My two Quaker Parrots laid 6 little eggs!
By IzzyKitty
@IzzyKitty (116)
United States
2 responses
@Capsicum (1444)
• United States
14 Aug 09
This is quite normal for the Quaker's.Do you know if ,you have a male and a female ? Females lay eggs without a partner,but they are not fertile ,yet mom don't realize this.What are they doing with the eggs? Have they prepared a nest or are they dropping them on the bottom of cage. If they hatch have your hands full,that I do know for sure .If you do not desire 6 baby birds . Ask a local pet shop if they would be willing to look after the eggs. Otherwise to cure your problem you can start shaking the eggs.I know the last option sounds cruel but 6 babies, are gonna be a hard chore for you as well.Mom has to be suffering herself ,most likely running very low on calcium.I would recommend to keep her health up ,give her oyster shells or calcium as she has used most of her supply laying the eggs ,she may fall ill.
@IzzyKitty (116)
• United States
15 Aug 09
Thank you so much for the advice! Yes, I have two quakers... I think one is female and the other is male. I did not know they would be laying eggs anytime soon... I had them for two years and they had never lay any before. So I had no nest prepared. I noticed she was in the bottom of her cage for a couple days I thought she was getting sick. I put in a little extra fruit for her just in case and was planning a visit to the vet if she didn't return up soon. Eventually I saw a little egg... which she lay another every other day till there was 6. Now she's sitting on all 6 of them on the bottom of the cage. They had already broken newspapers and plucked some of their own feathers to use as nesting material. I decided to buy some nesting material (strings) since I can't find a right size nest and they ended up making a hugeee mess with it LOL
@KellyGwen (193)
• United States
23 Jun 10
Congratulations grandma!! :)
In the wild Quakers use sticks to build MASSIVE communal nests... so maybe you should give them some twigs and small stick to "weave" a house from?
Make sure you give your momma bird food with plenty of calcium and vitamins so she can replenish her reserves. I would also put a humidifier in the room so that the air isn't too dry in there.
I know it's REALLY tempting to peek at the eggs A LOT, but try not to disturb the nest too much so the parents don't abandon the nest. Try to keep the room quiet and don't let strange people in there for the same reason.
Are you planning on letting the parents raise the babies completely or are you going to try to hand feed them once they hatch?
If you are going to let the parents raise the babies themselves make sure to give them some "baby food" (the food breeders hand feed their baby birds) so that the parents can feed that to the babies. This food is also good to give the mother before the babies hatch to help put back whatever she put into the eggs.
Good luck!!