My sun conure and turquoise green cheek conure mated and had eggs please help!!!

[gg123]

My sun conure is the male and the turquoise green cheek conure is the female. She layed 5 eggs and we've been paying very close attention making sure we provided her with privacy and nutritional needs. We opened the closed habitat to check and see if the eggs are okay and noticed one egg hatched. When we saw it the mom(turquoise) got startled and angry and ended up stepping on the baby parrot which I'm assuming is what caused the mom or the baby to die and the body was fully gone so I think she ate the baby.. The next two following days later I hear noises of another baby that hatched. (keep in mind the mom has not left the closed habitat and has been sitting on the eggs)... So, when we come home we open the cage to engage with the male parrot and for the first time since the female has hatched the eggs she came out and was engaging with us as well. When she was distracted we checked to see if the 2nd baby is okay and again the body is completely gone and I'm assuming she ate the second baby. There's 3 eggs left now and I'm unsure what to do to ensure those will be okay... Does the mother not want to take care of the 3 left if she came out today and killed the other two? Should we consider buying an incubator ??
We put her back in the cage after engaging with her and she went back to the eggs, so I'm unsure what precautions we should take, whether she will take care of the three left?
We have no experience in breeding the eggs, and we had no idea whether one bird was female or male which resulted in us now finding out that indeed the two were opposite sex and mated..
Are these two birds (sun conure) and (turquoise) able to even breed together??
Please no judgement here I really need some advice!!!

 

[Littleredbeak]

Maybe @Beak-Beak-Kiss can offer advice. If anymore hatch I'd take them out. Can you consult with a breeder or vet to see how to hand feed the chicks?

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forums gg123, but I'm very sorry you are going through all of this! You will certainly face no judgement here, these things happen sometimes.

I personally do not have any experience with how to hand-raise baby birds, should those eggs of yours actually go on to hatch. However, many first-time clutches are not particularly successful due to the inexperience of the parent-birds involved, and sometimes they do reject the chicks if they sense there is something genetically amiss with them, and this can happen whether or not they are birds of the same species.

I'm sure some of our membership will be much better equipped to answer your questions around how to go about raising those chicks should they hatch and the parents neglect them, but in the meantime here's a link that was written by one of our better known breeders. Please look beyond the wording in the opening as it is not aimed at someone in your situation, but the remainder of the post may provide you with some pointers as to what to do if those eggs hatch!

So you bought an unweaned baby...

Today I spent several hours trying to help someone save a baby bird they had purchased unweaned. The baby died; they are usually almost dead by the time the new owner realizes something is wrong, not because the owner doesn't care but because they are not educated about what to look for or...

www.parrotforums.com

One of our newer members, @Beak-Beak-Kiss has also very recently had an unexpected clutch of eggs to raise so perhaps her experiences may be helpful for you too...

Hindsight is 20/20

Angelo and Zazu’s story: (it’s long) It’s Sunday morning and I’m exhausted. I’ve been living my life in 2-4 hour intervals for the past 3 weeks. I’m feeding 3 special needs chicks and I barely can even remember what life was like before Hazel, Louie, and Kevin. Lets start from the beginning...

www.parrotforums.com

Thank you for joining, and I am wishing you and those babies all the very best!

 

[Deleted member 42416]

Hi gg123, I am so sorry you are going through this. It has to be very stressful. Unfortunately, I have bad news. Sun conures and green cheeks are not only different species, but also different genuses (Aratinga and Pyrrhura). Their offspring usually will not survive past hatchling stage. If they do survive they rarely live past the first year and are plagued with health issues. For the remaining eggs you essentially have 3 options:

1. Allow them to hatch under mom, pull them immediately and place in brooder and start hand feedings.

2. Allow nature to take its course and let them hatch and see what parents do. If they die, mom will complete her broody behavior quickly

3. Replace the eggs with dummies or boil/freeze them (I personally do not have the heart for that) and let her sit on them. After time, with no hatching, she will lose interest and then you can remove one every other day.

It is important that you look thoroughly in the box for the other bodies to make sure they are all gone. It is common for bird parents to reject babies with genetic abnormalities. As mentioned by other members, first clutches often fail as well. Also, the role of the father with suns and green cheeks is very different. Green cheeks split incubation and baby feeding. With suns, the mother does all the incubation and feeding of chicks (the male feeds her).

Once this episode is done, the 2 parents will need to be separated in different cages and no more mating allowed. No more boxes or anything that can be perceived as a nesting spot. A small suspended sleep tent should be ok.

I know this week we’ve all been ooohing and ahhhing over the timneh-cape hybrid, whose parents are also of different genuses. Classification by genus does not always correlate with DNA and chromosomal compatibility. Some hybrids may be healthy and/or sterile…others may not be healthy. As astute members commented on the timneh hybrid: though gorgeous we don’t know the long term health consequences.

Accidents happen (heck, I’m super guilty of unplanned birby pregnancy). But at least we can learn from it and move forward!

I am praying for you and your birbies; this is a really difficult situation.

 

[Skarila]

I'm guessing the mom knew there is something wrong with the chick, hence the...disposal.

Here's an old thread about pyrrhura x aratinga hybrids, according to it GC x Sun hybrids very very often have some foot deformations or simply die a year later due to health complications. Worth a read.

Great tips from Beak-Beak-Kiss, btw.

Pyrrhura x Large Conure Hybrids

These hybrids are becoming more and more popular. I am only aware of potential health problems between Green Cheek x Sun hybrids, however, I have heard and seen quite a few. The majority of these hybrids occurred when an owner had two separate species together and they were told that their birds...

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