My Parrot Chewey laid an egg!!

[Donna]

Chewey, my Jen Day Conure, who was suppose to be a boy and after having him for over 20 yrs, has just laid an egg. Now wait, how does this happen after so much time? Bonnie, I know you will know the answer to this. I guess I'm a new "Infertile" grandma. SHE, hard to say that, has another egg ready to come out. Was wondering why he has been acting so strangely over the weekend. Thought he was sick. Now we know!!

[Bobbie Ireland]

Chewey, my Jen Day Conure, who was suppose to be a boy and after having him for over 20 yrs, has just laid an egg. Now wait, how does this happen after so much time? Bonnie, I know you will know the answer to this. I guess I'm a new "Infertile" grandma. SHE, hard to say that, has another egg ready to come out. Was wondering why he has been acting so strangely over the weekend. Thought he was sick. Now we know!!

Oh my goodness, Donna!!! I am laughing so hard here! Now, this is not funny for poor old Chewy with a bunged-up patootie, but the very idea paints an amazing picture! Cannot wait to read the answer!

("Chewy" as in Han Solo's pal???)

[Donna]

Yeah well I called the vet. They said just toss the egg. Then I read online that if you take it out, she will continue to lay eggs. I see 1 more egg ready to be laid. I'm friggen baffled by this as we thought Chewey was a boy all these yrs. I'm still in shock and now am having a hard time calling him a her!!

I put the egg back in the cage. It's quite a big egg for such a small bird. 

[jeanne]

This has been one weird year for birds! Evidently Chewy has had a sex change operation

[Kris G.]

This has been one weird year for birds! Evidently Chewy has had a sex change operation

[MAK]

This has been one weird year for birds! Evidently Chewy has had a sex change operation

 

[margaret]

Donna - i am just catching up after work.  Congratulations conure grandma!. If I may share.   In 1990, I received a gorgeous Sun Conure whom I named Winnie-bird.  She was only 6 weeks old and  I had to hand feed and keep her alive.    In April of 1995, my Winnie got fat and started eating like a ....I don't know what.  I took her to Dr. Balonek...Ask Dana.   He told me she probably had fatty liver disease and that we "were killing our birds with our diet.".    The very next day my Winnie bird laid her first egg.    I did my homework starting in 1995.   She was five years old and she laid an egg that first year every three days until she had three.  Long story short.   My Winnie was very fat and happy and comfortable.      SHe had a "Companion"  -- a Gold cap conure, "Doc Bird"  who just turned 22 this past June 2011.   Doc bird is still fat and happy and spoile......and male (If I may add!).

Winnie  laid about 150 eggs in her short life.  From 1995 until  March 28, 2008, when she died  in my hand, Winnie laid  150 eggs.     None were fertile.  But every egg was  laid in a clutch of three or four.   After the first egg, the second would come the third day, and the third -- three days after that.  I learned much about our conures and their egg laying habits. 

They can suffer seizures from calcium deficiency, and can also become egg bound.   My WInnie saw many vets and many vets saved her life on more than one occasion.      I can't even begin to express my thanks to  all of the people who helped me  with WInnie.

If you conure has just started laying eggs, believe me, it is only the beginning. 

Winnie bird was hatched in 1990, began laying eggs in 1995, and laid  150 eggs right up until 2008, when she died of heart disease  on March 28, 2008.   If you have a good vet, please keep up with him/her.  If you need information, please contact me as I know a wonderful avian vet who can help.   

Egg laying takes much out of our conures, especially the older ones -- as it sounds like your Chewey may be.  I may be able to help.   

--Margaret

[Amy V.]

Okay, I'll go you all one better (or at least one *different*). We had a little white parakeet (Itty Bitty), who was in love with my husband. She even could tell his footstep. When anyone else walked by the room where her cage was, even when the door was closed(!) she was quiet. When my husband walked by, or even just cleared his throat, she started whistling and chirping.

She started to lay eggs, and it did take a lot out of her. We had to take her to the vet for multiple calcium shots. Good luck with Chewey, and her new identity!

[Bobbie Ireland]

Animals are so funny about whom they decide to "like", Amy. We once had a beautiful long-haired black cat called The Panther Cat (always known by her full name). I loved that cat - but the cat loved Rod. Whenever he appeared, she would get downright girlish. She would sit on his lap, pet his face... I did everything but turn into a mouse for her but nothing doing. Rod was The Man.

[Donna]

Margaret...150 eggs?? OMG, I'll die if Chewey lays that many. He/she is going on her 3rd egg, which should come sometime on Sunday. He cares nothing for these eggs but still I keep the egg in there as the vet said it may make him stop laying. The vet also said make her days short, cover her early and leave her covered later in the am. As soon as I covered her on Thurs afternoon, she went down on the bottom and popped one out. How often do they lay these eggs? How many times a year? I need to be prepared for this action that I'm fully not aware of, especially having her for 20 years with NO eggs. My Chewey has since day 1, been a feather picker/puller. She has never grown in her feathers on her chest so seeing the eggs bulging in her abdomen is a freaky sight. That's how I know she has another egg ready, I can SEE it. She has a calcium lick in her cage so what I do is scrape a bunch off into a powder and put it in with her food so she at least gets some calcium and I dissolve a Tum in her water also. This is a lot of work and if I wanted a girl, I would have asked for one 20 years ago. I asked for a boy!! I'm still in shock over this and will be for the rest of my life!  Oh my neighbor has a male Conure...hmmm!! 

I still say she/her but the vet said, who cares, they don't know! LOL

[Bonnie]

Put a nest box in the cage and put the eggs into the box. They normally stop at five or six, but only if she has eggs to sit on. Then let her stay with the eggs for 30 days until they just don't hatch.  The tums, calcium, egg shells, fresh fruits, vegs, meat, chicken, fish and eggs along with her seed diet help.

Vinnee (16 years now) had six clutches and her offspring have laid three clutches, six eggs each. One clutch hatched. Two were not fertile and, oh yes, Vinnee laid two infertile clutches after that. I just let the birds do their thing and then it's over.

Get the box, though.  Put a very few pine chips in and let her be.

[margaret]

They lay like clock work Donna.  One egg every three days, once in a while it goes to four days.   The clutch size is usually three eggs, but sometimes it was four.  A few times when Winnie got in "egg-binding" trouble it was more than 4 days.    

Limiting light does not work..trust me..   Removing the eggs or replacing the eggs with wooden decoys does not work ... trust me.    These are the equivalent of "old wives tales".    They lay because the condtions are ideal, and their hormones are raging.  In other words - they are "fat had happy".  Winnie loved Doc (my 22 year male bird).  She was fat and happy and  conditions were ideal.  I tried everything, and nothing could stop her egg laying.  Trust me.  I call Winnie my  "ten thousand dollar bird".   Not a joke.    

Keep Chewey's calcium high.     A few times Winnie got egg bound and I had to take her to have the egg "expressed"  at the vet's office.  She had Oxytocin injections a few times, and two times she had to have the egg "collapsed"   and "extracted".  and  she had to be put under.    Winnie was victim of her hormones.   I had many races to the vet's office over the years.   When she was laying eggs, I had to keep her warm and the humidity high.  Many times, I kept a space heater AND  a warm air humidifier/vaporizer by her cage  when i knew she was laying eggs.    Warmth and humidity are important for egg laying -- especially during the colder months .   None of WInnie's eggs were fertile by the way.       There was never any activity between WInnie and Doc...and although I suspected Doc was  male, I didn't find out for sure until the week that Winnie died.  

In the last few years of her life she was receving injections of  Lupron -- a drug used on humans for various reasons that  boggle my mind.  It worked  somewhat for her.   In the end, we had her egg laying under control, but heart disease killed her.  

Keep Chewey well fed, and  high calcium.    At 20, Chewey would be considered a "senior" bird as my Winnie was, and my Doc-bird is.     They have special needs and dietary needs.

Dr Laura Wade -- an avian specialist in Lancaster, NY  (suburb of Buffalo) is wonderful.       Rochester, sadly, lacks any avian vets, but Buffalo  has a few, and Dr. Wade is superb.  She is also giving in her time, and if you contact her, she will share her wealth of expertise and knowledge.    I have her email if you would like it.

You can expect at least three eggs and possibly four with this first clutch.  Keep us posted on how she does.  

My Winnie bird was a great little hen.  She sat on those eggs and wouldn't leave them.  I used to surround her with all of her favorite foods as she sat on those eggs on the bottom of her cage.  She loved Cheerios when she was laying eggs.  And for  some strange reason, peanuts only when she was laying eggs; otherwise it was cashews.     Lots of sweet potatoes, pasta, salmon....her favorite, and  Wheat Thins crackers...  I used to give her Minute Maid Orange juice (with calcium and vitamin D)  ...Doc and Winnie learned to drink out of a glass as babies... and yogurt and Ben and Jerries Ice cream.  (It was a calcium source).    Actually, my birds eat anything that we do..with the exception of avocados and tomatoes.   Their favorite treat was a half of  a peanut M and M...which Dr. Wade always said she "didn't want to hear"  as chocolate is toxic to birds, but my birds crave chocolate, and in tiny portions, have never harmed them.    Their favorite treats were pizza and chicken wings.    Pizza was fine.  As for chicken wings?  I told them it was "squirrel" (otherwise it was cannabilism!)   They were not really interested in the skin...just the meat and the bones and the marrow in the bone.   I don't even like chicken wings, but would buy some just to skin and microwave to sterilize and feed to the birds.   To watch them  bite into those bones and extract the marrow!   Amazing.      Conures eat everything.  Give Chewey a healthy, wide, diet, and she will be fine.

If Chewey is 20,  you have been doing a find job of keeping her healthy.  Have you had her since she was a baby?  

Good luck and keep me posted.  
Margaret  

[Donna]

Wow Margaret, that's a lot of work!!! Chewey was a baby when we got HIM, lol and yes I had to dropper feed her with her special cereal. As she got older, she was a fussy bird, did not want people food. I tried it all, from fruits to veggies to PIZZA, yay Chewey likes pizza. She is a very difficult eater. She'll eat crackers, LOVES pasta and Snapple Ice Tea. I give her what we are eating but she wants no part of it. Seed seed seed, is what she wants and back then, no one said different. She loves peanuts, in the shell but right now, she eats the shell not the peanut, only since egg laying. Go figure. She has to dip everything in her water first before eating, chips, cheese doodles and crackers. She walks to her water dish, dips the cracker in and then takes it to her food dish and eats it. Never tried the chicken, as I thought that would be rude, even though the vet said it's OK. Tried the pellet deal with her and tried to wean her off the seed....NOPE, she wants no part of it and would rather not eat at all. STUBBORN she is. If she doesn't like something, she will toss it out of the cage, just to piss me off or go to her water dish and rattle it so the water goes all over the cage. She had bonded with me and me only. If I hold her and my son walks by, she will fluff up and go into attack mode and usually ends up biting me instead of the interloper. 
One morning when she was a baby, me and Ed were in the kitchen having coffee. Chewey was 2 rooms away. Suddenly, I felt something pulling my pant leg. Looked down and there was Chewey climbing my leg. A lock on the cage settled that deal. She is very smart but can also be very stubborn. I really don't want to go through this egg-laying deal after so many years without, it's insane. She has her friend Moe, my Cockatiel to keep her company, in a cage right next to her and a male conure next door, who screams all the time, maybe that's  why she's laying eggs, who knows. She has pushed this egg over to the side now and could care less about it. I'll remove it when she wakes up.
Question, how often will she do this egg thing? Seasonal or all year long!!! UGH!! Thanks for all the info, I'm new at this and will keep trying to get her to eat more things. I need a nanny!

[Bobbie Ireland]

Loving these pet bird discussions, everyone!

[Donna]

Loving these pet bird discussions, everyone!

Pffft! I just wanted a bird I could play with and enjoy, didn't think it would ever come with eggs!!!