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Eggs not hatching

Lolasmom

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Robin Pizza
Hi,
I have a pair of cockatiels and I didn’t get them for breeding and don’t know a lot about it. But, nature took over and they hooked up and have laid some eggs.

They made their own nesting box and laid the eggs and began incubating them. It is the cutest thing because I noticed one day that I was only seeing one of them at a time, and at the same time of day, and never together. (They have an open cage and go in and out freely while we are at home and not coming in and out of the house). We realized that they were taking turns sitting on the eggs and they rake shifts that run about 12 hours, mom doing the night time care and dad doing the day time.

We know that they are fertile bc when we looked it up it had all of the signs. When the mom comes out each day she lays a giant poop that is gross and nasty, never laying it inside. We read that is one way to tell it eggs are fertile.

in addition, sadly last week, something fell in one of the eggs and it cracked open. I didn’t want to look bc I was upset but my husband said there was a tiny bit looked fully formed baby bird in there! It was not breathing and probably not ready to come out, not sure.

We have been googling info about all of this as we don’t know anything about it. We read that the incubation period can last up to 28 days but normally runs about 21 days. We didn’t know when they laid the eggs bc when we found them there were already 4 there. Another egg was laid later on and then we lost the one so back to 4. We also read that you don’t start counting the incubation period until all of the eggs are laid. That was also difficult as we didn’t know that either. We did begin counting and could of course estimate it within a week or two.

We have been so excited about the prospect but now we think something has gone wrong. We know that the eggs were there a bit before the 1st of December and it is now the 22nd of January. They should have hatched by now. The parent are still incubating them this entire time. That is way too long according to what we read. We then read that things can go wrong and one of them is that the shells are too hard and the babies can’t get out, that sometimes they need help.

We do not know what to do, but have to do something bc it is sad to watch the parents continue to put in these long shifts and not be able to hang out together, plus it is probably exhausting. We feel badly for them and sad about the babies.
ANY advise on this topic would be great and much appreciated !

thanks
 

Matto

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If they haven't hatched yet, then they never will. The chicks are dead-in-shell (DIS). This is pretty common with first-time parents. You can remove the eggs, though they may attempt to lay again. Remove the nesting area and change up the cage to discourage this. Or you can leave them in there until they get bored of them.
 

Matto

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Assisting with hatching is very difficult and best left to experts. For the average breeder, I would recommend letting nature take its course.
 

Zara

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Sorry your eggs did not hatch. They for sure will not hatch at this point.
I agree with Matto, remove the eggs, and at the same time, switch up the cage. Move all the perches, toys and food water bowls. Removing the whole nest and any nesting materials.
It is not good to leave birds brooding so long, I give max one week after eggs ¨should have hatched¨ (mine are plastic) and then they get the boot.
You can add a new toy or something different to the cage to hopefully add to the distraction.
 
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