How to Decrease Egg Laying in Birds

Southy, my rescue king pigeon companion, recently visited Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital here in Philadelphia for a checkup. Southy's vet, Dr. Latney, gave me an article she authored, "Egg Laying in Birds," that I thought I'd share with everyone.

Here's a link to the document:

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8dHVe-zuR6FZWU2MTU4OTItM2M1Yi00OTY1LWFiZWItMjQyMThmZTcxZjZi&hl=en

Unless I'm not looking in the right places, I don't see much discussion on pigeon forums about ways to decrease egg laying stimuli in a bird's environment. Of course, lots of people are trying to do the opposite (increase egg laying), but for those who are concerned about the health risks of their egg-laying pigeons, please check out the article. As Dr. Latney writes, "poor body condition, poor blood calcium levels, poor bone quality and subsequent increased risk for pathological fractures are all serious medical concerns in egg layers. Additionally, becoming egg bound can be either a medical or surgical emergency." One caveat: the article addresses birds in general (versus pigeons), so I'm not sure if all the suggestions are suitable for all pigeons in all situations. If anyone has any additional suggestions, feel free to respond! Thanks.

Thanks for the link to the article :Yes:

As far as I know there is really no way to get a hen pigeon/dove to stop laying. The owner can pull real eggs & replace with dummy ones to slow down the process a bit.

At our sanctuary we not only use dummy eggs but also provide a good healthy diet, fresh water and plenty of added vits. & calcuim & excerise.

Thanks for adding the suggestions re wooden eggs, Robin.
Yes, there seems to be no way to stop egg laying simply by altering the hen pigeon's environment.
Dan

Appreciate you posting the link, Feathers.

feathers111 wrote:

Southy, my rescue king pigeon companion, recently visited Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital here in Philadelphia for a checkup. Southy's vet, Dr. Latney, gave me an article she authored, "Egg Laying in Birds," that I thought I'd share with everyone.
...
One caveat: the article addresses birds in general (versus pigeons), so I'm not sure if all the suggestions are suitable for all pigeons in all situations. If anyone has any additional suggestions, feel free to respond! Thanks.

for posting the link to the article, Dan. I printed it out for reference!

I was attempting to research this subject a while back and I found an article called All about reducing the laying of eggs by the racing pigeon. It actually covers most of the same points as your vet, but I thought I'd mention it since it's specifically related to pigeons:

http://vitality.racing-pigeon-post.org/ReducingEggs.html

Just a side note: I noticed that the Racing Pigeon Post / Pigeon Vitality site also has quite a few health/veterinary articles for those interested in :study: (Click on the Articles Index on the upper right corner of the page) I read through a few of them and found them informative. Of course, they are also trying to sell their Pigeon Vitality product, but I just ignore that part.

Glad the article was useful, Joyful Pigeon, and thanks for sharing the link to the other site!
I'm going to continue researching other options, in addition to environmental changes, and I'll let everyone know if I discover anything useful. Egg laying is so stressful on a bird's body, not to mention psychological/lifestyle issues, and it seems a shame to me that Southy's "doomed" to this cycle.

feathers111 wrote:

Glad the article was useful, Joyful Pigeon, and thanks for sharing the link to the other site!
I'm going to continue researching other options, in addition to environmental changes, and I'll let everyone know if I discover anything useful. Egg laying is so stressful on a bird's body, not to mention psychological/lifestyle issues, and it seems a shame to me that Southy's "doomed" to this cycle.

I agree. It makes me very sad.