Please help! My conure just laid her first egg!

Kellyybby

New member
Mar 28, 2022
2
7
Parrots
Sun conure
Hello everyone! My little skittles just laid her first egg. Iā€™ve had her since she was a year old and this is the first time she has done this. She is approximately 5 years old (we bought her from someone moving states). She has been super hormonal this past week and I was afraid this would happen. I noticed tonight that she was extremely fluffy and had a feeling she would pass one.
I put her to bed around 8pm then I heard her crawling around in her in cage about an hour later. When I turned on the light she was staring at the inside of her cubbie and did not want to go back in (almost like she was afraid). Once I looked inside low and behold there was an egg. Now Iā€™m not sure when she may have done it but the egg was cold to the touch. I know I should leave the egg inside and she did not seem to mind me taking it away and she imminently started drinking and eating.
She will not get back inside her cubbie now because I think the egg freaked her out.
I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can to ensure her safety and health if she lays more. Thank you so much.
6D9BFE17-48FC-43E4-84E3-F8564B4B47EE.jpeg
 

Ria.345

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Jun 23, 2021
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Sun Conure and Umbrella Cockatoo
Make sure to avoid touching anywhere besides the head and feet areas. Goes a long way. Extra leafy greens and veggies needed, including calcium, which helps a lot with egg bound birds since they tend to lose that calcium from egg laying. When she does lay another egg...
1) Remove immediately from her sight like you did now
2) Make sure to see an Avian vet to make sure everything is okay
And of course maintain that 12 hour sleep schedule. Hormone season is so bad sometimes but Parrots go through it and we must manage their hormones any way we can. Especially when egg laying comes around with female birds. Taking precautionary measures and maintaining a good sleep schedule for the bird is going to help long term.
 

LaManuka

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Welcome to the forums, @Kellyybby , I'm sorry that it's under these worrying circumstances however.

I have no personal experience with conure hens, my experience was with a little lorikeet hen who was a mad keen egg layer, and would still be sitting on her infertile eggs to this day if it had been up to her! Depending on the species, some hens don't show a great deal of interest in the first egg, sometimes they wait until they've laid three or four before they start to sit on them. Ideally, any eggs laid should be left with your little hen for her to work off her maternal yearnings on, as taking them away too early will generally result in her laying more to replace them. This would probably be around 25 days for a conure. maybe more until she loses interest of her own accord. It's also highly likely that if she's already laid one, there may be another already developing that she may lay in the next day or two - not always, but it's often the case.

You can buy fake eggs from www.dummyeggs.com and swap her own eggs out, that way your hen can sit on those to her heartā€™s content until she loses interest and it *should* help to prevent her from laying any more. You can also boil the eggs that she has already laid in order to make them a bit more durable, because she really should be left to sit on those eggs until realises they're not going to hatch and she loses interest in them. Boiling the eggs also means you don't have a nasty, smelly mess to clean up and clean off of your bird if she does happen to break the shell, but dummy eggs are the best thing in these circumstances.

Once this cycle finally comes to an end, you should then remove anything from her reach that is even remotely nesty in appearance, I notice you mention a "cubbie", that will definitely need to be removed. Also you should try to decrease highly energy dense food, so more veg and less fruit for example. It might also be worth your while having her checked out by a certified avian vet, particularly if she has not had a wellness check in the last 12 months or so.

I know how worrying this can be so I wish you all the very best!
 

Ria.345

Banned
Banned
Jun 23, 2021
261
834
New York City
Parrots
Sun Conure and Umbrella Cockatoo
Welcome to the forums, @Kellyybby , I'm sorry that it's under these worrying circumstances however.

I have no personal experience with conure hens, my experience was with a little lorikeet hen who was a mad keen egg layer, and would still be sitting on her infertile eggs to this day if it had been up to her! Depending on the species, some hens don't show a great deal of interest in just one egg, sometimes they wait until they've laid three or four before they start to sit on them. Ideally, any eggs laid should be left with your little hen for her to work off her maternal yearnings on, as taking them away too early will generally result in her laying more to replace them. This would probably be around 25 days for a conure. maybe more until she loses interest of her own accord. It's also highly likely that if she's already laid one, there may be another already developing that she may lay in the next day or two.

You can buy fake eggs from www.dummyeggs.com and swap her own eggs out, that way your hen can sit on those to her heartā€™s content until she loses interest and it *should* help to prevent her from laying any more. You can also boil the eggs that she has already laid in order to make them a bit more durable, because she really should be left to sit on those eggs until realises they're not going to hatch and she loses interest in them. Boiling the eggs also means you don't have a nasty, smelly mess to clean up and clean off of your bird if she does happen to break the shell, but dummy eggs are the best thing in these circumstances.

Once this cycle finally comes to an end, you should then remove anything from her reach that is even remotely nesty in appearance, I notice you mention a "cubbie", that will definitely need to be removed. Also you should try to decrease highly energy dense food, so more veg and less fruit for example. It might also be worth your while having her checked out by a certified avian vet, particularly if she has not had a wellness check in the last 12 months or so.

I know how worrying this can be so I wish you all the very best!
Oh wow! I never thought of it that way. I was always learning somewhere that you have to take away the egg. Hmm. That's pretty new to me! :D
 

LaManuka

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Aug 29, 2018
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Oh wow! I never thought of it that way. I was always learning somewhere that you have to take away the egg. Hmm. That's pretty new to me! :D
It can depend on the circumstances. Some hens lay one egg completely out of the blue, don't even recognise it as an egg and just don't miss it if taken away, but in general it's best to leave them with the hen until she works out for herself that it's not going to hatch, which in the case of conures is around 25 to 30 days, otherwise they may just end up laying more to replace them. Dummy eggs are great for this, then they can sit on them to their heart's content and no concern about breakage and mess.
 
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Kellyybby

New member
Mar 28, 2022
2
7
Parrots
Sun conure
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Make sure to avoid touching anywhere besides the head and feet areas. Goes a long way. Extra leafy greens and veggies needed, including calcium, which helps a lot with egg bound birds since they tend to lose that calcium from egg laying. When she does lay another egg...
1) Remove immediately from her sight like you did now
2) Make sure to see an Avian vet to make sure everything is okay
And of course maintain that 12 hour sleep schedule. Hormone season is so bad sometimes but Parrots go through it and we must manage their hormones any way we can. Especially when egg laying comes around with female birds. Taking precautionary measures and maintaining a good sleep schedule for the bird is going to help long term.
Thank you so much. My husband and I were on vacation all of last week so I think we are to blame since we messed up her original schedule but she will be going to be 8pm-7am always from now on. My vets office made space for her today so I am thankful. I appreciate your insight.
 

HeatherG

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Apr 25, 2020
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Yes, Iā€™ve had this happen with girl birds when they came to live with me from a tough situation and were very happy, or when I thought they were boy birds and was not careful enough to keep shreddable nesting material away.

I would leave the egg with the bird until it gets tired of sitting on it.

Most birds have a set clutch size (number of eggs they will lay and incubate in the nest) and if you take an egg away before the clutch is complete theyā€™ll lay another to replace it. This is how we get chickens to keep laying eggs: we take their eggs away and they lay another to replace it.

But chickens have been bred to be able to produce many eggs without hurting themselves. Your parrot has not been bred to produce many eggs. She just ā€˜knowsā€™ how many ought to be in her nest and will try to get there. Yes, you can replace the eggs with dummy eggs and they donā€™t have to be an exact match to work. You donā€™t have to, but if she breaks them sometimes it helps to let her have intact eggs to sit on.
 

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