Bonded birds and now babies

[K3bzr18]

Hi all,

We have 2-8 year old green cheek conures who have bonded. Monday we found an egg. Now that this has happened, how can we prevent further eggs? Is it just spring they mate? If we were to separate them permanently, what could be the consequences? Looking for personal experiences and expertise.
Thank you.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome K3bzr18 and your mischievous conure pair!

I'm not sure whether you should expect another egg here or not, as green cheeks generally tend to lay eggs at around 24 hour intervals and it would appear to now be longer than that since that first egg appeared. Keep a very close eye on your hen to ensure she does not appear to be labouring to breathe or obviously straining to lay another egg, as this can indicate she may be egg-bound which is very dangerous, and you'll need to contact an avian vet ASAP if she does this. Usually where one egg has appeared another will be on the way, although this is not always the case.

Is this the first egg she has ever laid? Sometimes first time egg-layers just don't recognise the egg for what it is and don't take a great deal of interest. Having said that, green cheeks are a species that often don't show a lot of interest in the first few eggs until they've laid a whole clutch of 4 or 5 eggs. With luck, it might just be a once off and she might not lay any more, but obviously it's not possible to say which might be the situation with your hen.

Captive birds can and do breed outside the usual breeding seasons in the wild so this scenario may crop up for you again in future. If they are currently caged together, you can investigate caging them separately, obviously with the cages side by side and allowing plenty of well supervised out-of-cage time during the day so they don't get stressed. I once had a male and female cockatiel who were SO crazy about each other that I'd have been up to my neck in babies in no time flat if they hadn't had separate cages. They actually spent a lot of time out of their cages, they were loose whenever anyone was home, so in their case they really suffered no stress in being caged separately at night or when we were away from home. Individual results will vary with this of course, I can only hope that yours will be as easy to manage as mine were if you do separate them.

I wish you all the very best of luck with your little pair

 

[K3bzr18]

Welcome K3bzr18 and your mischievous conure pair!

I'm not sure whether you should expect another egg here or not, as green cheeks generally tend to lay eggs at around 24 hour intervals and it would appear to now be longer than that since that first egg appeared. Keep a very close eye on your hen to ensure she does not appear to be labouring to breathe or obviously straining to lay another egg, as this can indicate she may be egg-bound which is very dangerous, and you'll need to contact an avian vet ASAP if she does this. Usually where one egg has appeared another will be on the way, although this is not always the case.

Is this the first egg she has ever laid? Sometimes first time egg-layers just don't recognise the egg for what it is and don't take a great deal of interest. Having said that, green cheeks are a species that often don't show a lot of interest in the first few eggs until they've laid a whole clutch of 4 or 5 eggs. With luck, it might just be a once off and she might not lay any more, but obviously it's not possible to say which might be the situation with your hen.

Captive birds can and do breed outside the usual breeding seasons in the wild so this scenario may crop up for you again in future. If they are currently caged together, you can investigate caging them separately, obviously with the cages side by side and allowing plenty of well supervised out-of-cage time during the day so they don't get stressed. I once had a male and female cockatiel who were SO crazy about each other that I'd have been up to my neck in babies in no time flat if they hadn't had separate cages. They actually spent a lot of time out of their cages, they were loose whenever anyone was home, so in their case they really suffered no stress in being caged separately at night or when we were away from home. Individual results will vary with this of course, I can only hope that yours will be as easy to manage as mine were if you do separate them.

I wish you all the very best of luck with your little pair

Thank you! Yes, this is the first egg. She seems fine so far, but I will definitely watch closely. They have always had separate cages, although they are next to each other and can interact during the day. Any ideas on where I can take the egg?

 

[LaManuka]

Thank you! Yes, this is the first egg. She seems fine so far, but I will definitely watch closely. They have always had separate cages, although they are next to each other and can interact during the day. Any ideas on where I can take the egg?

No trouble at all, you're most welcome!

Interesting that they already have separate cages. Have you actually observed any mating behaviour taking place? Hens can lay infertile eggs anyway without having been mated (just like my little chronic egg layer Lilly the lorikeet used to do!) if they are sufficiently hyped up on hormones and/or they have something that looks like a little nesty spot to lay the egg. Or they can just do it on the bare floor of a cage like my previous cockatiel Kang would do.

I'm gathering that it has now been much more than 24 hours since the first egg appeared, and that there have been no more since? If that is the case, you *should* be ok to toss the existing egg, although obviously I cannot guarantee you that there won't be any more. If you hen has access to anything that even remotely resembles a nest, such as a nest box, happy hut, shredded paper on the floor of the cage, anything at all like that, it should be removed too.

With any luck this might just be a "one and done" episode for you, but do keep an eye on your hen for any more little surprises!

 

[K3bzr18]

I really appreciate your advice! I just came home and she had laid another egg on the bottom of her cage. oh boy. I am going to shorten their daylight and keep them separated?

 

[LaManuka]

Oh well in that case, it's probably best to leave whatever it is that she's laying them in intact until this cycle is over, and she may lay several more eggs since the average for GCCs seems to be between 4 and 6 eggs. Has she actually shown any interest in the eggs has yet?

 

[K3bzr18]

Oh well in that case, it's probably best to leave whatever it is that she's laying them in intact until this cycle is over, and she may lay several more eggs since the average for GCCs seems to be between 4 and 6 eggs. Has she actually shown any interest in the eggs has yet?

We removed them. Should we return one or both? She didnt seem to miss the first.

 

[LaManuka]

I would boil them first, allow them to cool, then return them and see what happens. Boiling the eggs (only for a couple of minutes and very gently) means that they are more likely to stand up to determined sitting by your hen, and she is less likely to break the shell. If the shell breaks after days/weeks of sitting then you'd have a nasty mess to have to clean off your hen and that is not a good thing! Alternatively, you can give her fake eggs to sit on, these are great because they are unbreakable and your hen can sit on them for the requisite 3 or 4 weeks that it might take for her to realise nothing's going to hatch and lose interest of her own accord. You can get good fake eggs online from an outfit like www.dummyeggs.com. Fake eggs are great to have on standby in case this happens again, and some people find that they can just give their hen an average clutch-worth to sit on, and it prevents them from laying any more of their own. I've used them with my chronic little egg-laying lorikeet and they worked very well indeed.

You might also want to supplement her calcium intake too, simplest way to do that is with a cuttlebone if she doesn't already have one. If she's not interested in chewing on it, you can scrape a bit into her food so that she ingests it that way. Calcium depletion can become a bit of an issue sometimes so it would be a good idea to get some into her if she doesn't have a source already.

 

[K3bzr18]

I would boil them first, allow them to cool, then return them and see what happens. Boiling the eggs (only for a couple of minutes and very gently) means that they are more likely to stand up to determined sitting by your hen, and she is less likely to break the shell. If the shell breaks after days/weeks of sitting then you'd have a nasty mess to have to clean off your hen and that is not a good thing! Alternatively, you can give her fake eggs to sit on, these are great because they are unbreakable and your hen can sit on them for the requisite 3 or 4 weeks that it might take for her to realise nothing's going to hatch and lose interest of her own accord. You can get good fake eggs online from an outfit like www.dummyeggs.com. Fake eggs are great to have on standby in case this happens again, and some people find that they can just give their hen an average clutch-worth to sit on, and it prevents them from laying any more of their own. I've used them with my chronic little egg-laying lorikeet and they worked very well indeed.

You might also want to supplement her calcium intake too, simplest way to do that is with a cuttlebone if she doesn't already have one. If she's not interested in chewing on it, you can scrape a bit into her food so that she ingests it that way. Calcium depletion can become a bit of an issue sometimes so it would be a good idea to get some into her if she doesn't have a source already.

Perfect! I cannot thank you enough for your advice!!

 

[LaManuka]

Oh you're most welcome, K3.

I should add, if you do boil those eggs, make a little mark on them with a felt-tipped pen or something like that, so that if she does lay more, you will know which have already been boiled and which have not.

I hope everything works out for the best for you and your hen