need urgent help please

[doom]

i don't know if this is the right subsection to post in but i have two greencheeck conures, and i guess they've been mating recently, i noticed that they were up to something and the female has laid eggs in our sofa in a nest they made and she comes out barely. it seems she still has more to lay. the problem now is that i don't know what to do. we also have a cat and our female cannot be out all day. would it be okay if i moved her eggs to her cage or will the cause her to flip out? i dont want her to lay more eggs as a replacement, and the male is just confused. i don;t want to touch her eggs if it will cause her to get mad but i dont really know what else to do. on top of that i shouldn't just let then have them right? i dont know hwo to breed and some friends were saying i can just leave the eggs for them to take care of but i dunno. any help would be appreciated thank you.

 

[Birdbabe]

Bump!

 

[rocky'smom]

Is their first clutch of eggs? Are trying breed them or not? Of course she is going be mad but becuz of the cat I would move them in the cage. If you are not trying breed them then separate them into 2 cages and reduce their light from 12 hours to about 8 hours. That means no lights on in their area dark cage covers.

 

[Clueless]

@Zara
@tattoosiva
@Monaco

I'm tagging a few folks that posted in the egg laying forum. Maybe they can help answer your questions.

 

[Shezbug]

If you are not trying to breed them and the eggs are freshly laid you can carefully collect the eggs, boil them let them cool and put them in the cage.

 

[tattoosiva]

If you have a cat that is out all day and there is a possibility the cat get to her, you really don't have a choice other then remove her. Better mad than dead.

If this is her first clutch:

I would take pictures of eggs and order fake eggs for future clutches that you can switch out ASAP

Don't have her in any "nesty" areas like, enclosed areas, bird beds, newspapers in cages that she can get under, boxes, cabinets, drawers and as you learned, couches. Those areas between cushions provide a dark, warm and comfortable place to lay eggs, even behind behind the couch pillows.

I do the 12 method. 12 days of sleep in complete darkness and quiet. We tried seperating her male partner but they screamed for each other all night for 7 days, even if they were side to side.

We put them back together. It resulted with 2 more eggs, we removed eggs first thing in the morning and no more eggs after that.

If it looks that she having problems laying or is laying excessively, take her to avian vet ASAP.

We give extra calcium, we do her favorite bird bread that contains her favorite treats like freeze dried cheese, freeze dried blueberries and freeze dried black beans and add powdered egg shells and whatever high calcium vegetables in season and run through blender until fine. Bake and feed first thing in morning when she is hungriest.

I'm not an expert on this, these are just tips I received from other members and my AV. Her first year she had 5 total, used these tips and no more.
This year 3 eggs, same method and no more (fingers crossed).

 

[Zara]

some friends were saying i can just leave the eggs for them to take care of

It´s nowhere near as easy as that. Breeder birds need humans to be on top of everything, to watch over and make sure all the birds and chicks are ok.

As said above, boil the eggs, then once cool, place inside the cage on the cage floor. You don´t need to separate your birds if you are boiling eggs. And eggs are laid every 24-48 hours until the clutch is complete.

 

[Clueless]

I am blessed that Secret is a male amazon.

 

[Sparkles!]

First things first. Get her out of the couch. Will she be pissed? Yes. Do it anyways. Couches are not places for birds. Between the stuffing that can easily get wrapped around toes and lead to an amputation or the fact that all couches are sprayed with insecticide from the factory (the wood as well as the material-mandatory in the USA) it’s not good she’s in there. Remove her, and put her in her cage.

Eggs- you’ve gotten good advice on what to do with those. I boil and return, and plunk them on the cage bottom. In sight of momma, but thanks to the boil-not going to do anything. They’ll roll around on the bottom if the parents try to sit and be parental- but then the parents give up and the eggs get tossed after a few short days with the parents not caring.

A well balanced diet is crucial for both parents- the only thing I really do differently than what’s already been mentioned is using a few types of supplements recommended by vet. But, you’ve been given good advice on that front as well. Make sure both mom and dad are eating well.

Breeding and rearing baby birds is awful. It’s sleepless nights, expensive as heck, stressful for all involved, and you’re nuts if you think there’s any money to be made- (by the time you’ve vetted and purchased the necessary supplies for the parents to be able to have healthy chicks… then formula, scale, thermometer, pipette or spoons for the babies…etc Not including missed hours of work! You’ll have at least a grand invested in each of those Green Cheek babies!) I do not recommend breeding for “fun”.

 

[doom]

Is their first clutch of eggs? Are trying breed them or not? Of course she is going be mad but becuz of the cat I would move them in the cage. If you are not trying breed them then separate them into 2 cages and reduce their light from 12 hours to about 8 hours. That means no lights on in their area dark cage covers.

Hi! It's actually their second clutch of eggs, the first she laid in her cage though and was uninterested. This year I tried really hard to not encourage mating but it seems I failed I've seperated them into two cages as i'm not trying to breed them but they don't seem to be taking it well, im just hoping it doesnt stress out olive (female). I've been giving them 12 hours of darkness but they dont really stop talking / chirping until late.

 

[doom]

If you are not trying to breed them and the eggs are freshly laid you can carefully collect the eggs, boil them let them cool and put them in the cage.

unfortunately before I could move her eggs, the male went in and broke them when the female was eating. I had no idea he would do that, I feel so incredibly bad for her, I have dummy eggs on the way, hoping those will make her feel better.

 

[doom]

First things first. Get her out of the couch. Will she be pissed? Yes. Do it anyways. Couches are not places for birds. Between the stuffing that can easily get wrapped around toes and lead to an amputation or the fact that all couches are sprayed with insecticide from the factory (the wood as well as the material-mandatory in the USA) it’s not good she’s in there. Remove her, and put her in her cage.

Eggs- you’ve gotten good advice on what to do with those. I boil and return, and plunk them on the cage bottom. In sight of momma, but thanks to the boil-not going to do anything. They’ll roll around on the bottom if the parents try to sit and be parental- but then the parents give up and the eggs get tossed after a few short days with the parents not caring.

A well balanced diet is crucial for both parents- the only thing I really do differently than what’s already been mentioned is using a few types of supplements recommended by vet. But, you’ve been given good advice on that front as well. Make sure both mom and dad are eating well.

Breeding and rearing baby birds is awful. It’s sleepless nights, expensive as heck, stressful for all involved, and you’re nuts if you think there’s any money to be made- (by the time you’ve vetted and purchased the necessary supplies for the parents to be able to have healthy chicks… then formula, scale, thermometer, pipette or spoons for the babies…etc Not including missed hours of work! You’ll have at least a grand invested in each of those Green Cheek babies!) I do not recommend breeding for “fun”.

I'm afraid about one thing, so far she laid two eggs and then one egg three-ish days later in the sofa, i don't know if she will lay more but will she refuse to lay any eggs if its not in her original nest? as in can she purposely keep an egg in if she has one and become egg bound / sick if i don't give her access to her nest anymore? i really don't want to let her in their again because she rarely comes out to eat but she wont hurt herself by not laying just because the original nest is gone, will she?

yes thank you, i definetely wont be breeding them and im trying to get them to eat well.

 

[doom]

If you have a cat that is out all day and there is a possibility the cat get to her, you really don't have a choice other then remove her. Better mad than dead.

If this is her first clutch:

I would take pictures of eggs and order fake eggs for future clutches that you can switch out ASAP

Don't have her in any "nesty" areas like, enclosed areas, bird beds, newspapers in cages that she can get under, boxes, cabinets, drawers and as you learned, couches. Those areas between cushions provide a dark, warm and comfortable place to lay eggs, even behind behind the couch pillows.

I do the 12 method. 12 days of sleep in complete darkness and quiet. We tried seperating her male partner but they screamed for each other all night for 7 days, even if they were side to side.

We put them back together. It resulted with 2 more eggs, we removed eggs first thing in the morning and no more eggs after that.

If it looks that she having problems laying or is laying excessively, take her to avian vet ASAP.

We give extra calcium, we do her favorite bird bread that contains her favorite treats like freeze dried cheese, freeze dried blueberries and freeze dried black beans and add powdered egg shells and whatever high calcium vegetables in season and run through blender until fine. Bake and feed first thing in morning when she is hungriest.

I'm not an expert on this, these are just tips I received from other members and my AV. Her first year she had 5 total, used these tips and no more.
This year 3 eggs, same method and no more (fingers crossed).

Okay thank you!

I've been scraping cuttlebone onto her food for calcium, i will try the other stuff as well! When you removed her from nesty areas, did she just lay in the cage? I've been afraid that she may not have finished fully laying her clutch but remmoving her from her nest will just stress her out and make her not lay eggs she has in her.

Yes I seperated them today as i finally got my hands on another cage, They dont seem to be taking it so well so far but fingers crossed because the male is relentless and just wants to mate but i also feel bad because he seems sad in a different cage.

 

[doom]

It´s nowhere near as easy as that. Breeder birds need humans to be on top of everything, to watch over and make sure all the birds and chicks are ok.

As said above, boil the eggs, then once cool, place inside the cage on the cage floor. You don´t need to separate your birds if you are boiling eggs. And eggs are laid every 24-48 hours until the clutch is complete.

hi! i didn't quite get the chance to boil the eggs as the male broke them, but he does keep mating with her, so it would be better to seperate for now right? if she takes more then 48 hours but is completely fine otherwise, should i still worry?

 

[Laurie]

You really need to leave them together, leave them in their cage unless they are being supervised. They will want to attend to one another and any eggs.

Egg laying doesn't work like you might imagine. It is a long process, the egg laid today was likely fertilized (or not) about a week ago. What you do today will not stop her from laying eggs right now. Several eggs are already in various stages of development when you see the first one layed. Separating her from her mate will only cause emotional stress for both of them so it is best to leave them together.

Dummy eggs are not necessary if the original eggs are already destroyed. By the time they get there she will already have noticed her nest was ruined and will not be looking for the eggs. The purpose of the dummy eggs are to make her believe she completed her clutch so that she doesn't try and replace the eggs with new ones. If you take away the original eggs then you can use the dummy eggs. Allowing her to incubate her clutch of eggs is good because she will probably not start another clutch at least until these eggs are overdue to hatch and don't. So that gives her body time to rest. Keep the dummy eggs on hand though in case you need them in the future.

If there is a chance they could be fertile and hatch then she would need to be set up in a proper nest box so she could attempt to care for the babies. First time parents do not always do a good job and the babies often suffer as a result. This is what happens in nature but it is difficult to watch happening in your living room. Sometimes you may be able to take care of the babies if you are prepared with a lot of equipment and know-how but the unprepared are likely to do poorly with the babies and again they are likely to suffer and die. This is reason why it is not advisable to allow birds to breed. When there are two birds together then it is sometimes difficult to prevent though since breeding and egg laying are a natural thing.

Nothing you do will stop her from laying eggs that are already developing. Those eggs are on the way. You can make sure that she has a good source of calcium in here diet though as she needs that daily. Are you feeding her pellets. If so then she is probably fine, if not she may need some extra calcium. Try almonds and dark leafy greens.

You may be able to find a local breeder or handfeeder to take viable eggs or babies if it gets to that point.