Ask Lafeber

Green Cheeks should be close to three years old before setting them up to breed.  If they were younger, then I would do the things necessary to discourage them from breeding right now.  However, since they have already started laying eggs, my guess is they are possibly old enough. Conures are cavity nesters and require a nesting box instead of a nest.  I always used the Cockatiel sized nest box with about 2 inches of clean Aspen shavings in the bottom.  They need the shavings to help keep the eggs warm and give them some protection from breaking when the mother turns them throughout the day.

As far as the eggs being fertile or not, is difficult to say.  First of all, they need to be old enough to successfully breed and take care of the eggs and babies.  While the female is in the nest box taking care of them, the male needs to do his job by feeding her so she doesn’t have to leave the eggs and find food on her own.  If he’s mature enough to do this then there’s a good chance they can be successful.

Keep in mind whenever you have a breeding pair of birds, you should set yourself up to be able to take over hand feeding them if the parents cannot or prove to be poor parents.  So, I would research what supplies you need and how to keep the babies well fed and at the correct temperature.

As far as discouraging them from wanting them to breed, I would make sure they don’t have anything in their cage such as a box or a sleeping sack to trigger them.  Also, sometimes mirrors can also be a trigger so if you have any in their cage, I suggest removing it also.

Breeding birds can be a lot of work as well as a bit stressful so if you are thinking about doing this please reach back out to our customer service and let them know you want to talk to me and give them your contact information and I’m happy to call you back and go over some things to help you through the process.

Kind regards,

Debbie