Eggies!

Phoenix laid her first egg of the season last night!

Now, since they're not fertilised, I don't like her sitting on the eggies constantly like she did last spring. She's a pet birdy, not a breeder, and although she does tend to sit on her eggs, she sooks and sulks and is generally miserable about it. I've gotten around this by giving her an open box to lay in rather than a closed nesting box.

What this does is encourages her to come out of the box and hang out with us a bit more - so she's not stuck in a dark box all day and all night, coming out only to poo and eat. Not much fun.

Hence the open box. There are very clear rules about the box - D and I both avoid putting our hands in the cage or going too close to the nesting box while there are eggs in there, and Phoebs seems to trust us both with that, so she seems content to lay her eggs in there and just wander back to them intermittently.

She seems quite happy with the arrangement, and although she does sleep on them at night, she spends the day running around with us and playing and cuddling and chirping - so, business as usual, except that there are several cute little ovoid thingies that she occasionally waddles back to, rolls around with her beak, but mostly forgets about.

Awwww, so cute!