My TAG laid an egg. HELP!!!!

[BuckBeak]

My girl TAG laid an egg. But she is not sitting on it. My boy TAG doesn't sitting on it either. I think the egg was laid either yesterday (4/9/15) or today (4/10/2015).

Questions:
1. How long can an egg survive without being sitting on? I will go to a farm store to get an incubator tomorrow, but I wonder if I will be too late.

2. The farm store only has chicken egg incubator, I wonder if this machine can also be used for small eggs. But I am going to get it anyway.....

3. Please share with me any useful resources as of how to hand rearing TAG.

4. How many days does it take for the baby to hatch?

Thank you for reading and respond my questions.

 

[labell]

Incubating and raising chicks from day one should not ever be taken on by someone with no hand feeding experience. The chances are high that something will go very wrong. Not to mention most people are not able to consistently feed babies every few hours for weeks at a time!

Sometimes a pair will not begin to truly set the eggs until all the eggs in the clutch are laid. Assuring that the chicks hatch closer together.

My advise.. let your pair be, let them raise their babies as LONG as you can before pulling them for hand feeding and I would strongly suggest you ask someone with many years of experience to show you (multiple times) how to do it correctly. This egg may not even be fertile if this is the first egg she has laid. It does take a pair a liitle time for everything to come together.

Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is letting your parent birds get it right. Babies are sometimes abandoned, eaten, mutilated by the pair and the first thing some breeders do after it happens is now snatch the eggs as soon as they are laid and start raising from day one. BAD IDEA imo! The parents are never allowed to get it right and the chicks suffer by never getting fed by parent birds which is of course much better for them than the garbage hand rearing formulas on the market. The best part... parent fed babies are not aspirated, don't have holes burned through their crops and all the other nightmare issues that inexperienced hand feeders cause.

 

[BuckBeak]

Dear Iabell, thanks for your advice. Mammals or aves, I believe that babies need to get the immunization boost from their mom. I will listen to your advise and not pull the egg out.

My TAGS are very close to us, they still are (I would say maybe 90% as good as before). The act as before, just when I carry a broomstick and dust bin into their aviary, then he will landed on top of my head and started to pull my hair or bite the rubber band off. I am keeping a minimal housekeeping duration in the aviary and give her the most privacy as possible.

Say, now you know I am thinking about hand feeding, what ingredients or brand of handing formula do you recommend? Currently they have lots of fresh vegs and fruits, 1 hard boiled egg with shell, Dr. Harvey's seeds and dry fruits blend. Dr. Hervey's cook oatmeal blend, some butter cookies or a little cake from my afternoon tea, 1 cup of carrot juice / almond milk / coconut milk / whole milk.

Elaine

 

[labell]

The coconut or almond milk is fine to give your pair but I would really pass on giving them any real dairy, birds cannot digest it properly and I would skip the sweets as well.

As for hand rearing formulas none are great in my opinion but Intune by Higgins at least doesn't smell horrible when you mix it.

 

[gracebowen]

I have no experience here but I am wondering something. Parents regurgitate their food for babies so why can't that be mimicked. Crushed pellets mixed with water. Baby food from the store etc...liquefied veggies.etc...

I have never breeders and an not now breeding.

 

[BuckBeak]

Yeah, I ageed with you on the food part too. I am in contact a few aviary in Asia & Australia, they are more willing to share info and passed on information than many breeders in North California. I am not a professional breeder nor I ever want to be a breeder. I just happened to have a pair and they bonded and now they laid eggs. I am having more fears than exciting....

 

[PetoftheDay]

I have no experience here but I am wondering something. Parents regurgitate their food for babies so why can't that be mimicked. Crushed pellets mixed with water. Baby food from the store etc...liquefied veggies.etc...

I have never breeders and an not now breeding.

I believe doing it that way would not pass on any of the digestive enzymes and beneficial bacteria, etc. that a baby bird gets from the parent's saliva. It is the same way they have now figured out it is best NOT to substitute formula for mother's milk for human babies if at all possible!

 

[BuckBeak]

Egg sitting update:
Melody is not sitting on her egg, instead, she is walking around. I can see her lower belly getting bigger and walk slower... I think her second egg is on its way. I wonder if she is like human, experiencing contractions.... my poor baby. I am now wondering if it is the right thing to let them start their family..... my poor baby....

 

[MikeyTN]

I have no experience here but I am wondering something. Parents regurgitate their food for babies so why can't that be mimicked. Crushed pellets mixed with water. Baby food from the store etc...liquefied veggies.etc...

I have never breeders and an not now breeding.

It's not as simple as crushed pellets as the pellets is mainly made for maintence feed for adult birds unless you get the breeder pellets. And yes like it was mentioned above the parents pass the much needed bacteria and such to the chicks when they feed and yes it can be mimicked but if the parents can do it, why would you want to mimic? It's better for the parents to feed them from the beginning as hand feeding from day 1 is a exhausting job as you feed them around the clock by the hour from the first several days of their life. Then go to every 2 hours, so fourth so on. The hand feeding formula is formulated with all the needed essentials that you can not get from just crushed pellets, liquified veggies, or baby food (NOT all baby food should be fed to birds unless they're organic). Plus you need to have them at certain temperature to feed.

To the OP, if your not excited about them having egg, then dispose the egg and replace with a fake one then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[mh434]

Just so you know, sometimes moms seem to know their egg isn't viable, and they abandon it right away. I often see this in Lovebird eggs - if it's a "good" egg, mom will sit on it. If it's not, she'll just walk away from it.

If that's the case, don't be too worried about it, it was never to be in the first place.

If this is the first instance of egg-laying, it could very well be non-viable (no fetus, just a shell & liquid).

Hope it all works out for you! If they DO start making viable eggs, it would be VERY exciting!! And I agree with the others - it would be extremely difficult to raise a hatchling, as opposed to taking the baby away (for hand-feeding & hand-taming) once its eyes are open, and mom has given it the antibodies it needs to start a healthy life.