Looking for Fertile Sun Conure, Green Cheek Conure or LoveBird Eggs

[proshun]

Hi All!
I'm new to this forum, my Mom had 2 Ringneck parrots when I was growing up so I do have a lot of experience with birds. Currently I live with my spouse and have one female Sun Conure (Harry) , one male LoveBird (Lulu) and one female Green Cheek Conure (Kate) . They were hand fed and roughly 3-3.5 months of age when we got them. They are spoiled and we leave the cage door open when we are home so they can come out and play/fly/sit with us. They love to eat when we eat and it became a ritual for us to give them a little from our plate to keep them calm and happy.

My LoveBird took affection with the Sun Conure and been mating just over a year now (all 3 birds are between 4-3 years of age). Harry our Sun Conure been laying unfertilized eggs for a while now and sits on them patiently in the nest box I got for her. I took out the box to discourage her from laying eggs as they were not going to hatch and would make our Harry weak which as you all know can lead to death but no avail, she still lays them in the tent shape sleeping nest and they fall on the cage floor [I'm not taking those tents away, they are used to sleep in there at night and it would be cruel to let them sleep on the perch]. I have spoken to a exotic vet and am not considering her getting the injection that changes their hormone to discourage laying eggs due to their side effects.

Instead, what I'm considering is to get 2-3 fertile eggs of either Sun Conure, Green Cheek Conure or LoveBird and swap them with her eggs so she comes out of her depression and we also get couple of grand-kids :59:. We will let Harry and Lulu feed the babies in the beginning until their eyes opens and we will occasionally hand-feed them.

So my question is, does anyone know or can help me out to get couple of fertile eggs please? We live in Maryland (Annapolis) and I would prefer to drive about 200 miles to get them. Shipping sounds risky for eggs to me.

Thanks all Birdie lovers! :60:

 

[Kiwibird]

"Fertile parrot eggs" for sale are ALL scams. No legitimate breeder will sell you eggs or even very young chicks. Some less than reputable breeders sell older unweaned chicks, but what you're looking for simply doesn't exist (and with good reason). Consider this, you manage to find someone to sell you "fertile parrot eggs". How will you get them home? Parrot eggs must be in a special incubator kept at precision temperatures or they die. Lets just say you manage to safely get them home, do you really think your bird won't notice they aren't her own eggs? It's very possible she wouldn't sit on them, meaning you'd have to have an incubator for them or they'll die. So lets just say she sits on them until they hatch and then she does what A LOT of inexperienced new mom birds do- kills them all or rejects and abandons them. Now you'll need a brooder to keep the young chicks at the right temperature, or else they'll die. Are YOU an experienced hand feeder who knows how to properly feed very small baby birds? It's very likely that'll be what you're doing. And much like newborn humans, they need round the clock care- feeding, careful monitoring of brooder temperature, cleaning etc... And lets say everything works out, you have a couple healthy happy babies you raise- what happens the next 30 breeding seasons she goes through? More babies every year? Trust me, this is not an avenue you want to pursue.

What have you tried to discourage chronic laying in your conure? Dietary changes? Light/dark schedule changes? Distractions such as more toys? Fake eggs that can be ordered online and the bird can sit on as long as she'd like because they won't start to rot? I'd start by removing the sleeping hut if it's causing her to lay more eggs and try the traditional non-medication means of getting this under control.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Also, even though they like the huts to sleep in, many birds have died because of these huts. A string gets loose, and even with daily inspection sometimes the first sign of this is finding the parrot hanging by the neck dead, hanging by a foot or leg or toe dead, or with a body part so long deprived of blood that it has to be amputated, in which case the parrot also becomes dead. There are many threads on this forum alone about the dangers of these huts.

 

[itzjbean]

Let me try to address your entire post...

1. You should not be letting the birds mate. One because they are not the same species and any cross-species mating should be discouraged. They will never be able to have chicks. Allowing htem to continue mating will only encourage egg-laying and will only leave your conure wanting to raise babies, which she will never be able to have with the lovebird. They should be kept separately in two different cages and supervised when out of the cage to prevent mating.

2. While your logic of obtaining fertile eggs is an idea, I guarantee that you will not have luck on this venture -- any eggs you may obtain from 'breeder's will be infertile and will never hatch -- these are all scams to get people with your exact thinking into buying these eggs and getting ripped off when they don't hatch.

3. Even if you were to have chicks, you would need to be prepared to hand-feed babies should they need your assistance (whether parents don't incubate them, abandon them or neglect them), which in that case you must have a brooder working to be able to keep potential chicks warm if parents refuse to sit on them. Then you need to be able to know how to hand-feed, and if don't properly you can and will end up with dead chicks.

Please reconsider letting your birds mate as they are different species and instead just let them live as happy birds! They do not need to pair and reproduce to be happy birds.

 

[Scott]

Fertile parrot egg "for sale" threads are probably the number one form of spam we see with the forum. Threads containing such false hopes are almost always generated by registered spammers. Such threads are always eradicated and the typically new members are banned.

 

[LordTriggs]

okay.

1. Never and I really mean NEVER buy a "Fertile" egg. They're almost always scams and you're lucky the egg will ever get to you let alone be fertile or even a parrot. Then what if your sun decides she doesn't actually want to raise a baby? There are many many many many birds who look after eggs perfectly then reject the babies, even killing them. Then you're back at square 1 with less money and a traumatic experience.

2. Separate the sun and lovebird to let them calm down their behaviors, only let them out supervised and if they start trying to mate then separate them immediately

3. Remove the hut. I know you think it's cruel to keep them sleeping on the perch but that is how they sleep naturally, birds don't lie down to sleep. The hut is a large part of the problem so eliminate the cause of the problem. Also those huts are the single most deadly thing to parrots on this earth after Teflon. There are actually multiple petitions going around England right now to get these huts completely banned to give you an idea of how dangerous they are.

4. Even if you were to somehow get an egg breeding parrots is the single most risky venture in parrot keeping. Ever wonder why people charge so much for birds? It aint easy. and requires extremely expensive equipment and training.

She isn't depressed, she is merely doing what her DNA is telling her to do because it's hormone season. You need to instead manage her hormones to calm her down and get her mind off of laying, every time she breaks an egg her body starts making another to make up for the lost one because of how things work in the wild. Try getting fake eggs for her and when she lays some eggs (in a suitable spot) replace them with the fake ones when she isn't looking so she can sit on them all she wants until she's bored and turns off the momma bird switch

 

[Kiwibird]

I just wanted the OP to know where to find dummy eggs, which are often enough to slow dow or stop chronic laying and can be re-used year after year when your bird begins her breeding season again:

DummyEggs.com, Dummy Eggs Help Stop Egg Laying in Pet Birds! Fake Eggs, Solid Plastic Eggs in all sizes.

Please don't be afraid to ask more questions too about natural ways to reduce egg laying behavior. Diet, sleep schedule changes, environmental changes etc... can all be tweaked to help her body stop producing eggs without the shot. But if this keeps up, it is possible you'll need to consider the medical intervention so she doesn't suffer the many health consequences of chronic egg laying.

 

[SilverSage]

I echo everything that has been said.

I also understand why you would want to do this; it sounds like a lot of fun before you find out all the facts! I probably would have wanted to try it as well in your position, but as has been stated it just won’t happen.

Here is an article on hormone control you can do at home; no shots required. I actually would t separate the birds myself, just change diet and environment for safety.

http://www.silversageaviaries.com/handlinghormones/


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[gracebowen]

I can empathize with you. My lovie sat 3 clutches before she gave up and I was getting worried about her.

I at one time wished she had a fertile egg to sit. I even wished she had a male to mate with. I actually considered trying to find a "studd" service.

In the end I knew theese were bad ideals and just continued working to stop the hormonal behavior.

 

[SilverSage]

You might find this screen shot amusing. It’s from a Facebook group specifically for the transaction of unweaned babies between professional breeders and hand feeders.

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[SouthernSunriseAviary]

Ok. So i need to address something here. Here is the real answer to your question. YES, you can order fertile eggs online, but you need to REALLY do your research into the person selling. Here in the US, people only think about money. So, finding a person in the USA who would be willing to sell fertile eggs to someone, is slim to none. I personally got lucky but that is because i know a breeder personally who ran out of room, but didn't want to destroy the eggs. But that's VERY rare to find. Now, in countries like Australia, Germany, India, and other places where these birds live naturally and wild, we enter a whole new ball game. You need to find a breeder in one of these other countries that is willing to risk getting caught with the import of fertile eggs, because the government doesn't like people getting things here without spending an arm and a leg. (And yet when it comes to corporate companies, they allow for the import of materials so that can charge 300 times the amount they paid to build it. Makes no sense). But you also need to find someone who ships it in an incubator, battery operated, so it stays fertile through the shipment process. This means you're going to spend at LEAST $250 for shipping. The only times things like that are worth it, is in buying eggs to species that here in this country go for $8000 or more.

But, you need to do hand raise the babies. Hand fed, and Hand raised, ONLY! NEVER give imported babies to a mother to raise. It will never work. So you need to know all hand feeding techniques, and all incubation procedures.
But again, for the birds you are looking for, it is not worth it at all.