Boy Conure who is now girl...gulp.

Hi.

We are parrot owners; 2 m 'tiels, 1 f quaker, and 1 f conure. This spring, our quaker became a hen; it was very stressful, as she had 5 eggs. Well, we brought her to the vet, got some good advice, and we all got over it, thank goodness.

Unfortunately, during that process (before we knew what we know now), we attempted to introduce a conure for her to have as a friend. Anyway, the new bird was supposed to be a male and we thought that since he was a conure, she'd bond with him but not have any chicklets. They do say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? eesh.

she didn't want much to do with him, her eggs, or our attempts to help her out by having bath time together; although she has adjusted to the presence of him, she hasn't really made friends, exactly.

the really sad part is that Atty is actually another girl, and has started laying eggs, in Sept. no less! Gracious, we do get the oddest critters..........

anyway, anyone know anything about this? is it likely that Atty has been egg-bound for a few months? when we thought she was a he, we were charmed by his/her tendency to crawl into towels (while on our lap), and burrow, sometimes for hours. Had we known he was a she, we would not have encouraged this..........ugh.

what do we do, now? unlike Clover, Atty is brooding the egg, talking to it, and nurturing it, so we hate to take it away..........any thoughts? It is, after all, the WRONG time of year for having eggs.........at least, we think so.......

thanks in advance.

On thing to keep in mind ~ eggs in September are perfectly normal if you have a conure that is native to the Southern Hemisphere; here, September marks the end of the summer, but in the south of the Equator September marks the end of the WINTER .. so it makes perfectly logical sense ...

As for what to do about it - best thing, let her brood on it until she tires of it. It's not fertilized so that isn't going to be an issue about it hatching. Let her sit, she'll give up on it eventually and when she does, just remove it from the nest. If you remove it before she gives up on it she just might lay another one to replace it.