Unexpected eggs

I'm new here and joined hoping to get some help with an unexpected problem with my blue and gold macaws. A bit of history, I inherited these birds from an abuse situation. They have been living in a cage about two and a half feet square and 4 feet tall this winter as they recovered from a raccoon attack. They had come back around, they looked and acted good, great appetite, playing etc. The problem is I have been keeping a bit of hay in the bottom of their cage, they seem to like playing in it, it was easy to clean up their messes, and has worked well all winter. So what happened is they have made a nest in this hay, laid two eggs, and now the female is sitting on them. I don't see how this can work. It was clean hay that they laid the eggs in but it won't stay clean of course and now, probably quite naturally, they have become far too vicious for me to change the hay, clean up their mess or effectively do anything except get feed and water into the pen without losing a finger. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'd love to help but, so many factors....Some of our Macaw experts will be on to help soon, basically I'm bumping this up so it stays in active topics.

If it were me, I would allow it to get some babies! But I know that is not always the right answer. Are you trying to get the eggs out too or are you only worried about cleanliness? If you think about it, in the wild they would do the same, so I think it should be fine? Maybe at some point when she's not sitting on them you could distract her or get her in a travel cage while you clean up?

Are they confirmed male and female? Or could they possibly be two females?


It doesn't sound like breeding, if you do have male/female, is the best of ideas, so discouraging the behavior may be necessary. You can buy fake/dummy eggs and replace the real ones with fake ones. You could also freeze the eggs if there's any chance of them being fertile.


After you have "destroyed" the eggs (replaced or frozen), you can then decide on if you want to allow her to sit until she gets tired of them and realizes they wont hatch, or change everything up, remove nest, nesting material, change around diet, day/light schedule and try to get her to stop.

This is a very horrible situation you're in, and there's no way you should allow any babies to hatch. It's likely that these birds will kill any babies that hatch anyway, and since you can't even take proper care of the adult birds due to their aggressiveness, there's no way you should have baby macaws in that cage with them and not be able to help them if they need help. Plus, let's say they are fertile eggs and they do hatch, what if mom and dad reject the babies? How are you going to get them out of the cage to hand-feed them/ Do you know how to hand-raise/feed baby birds?

If i were you i would do as already mentioned, you need to buy some dummy eggs and then replace the real eggs with the plastic eggs, and put the real eggs in the freezer overnight and then pitch them. And honestly, if you are not even capable of keeping their cage clean (which btw sounds like far too small a cage to house even one macaw let alone two macaws, they need a much larger housing situation) your best bet is to find a reputable rescue with a lot of macaw experience and surrender the birds. I usually don't say that, but these 2 birds are destined to spend decades inside a cage that is too small for a single macaw, let alone 2 macaws, living in filth because you can't change the cage or clean it (it should be changed/cleaned weekly), and getting no stimulation at all. Do they have lots of toys and large wooden things to chew on daily? How about foraging boxes/things to tear apart and rip up? I just envision a tiny little cage that is 24"x54" with 2 macaws crammed inside it, that is filthy with piles of droppings and dirty hay in the bottom, not a single toy or anything for them to do at all except to breed, and you, terrified, hurrying to open the door, toss in a pan of water and some kind of food and shut the door before you get attacked. That's no life for you or the birds...And it's not your fault, that's not what i'm saying.

There are rescues and people who are very experienced with large parrots in this situation that can actually give these 2 birds a life, and a good life.