For people who think "It will never happen to me..."

julianna, Cricket will always be a boy to me. After 8 years I don't think I can start calling him a her lol. He says both "good boy" and "good girl"!

aaron, I wonder too if he realizes what he did to Alistair. Alistair's cage was on top of him and I've caught him looking for Alistair but I don't think they feel emotions like we do. All the eggs have cracked. One cracked enough where all the stuff inside came out so I keep that one in the cage and throw away the rest of them. Tomorrow he should lay another egg if he's going to since it's been 4 days but he's seemed to have calmed down a whole bunch.

It's so quiet. I didn't think i'd miss the constant chatter of a parakeet but I do.

Yeah, I don't think their emotions are quite like ours, but they are not devoid of emotion by any stretch.  I just get the impression that their emotions manifest much more simply and often are held more briefly.  But based on what I've experienced, I would describe the Quaker parrot as particularly emotional, as far as birds go.  I think their emotions are very similar to those that a 3 or 4 year old child would experience.  Remorse isn't something you typically equate with young children, although they may experience it briefly.

I am not experienced here, but my understanding is that some people use techniques where they replace the eggs with either fake eggs, or take them out and hard boil them and put them back.  As long as the eggs keep disappearing, the bird will be more likely to keep laying them, from what I've read.  If they still have the opportunity to sit on them, even if they never hatch, they will be less likely to keep laying.

For about a year after Conan the Canarian died, Chewy would constantly say "Hi Conan!". He had never said that before, and he hasn't said it since.

Conan was sick and I had him put down when he started having seizures. I brought him home and showed his body to the others. Chewy was expressing his grief by saying "Hi Conan!"

Just a quick update...

I love Cricket. I've made it through all the stages of grief. I forgive him AND myself. I took out his favorite toy that he was showing nesting behavior towards and I was waiting on a 4th egg but it never came. For my own peace of mind, I took him to the vet for a check-up. He's healthy if not a little underweight which is odd because he looks overweight. The vet isn't sure why the hormones started so late in the year with him. It should have started around the time change, not 1.5 months later. He also said to "upset" Cricket as much as I can to get his mind off the hormones. He said to move the cage into a different room but I couldn't do that. He'd scream the whole time. Luckily the vet visit upset him enough that my beautiful baby is back (for the most part). We are both a little weary of each other but it's getting better everyday.

And I had his wings clipped for the first time in years which I think has helped us both.

Thanks for listening!!

That's wonderful news. It is just so difficult when they are hormonal as their behaviour is off the scale. I dont think they know what they are doing when they are hormonal as they over-react so quickly. I am glad you forgave both yourself and Cricket.