My 9 month old female bonded GCC layed her first egg!

[mochi.the.ysgcc]

Hey fellow Fid lovers! I have two green cheeks. Mochi my 2 yr old, male yellow sided, and Opal my NINE MONTH old pineapple turquoise. I was told she was a he but knew without DNA I'd be taking a chance still when I got her. They bonded immediately when I got Opal at 8 weeks old, they fell "in love" within a few months, then as of 3 days ago she layed an egg. I thought she was too young. I can tell she has another egg in her, I felt it. I'm hoping she lays it tonight/ early morning. I'm giving her lots of extra calcium. So I didn't throw the egg away yet but will have to soon. When they go in their cage at night she sits and protects that egg, but when let out in the morning, she's completely forgotten about it. I just don't know if she's ready to be a good mom. I've excepted that I'll have baby conures one day but am not sure if that's wise right now, maybe in a year. I'm in L.A. and it's been in the 80's for a while now hence her clock being messed up maybe. Sorry for such a long thread, I'm just freaking out a bit and want to do the right thing. She's eating A LOT of her Harrison's, produce, egg with shell and I ordered some hemp seeds and calcium powder. She's a lot calmer, fluffed up at times and wants under my bed. That's not like her normal crazy self. It must be tiring, idk. Any advice or tips or similar situations you've been in. I need solutions....Thanks for hearing me out. Happy thanksgiving all!!!

 

[texsize]

First off you don't want to through out the egg. It will cause her to lay egg after egg.
Best thing is to boil it (as in hard boiled egg) and let her keep it.
Even if it is a sterile egg as you suspect it could get cracked and make a mess.
Yes laying eggs will tire out our hen. Sounds like she is on a good diet. I would recommend you supplement her food with some scrambled eggs otherwise I think your good.


As for raising babies in the future …. I don't really want to go there but others will.

I am not in a good position to say "don't do it" since I had 2 clutches of cockatiels without any real training. It's difficult, expensive, and can very easily end in heart ache.
texsize

 

[LordTriggs]

boil the egg, let it cool, put it back and let her do her thing. You're probably going to see more eggs, they often lay 2 or 3 before actually sitting on them. you definitely do not want her to have babies at her age as it's incredibly dangerous for her at such a young age. Keep a close eye on her right now as she could get egg-bound.

If you do want them breeding in future I would spend a long time 1, thinking about it because it's a lot to ask your guys for and also you then have the responsibility of babies whether you keep them or send them to new families (bear in mind the rescues fit to explode because there's simply too many birds) and also what you are going to do to stop the family inbreeding

2, if you do breed them make sure you get everything beforehand that you will need to care for babies from day 1 (if parents don't care for the babies), so brooder, thermometer, formula ETC ETC and also spend some time shadowing a breeder and learn how to hand-feed in case you have to step in. Remembering if they get kicked out the nest at 1 or 2 weeks you'll be feeding every 2 hours round the clock and through the night.

Not saying no to letting them breed in future but definitely make sure you think long and hard about whether you want to do it. It's not for the faint of heart

 

[EllenD]

Good advice above, you have to boil each egg as she lays them, then just let her lay on the clutch until she gets tired of them and stops, then you throw them out. And then remove any nest-box if you gave her one, and NEVER put another one in if you see another egg again, you simply do the same process of boiling each egg and letting her lay on the boiled eggs until she stops, then toss them, but you put each egg you find right back on the bottom of the cage grate. Putting a nest-box in their cage will cause hormonal activity...

Do you have ANY type of "Snuggle Huts", tents, boxes, towels/blankets, bedding, wood chips, straw, etc. inside of their cage? If so, you must remove it immediately, as small, dark places and anything that can be considered "nesting material" will cause hormonal activity...Conures are specifically prone to this...

***At 9 months old she shouldn't be breeding...It's not that her "clock is messed up", as they are physically able to breed earlier than that age, it's because you housed them together and they bonded, then started mating. Think about a 12 year-old girl, she can physically get pregnant, but doesn't mean she should...It's extremely hard on their bodies, and at 9 months old she's still developing herself.

***They are going to just continually mate/breed over and over and over again most likely, even if you do everything you can to stop it like removing all small, dark hiding places, fabric and nesting material, put them on a Natural Light Schedule, etc. You probably won't stop them...And the chances of such a young female becoming Egg-Bound or dying from some other health issue is extremely high. Plus you don't want her to be constantly laying clutches of eggs, especially when she's still developing herself. Leeching nutrition away from her body at her age constantly is not good...So, my best advice is that you need to house them separately immediately!!! You need to get another entire cage set-up and move one of them into it ASAP. You can put their cages right next to each other, and allow them to have SUPERVISED out-of-cage-time together (you must always be watching or they will mate outside of the cage too), but if you keep them housed together this is probably going to just happen continually, and it may very well endanger her life...

 

[akalabeth]

Hey. Here we are forbidden by law to hatch eggs from any animal that is present on Brazilian wildlife, even if the eggs are laid by birds that are legal and registered/tracked. It's only allowed to licensed breeders.

So, in order to keep the physical and mental health of our beloved friends, there are some fake plastic eggs on all sorts of sizes that can be purchased on Pet Shops.

Didn't have the opportunity with either fake or boiled eggs, but it's a common practice here.

 

[texsize]

Hey. Here we are forbidden by law to hatch eggs from any animal that is present on Brazilian wildlife, even if the eggs are laid by birds that are legal and registered/tracked. It's only allowed to licensed breeders.

So, in order to keep the physical and mental health of our beloved friends, there are some fake plastic eggs on all sorts of sizes that can be purchased on Pet Shops.

Didn't have the opportunity with either fake or boiled eggs, but it's a common practice here.

Do they hand-cuff the miscreant bird and put it in solitary.:46:
Sounds extreme to me but....
My in-laws live in Colombia and they had there Parrots taken away by the government even though they had them for 35 years.

 

[akalabeth]

Hey. Here we are forbidden by law to hatch eggs from any animal that is present on Brazilian wildlife, even if the eggs are laid by birds that are legal and registered/tracked. It's only allowed to licensed breeders.

So, in order to keep the physical and mental health of our beloved friends, there are some fake plastic eggs on all sorts of sizes that can be purchased on Pet Shops.

Didn't have the opportunity with either fake or boiled eggs, but it's a common practice here.

Do they hand-cuff the miscreant bird and put it in solitary.:46:
Sounds extreme to me but...
My in-laws live in Colombia and they had their Parrots taken away by the government even though they had them for 35 years.

Such cases are really common here. This old lady already lost and recovered the right to have her bird a couple of times: https://g1.globo.com/sp/vale-do-par...-papagaio-de-estimacao-a-dona-em-s-jose.ghtml

It's a measure to avoid capture and abuse of wildlife, but it ends up being a bureaucratic decision that doesn't affect the big bad guys