Should I handle my budgies eggs

Hi
My 5 year old female budgie has laid 4 eggs at the bottom of the bird cage. Should I move them into a nest? I have a male in the cage with her. We are NOT trying to breed them. It just happened. I have provided a cuttle bone and special seed for mating birds.

 

The problem with having a male and female in the same cage is your going to get eggs wether there is a nest or not.

You can try hanging a nest and placing the eggs in there but chances are she wont bother with them so the other alternative is to put a dish on the cage floor lined with woodshavings and place the eggs in and see how she reacts, Make sure the dish or box is in the same place as the eggs where laid.

Is she incubating the eggs?
She will have only started incubating since the 3rd egg so they will not have started to develop yet.
If you do not want babies then your best option is to remove the eggs place them in the freezer for 20minutes then take them out let them warm up a little and then boil them, allow to cool and give them back to the female as this will stop her from laying more while she is sitting on those eggs.

Many people think this is cruel but its not they are not actually living until 5days after the 3rd egg was laid.

Most birds will not take to you moving there eggs and will just abandon them.

If you want her to carry on incubating and raise the chicks if they are fertile then you will need to be offering her soft foods such as, Boiled brown rice, boiled pasta, boiled eggs mashed up with the shell, Whole wheat bread, Fresh fruit and vegtables, also you can get an egg food which is designed for handfeeding and weaning baby birds i give this dry in a seperate dish aswell as there normal seed diet and the above, You can get this from any good petstore it is called EMP or CeDe, It contains alot of vitamins and minerals aswell as special protiens.

Mike

 

re: should I handle my budgie eggs

Hi Mike

Thanks for the quick response. If by incubating the eggs do you mean sitting on them? Yes she is, though not constantly . I will try putting a dish at the bottom of the cage as you suggested and see what happens.

Thanks

 

The female should sit on the eggs constantly and every so often she will turn the eggs. Only time she usually comes off is to have something to eat and drink and to relieve herself and the male usually takes over the egg sitting until she returns...

I had 1 bird that would not sit on her eggs all the time until all her clutch was laid...

I hope when moving them into a dish she is happier to sit on the eggs properly.

Good luck and i hope all turns out well.

Mike

 

bird still laying eggs

Hi My budgie has laid a total of 10 eggs. She broke the first 3 by being to rough with them. We have since had 7 more. Is this bird ever going to stop?!

 

She should stop now, if not it means she has laid 2 clutches which shows she knows there could be something wrong with the eggs.

I hope they hatch and you get some lovely birds

Mike

 

we have more eggs

Hi

Just a quick update. My budgie laid another egg bringing us to 8 eggs. a day or two later the male broke one of the eggs open. she then laid a replacement egg a few hours later and just now she has laid another egg. that brings us up to 10 eggs in the cage and 4 broken eggs for a total of 14.

 

Sounds like she is laying a second clutch so the first set of eggs must not have been viable.

Birds know when there is something wrong with there eggs and will either throw them from the nest or break the eggs most will eat them if there not fertile.

Just keep her calcium up and if she lays anymore i would check all the eggs see if they are fertile and if not i would remove them and the nest as laying to many eggs is going to make her seriously ill.

To check if fertile wash hands thoroughly and gently hold the egg over a bright light like a torch if fertile you will see what looks like a red web this is the chicks veins and in the centre should be a little dot this is the actual embryo growing into a chick.

If not fertile you will notice the egg is clear with only a yellow yolk inside.

Incubation is 19-21 days if they do not hatch by the 25th day after being laid they are not fertile or if they were then something has happened to cause the chick to die in the shell.

Mike

 

No! are you crazy! First of all she could bite you really hard, and she will abandon her eggs.

 

No, I'm not [CRAZY! I was just trying to find out some information. You are the only one who has said not to handle the eggs and of course I know they should be handled as little as possible. By the way the bird did not and has never bitten me. [/b]

 

Well i handle my eggs to check for fertility and each one is marked with a number as it has been laid so that i can keep track and know which should hatch first..

Aslong as hands are thoroughly cleaned and there is no smell on your hands the female will still sit her eggs unless she is disturbed all the time so that the eggs can be checked.

A bird that trusts its owner will not bite and will quite happily move over off her eggs for them to be checked..

tinkand bell Did any of the eggs hatch or not, I hope that they did are atleast she has some fertile ones since she seems to like laying eggs hahah....

Mike

 

Tink and Bell ,I never ment to offend you ,and sorry if I did. :|

 

Hi

No she did not hatch any eggs. Let me tell you though, she has laid 20 eggs!!! Of course they are not all in the cage any more. There are 2 left (of the newer clutch). The rest she has either broken open herself or they were very old and I tossed them out. None of them were fertilized unfortunately.

I think she just found something that she was good at!!

 

I am sorry none did not hatch, What i would suggest if possible is remove the male into another cage take away her nest box or whatever she is laying her eggs in and try and take her mind of egg laying.

Give her time to recoup and then try again, It could be a fertility problem with either bird so what you can do is give them bark dark leafy greens like cabbage as this contains vitamin E which helps fertility.

Hopefully next time around you will have a clutch of fertile eggs.

Mike