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Nesting too long?

Zelle

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Miss Tiki, my 24 year old Blu & Gold had a squabble last June with my female GreenWing Kona. Tiki had a dislocated knee and torn ligaments etc. She had to have 2 pins inserted into her bones until it healed. The Vet that worked on her was 4 hours from where we live and we had to leave he there for a few days. She freaked out and chewed one of her toes off past the nail.

Tiki has recovered pretty well from her dislocated knee. She can perch and get around very well in her cage. I put her cage next to a bed so she could rest her leg at night. She took that opportunity to use it as a nest and laid 2 infertile eggs. One broke but she has one left. It has been over 40 days and I think it is unhealthy to stay on that egg. I want to make it disappear because I think it is the best thing to do. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
 

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Zelle

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She has a large cage next to the window so she can see out. There is no door on the cage so she can come and go as she pleases. She has a a whole bedroom to herself.
 

Macawnutz

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Where is the egg at?
 

Macawnutz

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Oh I see! I thought you were putting her in a small carrier to rest next to your bed. ;)

Oh yah, the egg should go. Before doing that I would buy a bunch of toys and new perches to deck out that cage and keep her busy. The PVC is not the best perch material as its so uniform. Give her lots of stuff to chew so she redirects that egg attention to playing. :)

What's her diet like?
 

Zelle

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Thanks for the great advice! The cage and bed is just a temp thing we put together until she got completely healed. She has a 10 x 20 foot cage in our garage with wood, rope, stone and every other perch that is made. She also has a 8 foot octagon cage outside. Thanks for being concerned. She has fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes, pellets, grains and eggs. I got my first parrot over 35 years ago so I'm not new to this stuff. :)
 

Macawnutz

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I got my first parrot 19 years ago and I feel everything I learned then is different now. :lol:

If she just laid this egg I would say it was fine to let her sit, If she is still sitting after a month it's time to move it.
 

Monica

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If she's not coming out of the bedroom, then remove the bed.

If you want to discourage a hen from laying then you need to remove whatever it is that is encouraging the hen to lay. If it's the bed, then the bed has to go!

Also, go over her diet. Does she get warm, mushy food? If yes, no more warm mushy food. Is she getting too much protein and calcium? If yes, a slight dietary change may be in order. It could be as simple as switching pellets (not necessarily brand, if they have a different line of food that could be fed), or feeding less eggs.
 

Zelle

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This has been a heartbreaking time for me. My 24 year old blue and gold had a dislocated knee. She had 2 operations on it and had pins put in. The knee wasn't just dislocated but all the tendons and ligaments were squished and were unable to completely heal. The specialist that we took her to was 4 hours away from our house. He needed to keep her for a few days after the first operation. We couldn't afford to stay there in a hotel for days besides we had 3 other parrots at home to care for. I'm not clear why she did it (fear pain frustration?) but while Tiki was at the Vets she chewed one of her toes off past her nail bed.

When she came home. We had to keep her in an aquarium for weeks to keep her from moving around too much. She still managed to pull out one of the pins so we had to bring her back for another operation. The tendons and ligaments didn't reattach but her knee is fused, so she has some use of it. Her claws on that leg don't work that well and her leg isn't straight but is turned to the side (like the capital letter L). I was slowly getting her used to standing on perches but wanted to give her the option of resting her leg so I set up a cage next to a bed. In hindsight I should have given her lupron at the first sign of nesting.

She had such love and commitment to those eggs it was hard for me to take them away after all she had been though. I knew it would be unhealthy for her to sit on them any longer so I was just looking for a way to do it with the least amount of stress.

She is in a 10 foot by 20 foot cage now and doing very well. She has lots of new toys to play with and has the company of her flock and the neighborhood children visit her every day.
 
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