Avoiding/removing "hybrid" eggs?

[DrJen]

Hello!

I have two Pionus, a male Maximillian and a female Blue-headed. Over the past few months, the female had started acting strange and was always wandering around looking for places to "hide." She was also shredding paper at the bottom of her cage. Early this week I caught the male trying to mount her, but he was not successful (at least while I was watching). Since then she has continued to spend time in the tray of her cage (this style cage has a gap between the bottom grate and the tray, so she can climb into it. I boarded off three of the sides with clear plexiglass, but apparently she could still squeeze against the wall to get in the fourth side) aggressively going after anyone who approached. Tonight, I found her sitting on an egg when I got home.

I obviously don't want to have anything to do with breeding hybrid parrots. What is the best way to handle this? I'm worried that if I take away the egg immediately, she will continue to lay more (can't this lead to calcium deficiency?). How long should I wait? I'm also worried about it being traumatic for her to see me taking the egg away. I understand it's natural for females to lay eggs (even if males aren't present), but is there anything I should do to discourage this in the future?

Thanks,
Jen

[xafsmom]

The best thing to do is lure her out of the nest area, maybe give her a treat. Then take the eggs. However, you want to shake the hoo out of them for at least 60 seconds then replace them in the nest for her to continue to sit them. You can alternatively boil them (but shaking hard for 60 seconds works fine) and stick them back under her also. Even more options include buying a package of fake eggs and just replacing with those.

After which, leave her to incubate her now non-viable eggs until she grows bored and gives them up.

Having males close by will instigate breeding behaviors, so you want to put her off her nesting instincts a bit more. Change her cage around, face it differently, swap toys, remove anything she has been focusing on as a nest.

You shouldn't have any issues with calcium deficiency. Remember birds are meant to lay eggs, thus, having normative laying patterns won't be harmful. Just bump her calcium up a bit to compensate.

[Lori~D]

What Xafsmom said AND study your lighting and temps and food. Long days usually instigate breeding behavior and shorter days (wintertime) tend to quell it as well as temps and typs of food available during breeding season. Study your species and location of origin and breeding seasons to help quell the behavior. Keeping them seperate during these times of longer days will also help.

[ThreeX]

Third that :) + I'd go for fake eggs if you can get hold of them. You wouldn't believe the foul smell from 25 day old eggs when you accidentially crush them when removing them..
(i know, believe me)

[hsmoscout]

Fake eggs:
theEggShop.com Plastic Fake Bird Eggs Stop Breeding

[Alan]

Simple put the birds in 2 cages. that's the only way to make sure you will have no babies. I don't agree with shaking the eggs. But that's just me.

[Jan]

I dunno but I've never used any type of fake eggs to replace with real eggs. Whether they are the same specie or different species together, I've have usually just removed eggs as laid if I do not want them to have eggs or let her lay her quota then remove all eggs at once. If determined she may even go through another cycle of laying eggs again if so just do the same.

If really a huge problem then your best bet is to not let them be caged together.

[DrJen]

Thank you very much for your advice.

I did purchase some fake eggs, which should be arriving today. A local breeder I spoke with suggested she might not be fooled, but I'll give it a shot.

She laid her second egg yesterday. Oddly, it was a slightly different shape than the first - longer, and narrower, almost as though the shape of the first had been "stretched." has anyone seen anything like that?

I also got her a cuttle bone. She wasn't using it, so I took the advice of another and scraped some off to cover her food.

I do plan on reexamining their caging arrangement. They've always had two separate cages but are usually both out together anyways when I'm home in the evening. A few years ago they started going to sleep on the same perch in the same cage, and I didn't want to force one into the other cage after they'd already turned in for the night. About 4 or 5 months ago, I took off two of the small side doors on the cages, lowered the height of one, and slid them together, essentially combining the two into one larger cage. I'll probably be putting those doors back on now, and I'll probably just have to plan on caging them earlier in the evening so they don't sleep together. I'm certainly open to any other suggestions.

Thanks again. Jen

[Monica]

If the eggs are shaped differently, you might want to consider a blood work panel to ensure she's healthy. Birds who are egg laying need more calcium and protein. Calcium can be given in the forum of food, syrup, supplements, or otherwise. There's a lot of liquid calcium supplements geared towards birds, if you look them up.