I was wondering what you guys would suggest as the best nesting material for my Ekkies.
I use wood shavings, coconut fibre and soft natural rope pieces for all my birds and they all seem ok with that.
One female Ekkie has spent the last few weeks making a great nest, she has been in and out of the box all day long and sleeps in there at night. Over the last couple of days she has been removing all the coconut fibre and soft stuff leaving only the shavings. Would you guys try different material for her or do you think there is another reason for this behaviour? This pair haven't bred for me before I haven't had them all that long so I don't know whats normal for them. She doesn't seem stressed, like something has upset her just kicked her nest out.
Ekkies

I don't know about ekkies but my suns and ringie have pine shavings. They all seem to carry it out till they feel they have the right amount and then they lay.

Thanks Angie, she just seems to have taken a lot of the material out, I can see the bottom of the nest box now, she's been removing the shaving as well. It's odd, I've never had other birds empty most of it out before. I might just add some more shavings in case that was all she wanted and the other stuff got in the way.
Ekkies

I just dump a heap of shavings one side of the nest box. I have found when I try make an even layer over the bottom that is when they carry it out. I think they need to level it themselves. I don't even know how they carry it out because I use boot shape boxes which means a long climb up the ladder, possibly they pack it under the wings.

I was wondering how she got the shavings out too, the other stuff I figured was easier to pick up but it would take a lot of carrying to take bits of shavings each time, this is also a boot box. She's in there right now, sleeping with no soft stuff in the bottom.
Thanks for helping
Ekkies