What do we do with the eggs

[Phredd Quark]

Hi there - We are looking after a 16 year old African Grey. She is on her own in a large cage and seems quite settled, been with us for a couple of months. She recently laid two eggs and is sitting on them. Any advice on what we should do - take them out or leave them until she gets bored and leaves them. Do we need to adjust her feed to help make up for lost calcium. Our local vets do not have the specialist skills.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forums, Phredd Quark, I'm sorry that it's under these somewhat worrying circumstances however.

The eggs should be left with your 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.

My lorikeet Lilly is a notorious little chronic egg layer. In 2019 she presented me with three clutches of infertile eggs, because apparently for six months of the year I'm her mum but for the rest of the time I am her “boyfriend” You can buy some very convincing fake eggs from www.dummyeggs.com and swap her own eggs out, that way your hen can sit on those to her heart’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's 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 of her own accord, which may take 5 weeks or more. Boiling the eggs also means that if she breaks them through several weeks of determined sitting, you won't have a nasty, bacteria laden mess to have to clean up off of your hen!

Once this cycle finally comes to an end, you should then remove *anything* from her reach that even remotely resembles a nesting site and try to decrease highly energy dense food. I'm not sure what you are feeding her now, but more veg and less fruit for example. Extra calcium would also be beneficial, you could get a cuttlebone and scrape some of it into her food if she won't nibble on the cuttlebone herself.

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

 

[Phredd Quark]

Welcome to the forums, Phredd Quark, I'm sorry that it's under these somewhat worrying circumstances however.

The eggs should be left with your 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.

My lorikeet Lilly is a notorious little chronic egg layer. In 2019 she presented me with three clutches of infertile eggs, because apparently for six months of the year I'm her mum but for the rest of the time I am her “boyfriend” You can buy some ver convincing fake eggs from www.dummyeggs.com and swap her own eggs out, that way your hen can sit on those to her heart’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's 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 of her own accord, which may take 5 weeks or more. Boiling the eggs also means that if she breaks them through several weeks of determined sitting, you won't have a nasty, bacteria laden mess to have to clean up off of your hen!

Once this cycle finally comes to an end, you should then remove *anything* from her reach that is even and try to decrease highly energy dense food. I'm not sure what you are feeding her now, but more veg and less fruit for example. Extra calcium would also be beneficial, you could get a cuttlebone and scrape some of it into her food if she won't nibble on the cuttlebone herself.

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

Thank you so much - that was really helpful

 

[LaManuka]

You're most welcome! I've gone down the track of replacing my Lilly's eggs with dummy ones and I think they are much better than leaving her own with her. Even after I boiled them she still managed to break the shells and would have laid more if I'd taken them away. I would think your grey may very well have a couple more in the chamber since greys seem to lay up to three or four in a clutch in general, so just keep an eye if she seems to be overtly straining to lay as that may be a sign of egg-binding which can be very dangerous.

Good luck! 🙏

 

[Deleted member 42416]

Hi!
I also know a little bit about unexpected eggs; our eggs were fertilized since my rescue DNA sexed male conure “Angelo” turned out to be less of a man than I thought. I had only intended on rescuing males.

I highly recommend adding finely powdered bone meal to her food to reduce the the risk of egg binding. After the first egg, I knew more were on their way. She ate her food normally and did not seem to notice the addition.

As mentioned by other members, Do allow her to sit on the eggs (or fakes) to prevent starting a new egg-laying cycle. She will lose interest after the appropriate gestational period has passed and nothing has hatched. There is a ton of info on the site about reducing/preventing laying. To me the most important are 1. 12 to 14 hrs of dark time and 2. NO access to potential nesting areas (boxes, large tents, etc).

God bless and best wishes to you and your birby!