July 1, 2021
African grey laying eggs
I have two of course African grey .
She just laid a egg im shock.
That have been together for 7 years.
She broke the first egg.
What do I do, how to help?
Plus does she need special food now?
Question:
Answer:
Hi Cortina,
If you aren’t planning to breed then then it’s best to discard the eggs and hope she stops laying. There are changes you might have to make if she keeps laying eggs. But if this is supposed to be a breeding pair, then they need the right kind of breeding cage and a nest box. Nothing is going to happen this time, but if you get them set up, then they might mate and lay eggs in the box. They need to be on a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets or our foraging diets. Also offer dark leafy greens, chopped veggies and some fruit. For a breeding pair, you can offer some egg food daily – either a commercial dried egg food or cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. The female needs the extra calcium and protein to form eggs. But this should only be offered when they are set up for breeding and not year round. You also need to remove the nest box between each clutch. In the wild they only nest once a year. In captivity, you can let them have two clutches per year, but rest them 6 months between each clutch. Breeding birds need a lot of privacy, and they almost always mess up the first clutch, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get chicks the first time or even the second time. Greys are hard to breed, so you should research how to breed Greys to learn as much as you can.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
