Pepper and Slinky

[papaya]

Sulphiria,

I just checked the nest again. No more news. I am not sure if Pepper still carries an egg in her. She does not look "fat" anymore. Considering that she already laid 3 eggs, she might be done. Normal clutch is 2 to 4 eggs. I am just happy that there ar two eggs now. They can keep each other company.
Wow, you must have your hands full with 5 parrots.Congratulations!
So you take the raw egg and microwave it for a total of 40 seconds, is that correct?
I will try to post more pictures soon.

 

[Sulphiria]

Sulphiria,

I just checked the nest again. No more news. I am not sure if Pepper still carries an egg in her. She does not look "fat" anymore. Considering that she already laid 3 eggs, she might be done. Normal clutch is 2 to 4 eggs. I am just happy that there ar two eggs now. They can keep each other company.
Wow, you must have your hands full with 5 parrots.Congratulations!
So you take the raw egg and microwave it for a total of 40 seconds, is that correct?
I will try to post more pictures soon.

Yeah, time with vary. Scramble it up first and give it a stir when it starts to cook around the edges, then cook,til done.

 

[papaya]

The miracles of the microwave. I don't use it much and have never used it to make scrambled eggs but it sure is convenient.

 

[wolf0994]

Congrats on your eggs! I keep reading this thread waiting for more updates and pics!

Side note...my birds go nuts for eggs with shells. I toss an egg in a bowl, squish is all up, microwave for 20 secs or so, stir, micro for 20 and done. My cag smells them and starts walking back and forth on his cage with his wings open just begging.

Awesome! I tried this tonight. Kawie LOVED IT! Thanks much!

 

[Conuregirl]

Awesome thread Papaya! It has been really enjoyable and I am learning quite a bit! Best wishes for you and your birdies!

 

[solobaby]

can't wait to hear if they are fertile - love this thread

 

[papaya]

I am happy that I have support through this forum. I am sure I will be having many more questions.
I think Pepper might be laying another egg. She looks kind of "fat" I tried to capture this on the photo but it really did not turn out that well. Looking that it takes her three to four days to lay an egg, I might see one tomorrow or the day after. Wow, I read that the eggs are usually laid every two days. It has been three to four days for Pepper. I hope that this will not cause a problem if they raise their chicks.
My question is, will they try to feed all chicks the same or will the largest (oldest) one get all the attention (food). Are the African Grey chicks pushy, meaning will the oldest try to overpower his other siblings?

 

[cdog]

It is perfectly normal to lay every 3-4 days, my gcc does that too. If she only lays 3 eggs then having them 3 days apart wont make a huge difference. The biggest ones do get fed first but if there is only a week difference between the first and last egg then there wont be a huge difference, and three babies is really that hard for them to feed. I'm not familiar if Grey's are the best parents or not but my pair of gcc can take care of 4 babies at a time so if your female stops laying at 3 eggs I think your pair will do fine. But it is their first clutch so it is a learning experience for them so chances are they will make a few mistakes.

 

[papaya]

Good to know. Thank you. I don't even want to think about any "mistakes". I just hope their instincts kick in and they will know what to do. Today Slinky was feeding Pepper again outside of the breeding box and he is doing a great job. So if I plan on candling the eggs on the weekend, the first egg will be a week old, the second a couple of days and the third (if laid tomorrow) only a day or so. So what can I expect to see if I candle the eggs? The first one (heart beat and blood vessels) what about the four day old?
Also when I candle the eggs do I need to rest the flashlight on the eggs or will a close up be ok (not touching the egg with the flashlight). As mentioned earlier, I really don't want to pick up the eggs, so I will candle in the nest box.
Thanks in advance.
Below is a picture of Pepper (front) and Slinky (back) that I took today. They are both so cute.

 

[cdog]

They are beautiful. This link should help with the candling...A close up might work but getting right on top of the egg will probaby work better, just don't press on the egg.

crimson bellied conure, green cheek eggs. candling parrot eggs, green cheek conure breeder, african grey egg, african grey breeder in Arizona

 

[papaya]

Thank you. That is a great link.
However I am not sure if I will be able to tell if the eggs are fertile or not. Hopefully I can make out something.
I will probably candle on Sunday and will let everyone know what I discovered.

 

[papaya]

Egg # 3

 

[cdog]

Congrats! How exciting.

 

[papaya]

Thank you,

but after seeing this video on youtube I feel really sorry for Pepper.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veY1M4-2Yrs]Lineolated Parakeet hen seen laying an egg - YouTube[/ame]

 

[cdog]

I know what you mean, my Bella has 6-7 eggs per clutch!

 

[papaya]

Poor Bella, she must be exhausted.

Well, I checked the nesting box this morning (yes, again). Here I notice that one egg was away from the two others. I captured this on photo. Any information if that can be normal or is Pepper already knowing that this is a bad egg?

I could not resist to "candle" the eggs after that. So, I have a pretty bright led flash light and I was shining on the eggs and....
And.... NOTHING. Well, I was able to see the air sac clearly in one of the eggs. The other two I had no clue what I was looking at.
So, this can mean many things.

1) They are infertile
2) I am not knowlegdeable enough to understand "candling"
3) or they haven't developed yet. The first egg (oldest) is exactly one week old. I have read that often times the hen will not start incubating until the second egg was layed or even the entire clutch. So that would mean that the eggs are underdeveloped to be able to see something, right?

Anyway after I tried to candle the eggs I put the "outcast" egg next to the other two. I haven't opened the nest box yet while Pepper and/or Slinky were in there. And I don't want to disturb them when they are in there, so I don't know if Pepper is usually sitting on all three eggs or not.
This is all very interesting.

 

[cdog]

She might have just moved in when she got out of the box. Bella does it all the time but when she goes back in she pushes them next to the other eggs. I wouldn't rely on candling yet because they will probably be too under developed. Try not to touch the eggs because they are porous and let in bacteria. If she doesn't like to sit on a certain egg its not your job to tell her too, let her take care of the eggs herself.

 

[papaya]

cdog, do you have a camera in your nesting box, or how do you know what is going on in there?
I would really love to install one but I am a bit late with that thought. Maybe another time.
When Pepper came out of the nest box earlier I checked again and all three eggs were together.
I actually did not touch the egg with my fingers but with my sleeve, since I had read that the eggs are porous and you are only allowed to touch them when you wash your hands with soap and use hand sanitizer.
Yes, you are right. I will let Pepper and Slinky figure it out together. Whatever happens -happens.
I will probably wait with the candling until next Friday.

 

[cdog]

I don't have a camera but I check on the babies/eggs when Bella leaves the nest box. But when she sees me going for the box she jumps right back in and pushes everything back under her. I would love to get a camera too because my pair aren't good parents and I want to see what they do wrong.

 

[papaya]

Last night/morning at 2.35 am something spooked Slinky and he fell to the cage floor. I quickly turned on the light so he could find his orientation. Pepper also jumped out of the nestbox. It took them a while to settle but Pepper did not go back into her nestbox. I tried talking to her or leaving them alone for a while. Nothing worked. After one hour, exaclty one hour I picked Pepper up and put her in the nest box from the outside. (I had never done that before). The first time she climbed right back out but the second time she stayed in and I am assuming was incubating the eggs.
This morning at 6 am she was still sitting on the eggs.

So, does anyone have experience on how long the eggs can be left alone without getting too cold?
It was excactly one hour before Pepper was sitting on her eggs again. How long can the eggs live without the warmth of their mother?
Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks