I have a 26 year old umbrella cockatoo that laid her first egg today. When she was little we had her sex’d to see and the vet told us she was a hermorfidite (both sex’s).
Would her egg even be fertile??? And why would she lay an egg now after all these years???
Hi,
It’s not unusual at all for an older parrot to lay eggs for the first time. Her life expectancy can be up to 80 years, so technically she’s just in her prime for breeding, depending on her genetics and overall health. Unless you have a male and they have mated, the egg can’t be fertile.
I’m not sure how the vet sexed her 25 years ago, but if it was surgical sexing, he simply made a mistake. Even a Vet with a lot of experience with surgical sexing can misidentify the ovary or teste. He may have even seen a kidney and mistook it for a teste. I can’t say it is impossible, but I’ve never heard of dual sexes in birds. If he used a lab test, then the sample was either misread or it got contaminated. Your bird is definitely a female since she laid an egg. Hopefully she stops, although she may lay 2 or 3. If she continues to lay eggs, you will have to try some changes to get her to stop. You can limit her light to 8-10 hours. When you handle her, you should only pet her on her head. When you pet her below the neck anywhere, this can be a hormone trigger. Hormonal issues are so common in pet birds that we have had several webinars on the topics. You might want to check some out if her egg laying continues. The last resort is a hormone implant that can be done by an Avian Vet.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
