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Egg laying?

CrazyCakes

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I posted this in the Grey section but got only one response, so I'm posting this here for more advice. Hopefully more people will see it over here:


Hey guys. My rehomed Grey has been with me for a few months now and this morning I found an egg in her cage. The prior owner had her for 5 years after the original owner passed. She told me that the grey started laying eggs out of no where right before I got her. When I got her I changed the entire cage around to make it better, as it had improper toys and perches and including removing mirrors that she had placed in there. Whenever the grey is w me I don’t even touch her and she starts to act as if she mating doing the clicking. I immediately put her away when she does that. I don’t touch her tummy or under the wings or anything like that so I don’t understand how this happened. So you guys have any advice. If she’s mating with a toy I have no idea which one because I’ve never seen her do it in front of me. Either way the behavior needs to stop but I have zero experience in egg laying so I need all the help I get can with this. Thanks
 

Lady Jane

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Laying eggs is not considered a behavior. Female bird do this all the time. If it becomes chronic and the birds health is at stake there is a injection called Lupron an avian vet can give her which is reported to stop chronic egg laying. Please do not get upset at the bird for doing what comes naturally.

Lupron Injection for birds
Managing Chronic Egg-laying in your Pet Bird. Lupron does not work in every bird but it is quite safe and can be very effective. Lupron injections are moderately expensive but are an essential tool in treating birds with reproductive diseases. In addition, the injections may eventually stop working over time.
 

CrazyCakes

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Upset? Im not upset Im scared. I've heard horror stories about people losing birds because the eggs get stuck inside of them, thats what I want to avoid. Also the loss of calcium since Greys are known to have calcium deficiencies. Something has to be causing her to be laying eggs like this. I have 4 birds currently and have had many birds over the years. Ive never had them lay eggs before. None of them.
 

CrazyCakes

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Thank you Im going to read this when I get to work. Do think she could have bonded with me in such a short period. Or do you think its stress from the new home and change...although she's already tried regurgitating when I was holding her twice-which I put her away as soon as she did...Should I stop petting her all together..she loves head scritches and always puts her head down for everyone..She was plucking feathers when I started back at work last month but that has stopped and there has not been anymore feathers at the bottom of the cage...also shes 25 so I dont know much of her past. She was on a horrible seed/pellet mix. I removed all seeds as soon as I got her and now she only gets zupreem pellets and she has another bowl with harrisons and then I give her fruits and veggies instead of the seeds that were there.
 

JLcribber

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Upset? Im not upset Im scared. I've heard horror stories about people losing birds because the eggs get stuck inside of them, thats what I want to avoid. Also the loss of calcium since Greys are known to have calcium deficiencies. Something has to be causing her to be laying eggs like this. I have 4 birds currently and have had many birds over the years. Ive never had them lay eggs before. None of them.
Hormones are a biological function that run on a cycle. You can not stop it. All you can do is help "minimize" its effect until the cycle has had a chance to complete and leave the body.

Your bird has a new better life. New better food. New better environment. New better people. All things that will contribute to a formerly neglected/abused bird's system to take advantage of the opportunity so those hormones are going to kick in pretty hard and possibly last a little longer than they should the first few seasons until things even out.

There is nothing wrong with your bird laying eggs. That's what they were built to do. The secret is to keep your bird healthy (good diet) and fit (lots of flying) so this natural process goes off without a hitch.

Since you don't know anything about egg laying its time to learn.
Hormonal Behavior in Pet Birds - Introduction — For The Birds DVM — Avian Vet

Egg Production: Avian Female Reproductive Question
 

Mizzely

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I know it's scary sounding, but many, many birds lay eggs with zero ill effects. Chickens do it almost daily, after all ;)

You can try to flood her with dummy eggs to hopefully curb the behavior. DummyEggs.com, Dummy Eggs Help Stop Egg Laying in Pet Birds! Fake Eggs, Solid Plastic Eggs in all sizes.

Other than that the main thing is to keep her on a good diet! I'm not sure what she is eating now but definitely calcium is going to be important, as is Vitamin D3 as that is what helps absorb calcium.
 
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Ripshod

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I know it's scary sounding, but many, make birds lay eggs with zero ill effects. Chickens do it almost daily, after all
Thank you.

Most of what you read on the net is bad news and problems. We (humans) don't tend to post if there's no problems so there's a heck of a lot less of the good news going around. I like that AA is full of posts about the day-to-day antics our birbs get up to, and I'm glad to say that is actively encouraged here.
 

Monica

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Flight can help to discourage egg binding by strengthening the muscles that control egg laying. A diet rich in calcium (green vegetables and nuts!) is of course beneficial as well.

She has obviously been encouraged in some way to become hormonal with humans. I met a cockatoo that, just talking to her, sent her into hormonal overdrive. *THIS* is not normal or natural! So... the question is... what behavior could you teach her to do instead? Can she... learn to forage? Learn new behaviors that engage her mind? Or?
 

Toy

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Just make sure your CAG is getting enough calcium. They make a calcium supplement for parrots. Liquid calcium is best for emergency situations. Any sign of straining to poop, not eating, spending a lot of time on the cage floor, etc., can mean egg binding. As soon as you see this behavior give the bird some calcium per the container instructions & then get to the vet.

My U2 goes into hormonal over drive if I pay any attention to her. Her hormones kicked in at age 4 & she totally freaked. She stopped eating & acted like something was out to get her. She had to have a shot to calm her down. After that she was fine, but I couldn't even look at her or she'd start to pant. She ended up egg bound with her very first egg at age 20. She stopped eating & could not poop, so off to the vet. X-ray showed a HUGE egg. Vet gave her a shot to help her move the egg out, it failed. She swabbed lubricant in her vent. Vet said only other option was to take her to Cornell for emergency surgery, if the egg hadn't passed in 36 hours. I was to give her liquid calcium & an anti-inflammatory/pain med. I ended up researching egg bound birds & found that people that raise those fancy chickens go thru this a lot. They suggested 2 things....1. sitting the bird in warm water for 10 minutes, which requires you hold them down in it. 2. give them a syringe of coconut oil. I tried the calcium/pain med & water bath first. She was straining, but nothing was coming out. I gave her the coconut oil (1ml) & about an hour later she plopped the egg out. This was 2/21/18. 3/28/18 she laid another egg. 4/3/18 another egg. I let her keep them in hopes it would reset her hormones. I placed them in a glass pie dish with pieces of cut up sheet. She was trying to make a nest with her cage cover. Anyway she sat on them until April 27th, then gave up o them. I tossed them. Early June 2018 she was acting like she was going into egg laying mode again. June 27, 2018 she laid an egg. I wast broke when I found it. The vet had suggested the lupron shots, but also told me she could not give them & I'd have to take her to another vet. They also cost around $150.00 per shot, which may last 1-3 months. I wasn't too keen on drugging her up. I decided to buy the fake eggs & give them a try the next time she went into egg laying mode. I bought 4 fake eggs (from the site Mizzely posted above. The next time she laid an egg was August 4, 2018, after spending all day outside in the aviary. I put that egg & 3 fake eggs in a dish & she sat on them until Sept. 8th. Sept. 23, 2018 she laid another egg. Again I put that egg & 3 fake eggs in a dish for her. She sat on them for about 2 weeks then gave up on them. She hasn't laid any eggs since. The fake eggs eventually worked to trip her hormones back on track. Chronic egg laying is often caused by their hormones getting out of whack. So the fake eggs did help in this case.

My B&G Macaw lays 2 eggs right at Christmas/New Years ever year. She's never had any egg laying problems. Our CAG has not laid any eggs yet. All 3 of our birds (all DNA female) were hatched with in 6 months of each other in 1999.
 
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