Hi,
I know finding eggs is exciting. And it’s good that you are asking the right questions now so that you can do things the right way. But, you are getting ahead of yourself. Parrots are not easy to breed. These eggs just need to be discarded. If you have not been observing bonding and mating between the male and any of the females, then all you have are infertile eggs. Being exposed to a male has triggered the hormones in the younger birds. Females can lay eggs with or without a make present, but unless she has been mating – a lot – with a male, the eggs will not be fertile. It’s unlikely because there would have been fighting between the birds. You can only have one pair of birds in a cage for breeding. Extra birds in the cage will cause fighting, and sometimes can result in birds killing each other.
If you truly want to breed, you first need to determine if the male has any interest in a single female. And if you can’t figure out which bird or birds is female, you need to get the three younger birds DNA sexed. Then you would need to separate the male and one female and put them in a cage together, away from the other 2 birds. Then you observe them and see if they bond as mates. Signs of bonding would be spending most of their time together, grooming each other, feeding each other, and finally mating. Once you observe mating, you can hang a nest box. You need a wooden nest box designed for conures. This will be a fairly large box, and you hang it on the outside of the cage as high as possible. You may need to buy a breeder cage, because they need a large cage for breeding and they need to be able to fly in it. Do not try to give them anything else to use as a nest instead of the right type of nest box. A coconut, bird tent, hut, house, or anything you find online like that will not work as a nest. By the time chicks leave the nest, they are as large as the parents, so a nest box has to be able to accommodate as many as 6 adult size birds.
It’s possible that the male will not bond with any of the three birds, even if all three are females. They choose their own mate in the wild, so they do not always accept the mate we choose for them. Some birds are simply not compatible, so the process of letting them bond as a pair is necessary and no nest box should be provided until the birds have clearly bonded and mate or seem interested in mating. If you give them a box and they are not bonded, the female may claim the box as hers, lay infertile eggs, and actually attack the male if he tries to enter the box. So you must be sure the pair is compatible for breeding and not just getting along with each other.
Breeding birds need a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our foraging diets. A seed diet does not provide the nutrition they need. They should also be getting dark leafy greens, chopped veggies, and a small amount of fruit. Once you hang the nest box, you have to start offering an egg food daily. This can be a commercial dry egg food, or you can cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. If the pair hatches eggs, they will eat a LOT of food and will need the food replenished throughout the day. If a pair doesn’t have a lot of food available, they won’t feed the chicks.
Most first clutches fail because the parents are still learning. Sometimes mating isn’t effective or one bird is sterile, so you only get infertile eggs. Breeding birds need privacy – if they feel they are not safe, they will abandon their nest, even if they have eggs or chicks. The other birds should not be near the breeding pair. Breeding birds are not pets, and while they have a nest box, you should not let them out of the cage or try to interact with them. A nest box can’t be left up year-round. It must be removed after each clutch, and the pair rested for at least 6 months. This applies even if the eggs are not viable. Some pairs are not good parents. If they continue to have infertile clutches, or break eggs, eat eggs, fail to care for chicks, you should not try to breed them anymore. Forming and laying eggs takes a toll on the hen’s health each time, so if a pair does not care for eggs or chicks, then they should not have a nest box again because she is going through a lot of strain on her health for nothing.
Finally, do a lot of research before you get into this. And not YouTube videos that only show the cute side of everything. To breed birds the right way, it is expensive and at times the birds will need Vet care. Most female pet birds lay eggs at some point, but that doesn’t mean you have to set them up for breeding. Make sure you can handle the expense as well as possibly losing eggs or chicks or even one of the parents. Hens can get egg bound and die, even if they have laid eggs before with no issues. You need to be able to deal with spending the time and money on breeding, yet never getting a chick. It happens much more often than successful breeding, otherwise pet birds would not be so expensive.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
