Question About Green Cheek Conure Egg Development

[scaves]

Hello, everyone. My two Green Cheek Conures have been sexually active and roughly around December 11th the female laid an egg. A week later she laid a second egg, and on December 27th she laid the last of four eggs. All of the eggs seemed infertile when I first candled them, so I figured it was harmless to let her sit on them, and better for her to get it out of her system so that she didn't lay more (I should've froze them, I know.) Around 1-5-2021 though one of the eggs started to develop veins and turned red-yellow when candled. And then around 01-15-2021 it was a solid dark mass with an air bubble and veins at the top. By that point I didn't want to kill the baby because it developed so much, so I figured I'd let it hatch, bought hand-raising supplies, would let the parents take care of it for the first few weeks to maximize survivability, and then maybe handfeed it when it got bigger (doing extensive research in the mean-time), knowing that due to my inexperience it might not survive if the parents reject it early on (although they seem very committed and I was confident in being able to do this after doing dozens of hours of research.)

Now (1-21-2021) when I candle it (I don't touch the egg due to oils blocking the pores, just shine a light on it) it seems to be the same it was on 01-15-2021. There is no internal piping, but also the veins are in-tact and there is still a dark mass. There doesn't seem to be any sign that it is Dead-In-Shell other than it hasn't developed beyond where it was last week. From what I've read online the average incubation period for a GCC baby is 24 days, and today would be the 26th day since she laid the last egg (assuming this is the last one that is the fertile one.) It would be the 29th day if it is the second to last egg.

How much longer should I wait until I get rid of the eggs without risking her laying another clutch? Is there still a chance the egg will hatch even though the youngest egg was laid 26 days ago? I am still looking out for internal and external piping, although I am skeptical it will hatch at this point, but all other signs seem to point at it being alive still.

Thank you

 

[Littleredbeak]

I’d give it a little longer- wait an extra week or two I Know a woman who breeds button will ails and on clutch of eggs took and extra week to hatch. The woman said this never happened to her and she just left them in the incubator just in case. I guess it’s possible they can be late to hatch

 

[Dozi]

Hello, everyone. My two Green Cheek Conures have been sexually active and roughly around December 11th the female laid an egg. A week later she laid a second egg, and on December 27th she laid the last of four eggs. All of the eggs seemed infertile when I first candled them, so I figured it was harmless to let her sit on them, and better for her to get it out of her system so that she didn't lay more (I should've froze them, I know.) Around 1-5-2021 though one of the eggs started to develop veins and turned red-yellow when candled. And then around 01-15-2021 it was a solid dark mass with an air bubble and veins at the top. By that point I didn't want to kill the baby because it developed so much, so I figured I'd let it hatch, bought hand-raising supplies, would let the parents take care of it for the first few weeks to maximize survivability, and then maybe handfeed it when it got bigger (doing extensive research in the mean-time), knowing that due to my inexperience it might not survive if the parents reject it early on (although they seem very committed and I was confident in being able to do this after doing dozens of hours of research.)

Now (1-21-2021) when I candle it (I don't touch the egg due to oils blocking the pores, just shine a light on it) it seems to be the same it was on 01-15-2021. There is no internal piping, but also the veins are in-tact and there is still a dark mass. There doesn't seem to be any sign that it is Dead-In-Shell other than it hasn't developed beyond where it was last week. From what I've read online the average incubation period for a GCC baby is 24 days, and today would be the 26th day since she laid the last egg (assuming this is the last one that is the fertile one.) It would be the 29th day if it is the second to last egg.

How much longer should I wait until I get rid of the eggs without risking her laying another clutch? Is there still a chance the egg will hatch even though the youngest egg was laid 26 days ago? I am still looking out for internal and external piping, although I am skeptical it will hatch at this point, but all other signs seem to point at it being alive still.

Thank you

Sometimes incubation starts later than you’d expect! It took my cockatiel egg 30 days from being laid to hatch. There was also a whole day where the egg wasn’t incubated during the process which then slowed down the egg development by a couple of days. I’d wait until you see a definite sign of death within the egg.