Liang Zai ("Pretty BOY" in Chinese) just laid egg!

[Robert Gift]

Jenday conure, Liang Zai ("Pretty BOY" in Chinese) just laid egg!

Liang Zai, (I think Jenday/Sun conure hybrid) was donated to us several years ago.
He liked going in the open top drawer of our desk next to "his" cage.
He shredded the small local area telephone book in that drawer into small pieces.
After a week, we cleaned all the paper out and placed a blue jeans cutoff shorts in the drawer.
Liang Zai seemed to enjoy working in his "conure condo" and shredded the jeans into a soft nest.
Liang Zai was making noises we had never heard before.
I asked my wife if he could be a female who was egg bound.
Later we discovered an egg - which seems large considering her size.

Aside from changing "his" name, what do we do?

Thank you.

Robert

 

[Mayden]

Hello!

First of all, you want to discourage 'mating' behaviour, which includes egg laying.

Don't let her in the drawer by her cage and that is basically her nesting area now. She'll be looking for somewhere 'dark and safe' to lay her eggs. Don't allow this! So no cardboard boxes in her cage, nothing!

Also, shreddable things, some people say remove them, but that usually ends up with the hen plucking her own feathers to line her nest. (Where there is a will, there's a way and all that!). Keep the shredding toys, materials etc. Just remove them daily.

Reduce her daylight hours, too many means "spring time, lets mate!", so give her shorter days and longer nights.

Don't stroke around her stomach, wings, vent. Stick to the head! Anything else is sexually stimulating for our birds so especially at a time when she's wanting to mate, don't do it!

Well done on instantly thinking egg bound, keep an eye out for it. Provide her with extra calcium and vitamins (cuttlebone is a good source for laying hens.)

Can't think of anything else right now, but if you just make minor changes to her daily routine for now, she should relax with the egg laying. Good luck!

 

[Robert Gift]

Re: Liang Zai "Pretty BOY" just laid egg!

Thank you.

What do we do with her egg?
Secretly take it away when she is in her cage eating and drinking water?

So I should scrap my plans to build her a nice wooden house in her cage?
She still has her sleeping pouch which she used every night before taking up residence in her conure condo (desk drawer).

Before the drawer, she spent most of her time on her banister perch or on our shoulders supervising our housework, cooking, etc.

 

[Robert Gift]

Re: Removed egg and blue jeans nest from drawer.

When Liang Parrot was in her cage eating and drinking water, I closed her cage door and draped the night blanket over the cage.
She could not see that I removed the nest and egg.

Now 9:25 p.m. and she is probably asleep.
I hope that she forgets.

I candled the egg and only a yellow yoke and air pocket at the egg "tip" could be discerned.

 

[MikeyTN]

There should be a air pocket! That is normal!!! You shouldn't have removed the egg!!! Since she's started laying, she's going to try to lay a full clutch. They will replace the ones you toss, so each time she lays one and you toss it, your only encouraging her to lay more. Let her lay her full clutch and allow her to do her thing until she's tired of it then you can dispose her eggs and her nest that she's built! Don't encourage them to nest with nesting materials cause that's what they will do!

 

[Mayden]

MikeyTN is right. Let her lay a full clutch, get bored of them and then when she's done with them, remove them. She'll just replace each egg you remove otherwise.

Sorry, I jumped straight to removing the urge. First she needs to 'settle' it by having a clutch and getting bored.

Don't build her a wooden house, she'll use that as a nest too!

 

[Robert Gift]

Thank you, both.
(Yes, I expect an air pocket in the egg just as in a chicken egg.)

Should I put her cold egg back in the drawer on the shredded blue jeans nesting material and open the drawer again?

She is now in her cage which has no nesting materials and no house which I had planned to build inside her cage.
She has only her soft /\ sleeping pouch hanging from the cage top which she accesses from her wooden perch. For years she has been sleeping in it with tail feathers protruding out the back.

Is there possiblilty that Liang Parrot has additional eggs in the process of development which she should lay?

Other advice?
Thank you.

 

[MikeyTN]

There's a high chance she will lay!!! She will probably try to incubate it constantly though so I don't know if you can get her back in the cage. And yes please do give her egg back.

 

[Robert Gift]

There's a high chance she will lay!!! She will probably try to incubate it constantly though so I don't know if you can get her back in the cage. And yes please do give her egg back.

Thank you.
I think she is forgetting about it.

She goes in and out of her cage as usual. (Mostly to eat something and drink water.)
Then she has been staying on my shoulder and I have been scratching her neck.
Now she is on the floor next to our used poodle.

She has not been looking at the closed drawer that I have noticed.

Earlier when she did, I opened the drawer and she went inside and looked around.
Then I told her to "go fly".
I placed her on my hand and gently scratched her head.

Thank you.

 

[MikeyTN]

Leave it in there just in case. If she doesn't lay again tomorrow she may stop, they lay every other day. But just watch her for now.

 

[Robert Gift]

Leave it in there just in case. If she doesn't lay again tomorrow she may stop, they lay every other day. But just watch her for now.

Thank you.
I should put her blue jeans nest and cold egg back in the drawer?
Is this because she may be creating another egg which she should finish and lay?

When do eggs stop being made?

She seems content sitting on my shoulder right now.

Thank you.

 

[MikeyTN]

That's up to you to decide!!! I would put everything back like before...

 

[MonicaMc]

This is typically what I recommend...

• Remove Eggs
  • Rearrange the cage
  • Move the cage to a new location
  • Use a cage grate
  • Get a new cage/Use a different cage
  • 12-14 hours of complete darkness
  • Decrease calcium and protein within the diet (if she is on a high calcium & protein diet prior to laying eggs)
  • Remove anything that could be taken as a nest
  • Remove anything that could be used as nesting material
  • Don't allow her in any dark place or enclosed area
  • IMPORTANT: save the eggs in the fridge
  • If she lays more than 3-4 eggs, put them back in the cage
• Leave the Eggs
  • Leave the eggs alone in the cage
  • [Optional] Replace with fake eggs (prevent eggs from breaking)
  • Increase calcium
  • Let hen sit on eggs for 3-4 weeks or until she gets bored of them
  • Once done sitting, toss

Cockatiels are supposedly prone to chronic egg laying issues, but I've never had any problems with my hens. I've used several things mentioned above to dissuade a hen from laying. I have/had cockatiels, budgies and bourkes that have laid eggs but haven't dealt with a conure and egg laying just yet. Both my first two conures were/are males (I still have the second) but my new conure is a female and she has supposedly laid eggs in the past, so will see if she ever lays here!

 

[Robert Gift]

Re: Liang Zai just laid egg #2!

She appeared to have an egg, so I placed the shredded blue jeans nest back in the drawer and she immediately climbed into the drawer.

I closed the drawer to 2-inches open.


Had to leave.
When I returned home 20 minutes later, she was sitting on her new egg!


When she went to her cage next to the desk to eat and drink, I removed the egg and nest and vacuumed the drawer clean of all fibers.
She perched on the drawer trying to bite the vacuum nozzle.
So sad.

But now she is contentedly sitting on my shoulder, not even trying to get into the closed drawer.


We were told that she was MALE.
Had I known that she was female, I would never have provided a secluded, dark, secure nesting area which induced all of this.