going through the motions of breeding will still stimulate the production of an egg even if the male isn't able to fertilize it. I wouldn't let them do it repeatedly because that would be unhealthy. You could replace the eggs with fake eggs and let her sit on them until she gets bored and abandons them, but you shouldn't encourage breeding if they aren't producing chicks.

 

[Zara]

but you shouldn't encourage breeding if they aren't producing chicks.

To add to what Brian has written above;
...and also if you don't actually want chicks.

Birds in captivity are not like in the wild. In the wild they would do their own thing and breed when the conditions are right.
In our homes, the conditions are more often than not right, so they can over breed, laying too many eggs. Cockatiels are notorious for becoming chronic egg layers, which can be dangerous for the hen.
It may seem like we are doing them a favour letting them endulge in "natural instinct", but they are not wild, and there's nothing natural about birds in our houses.

Having dummy eggs is a great thing to have when living with females. Even if you decided you wanted to allow your birds to breed and have a couple of chicks and keep them, you can still use the dummy eggs to make the clutch smaller so you have two chicks instead of six.
You can use the dummy eggs to lessen eggs laid in general, alongside other tricks like rearranging the cage and including new toys, removing nooks, nests and hidey spaces.

Neither one likes fruit but love romaine lettuce,

I have read many folks with cockatiels say their birds are not into fruit as much as they are vegetables. Maybe try some green peppers, peas, carrots etc