My parrot laid an egg
 

...again. We went through this last year, in August. This time I know to leave it in there though, so hopefully she won't lay any more, and maybe she'll get bored of this one quicker. She was moody and cage-bound for over a month last time, but then I was taking the eggs out until I found out I wasn't supposed to.

Well, she's being boarded for a week on July 23rd whether she's laying eggs or not. :P The bird shop people can take care of her if she is though.

Um...yay? Sorry, I can't think of anything else to add. I guess...that's..um...neat. :P8D

Uh, congratulations, I guess... :cheesegrin:

Is there no way the bird-shop people fix it that she gets to have an egg she can keep and hatch? I know that would probably cause more problems than it solves but the world needs more Parrots.

It can't hatch, because Sparky doen't have a male parrot, so the eggs are infertile, like the chicken eggs you buy at the supermarket. No male bird, no baby birds. Parrots are funny critters; if they bond with another bird, they often don't make good pets, so few of the birds used for breeding are tame or can be handled without getting bitten(and parrot bites HURT). If a parrot really bonds with a person, it often won't have anything to do with other parrots and might actually be hostile towards them. I guess the people at the bird shop COULD place a fertile egg underneath Kiwi, but that would be taking a chance that she'd abandon it and the embryo would die, especially since it generally takes a make and a female to raise a clutch of chicks. Most breeders either leave eggs with the pair of birds that produced them, or hatch the eggs in an incubator.

pitbulllady

agreed. We are far too parrot deficient.

I guess I'm lucky to own a parakeet. XD

I love parrots cause they have so much character. So what do you do with the eggs, Sparky? Do you give them away as pet food or something? I remember that when I had a snail as a kid, we always took the many baby's it had to my aunts as food for her turtle.

oh my God...you killed its babies :wiltshock:

jk

I leave the eggs with her until she loses interest then I throw them in the garbage disposal, as they are rotten by then. Her *first* one I drained out and kept though.

It isn't exactly "good" news that Kiwi is laying eggs (she didn't lay another yet, she lays them every other day so she may lay one tomorrow though I hope she won't) because it's a great drain on a bird's body to make an egg. This time, she's got a cuttlebone in her cage at least. Also brooding birds are moody and fidgety when away from their eggs, even if as in Kiwi's case they aren't really in the "baby-making" mindset. They just have an instinct to stay near the eggs. So Kiwi will beg to come out to play, then start screaming to go back five seconds later. :jk: It's annoying. Only "good" thing about her being in this mode is that, as long as she's in her cage, she's quieter and I can get more sleep. :P

Congratulation, Sparky. :D

Congratulations are *not* in order, as I've already explained. It's not as if the egg will hatch, after all.

I don't really know anything about bird keeping but what are some measures you plan to do (if any are required, that is) to keep her from laying eggs? I can't imagine that laying "dud" eggs so often would be a healthy thing for her to do, physically or mentally.
Don't quote me on this, but I remember hearing that parrots can get lonely and a good way to help prevent that is to either put a mirror or a picture of another bird in the cage. Who knows: Maybe Kiwi will stop making eggs if she feels like she's being watched?

She's got a mirror. Who knows, that might even be the problem. But it's really quite common for female birds to get broody and lay eggs.

The good news is I don't think she laid another one today, so maybe she won't lay any more and it's only the one this time.

Pretty much all egg-laying animals can experience this problem, even tarantulas. My only tarantula bite so far came from a big female Rosehair that had laid a sac-full of infertile eggs, and was guarding them like a treasure. She had no idea that they'd never hatch, and since female tarantulas will not eat or drink while guarding an eggsac, and will continue to do so even to the point of starvation if the things never hatch, I had to take it from her. She objected, big-time! I've had female snakes lay eggs when they'd never been near a male, and it's pretty common for female lizards, especially iguanas, in captivity to have to be spayed, to keep them from laying clutch after clutch of infertile eggs, or worse, becoming "egg-bound" when an egg is too large to come out. Birds can experience that, too, and it's life-threatening, so that's another reason why laying infertile eggs is not a desirable thing for them to do.

pitbulllady

If the egg does hatch what do you plan on doing with the chick, Sparky?

You might want to re-read the thread. There's no male bird, therefore the egg *won't* hatch.

i suppose its too late to suggest making an omelette...

Well it's 2 days old now, not that old, but thing is I can't take it away from her or she'll just keep laying more. The idea is to make her *stop*.

If the egg DOES hatch, that will be the most-studied and most-famous bird in the whole of the known universe, and Sparky will be a gazzillionaire from all the publicity it will generate, since it will be the first time that a bird has ever reproduced via parthenogenesis. Any university or zoological research institute will happily fork over most of their budget to get their hands on that bird, so Sparky can just name her price.

pitbulllady

Sorry. *Embarrased*

She laid another one by the way, dangit. :( But she seems to be doing fine, anyways.

uh oh......think you should onlyget rid of one egg when theres 2...thats a bad sign man....

Okay...no. I shouldn't take ANY of them out. She *will* stop laying them. I sorry I started this thread now. Nevermind.

You wouldn't be able to get Kiwi fixed would you? Or are you able to do that to birds?

Its expensive and very dangerous, so I won't be doing that. That's generally reserved for hens who repeatedly become egg-bound (when the egg is basically stuck) to the point where their lives are in real jeopardy. Kiwi's never been egg-bound, thank goodness, and hopefully never will be. Some birds are prone to it, just as some women need a C-section every pregnancy (like my cousin) because their hips/etc are too narrow for safe natural childbirth. Some birds have smaller...egg-laying parts. :P

i'd like to put my omelette idea back on the table...