Yolks

Can you tell why an egg was infertile by the yolk? Looking for clues as to why my ringneck had infertile clutch and if there's anything I could do to help them

It could be a number of things...

1. Your birds may not be a male and female. Have you gotten them DNA sexed? This can be done by sending either a feather or blood sample to companies that determine the gender.

2. If your birds are for sure male and female, they may not have successfully mated. Have you observed them mating? The male may be inexperienced in 'getting the job done' and therefore may have failed to successfully fertilize the female.

3. Your birds may not be sitting on the eggs for the incubation period (I'm not experienced with IRNs, but for cockatiels they have to sit on the eggs for roughly 21 days before they hatch).

4. The birds may be too young to reproduce successfully. Usually birds need to be sexually mature (for smaller birds, around the 2 years of age range) and sometimes it can take a clutch or two to get the mechanics right.

5. Poor diet. Birds enjoy fruits and veggies and the birds should be getting extra food (especially calcium rich leafy greens, cuttlebone) to help replace the nutrients the female ahs lost for laying the eggs. If they have a poor diet (not clean water, getting fed only seeds, which is not good for them to have all the time) they could very well impact their reproduction rates.

Hope this helps you!

Thanks for the reply.

They are def boy and girl, he has a ring and she's laid eggs. We got them in Feb and was told they was 3 and had chicks last year. All I can do is take their word, no rings to age ect. They love their chop which is based on kale then lots of veg and a little fruit in it, they also have a seed mix ( which they was on before)) and lots of fresh water.

I've not seen them mate but I have seen the little dance then they go in the nest box, I set a camera up to see what they are upto. The eggs are perfect and she disappears in the box from the first one only popping out every now and then for food.

Not sure if we have been sold duds, if it's the new home and just they way it is this year or something else. Was told the old owner was selling to get back breeding greys only.

I've got pics of the yolks but would need to put them later.