Ask Lafeber

Egg size

My sun conure pair is fertile. And its my pair second cluch. The question is this that female laid first egg of second cluch and size off egg is small as compared to first cluch. What this issue of low size egg.

Hi,

Did you remove the nest box and rest the pair for at least 6 months after the last clutch? You should always rest the pair between clutches, whether the eggs hatch or not. Forming and laying eggs is very hard on a female, and she needs time to recover each time. If you allow them to nest over and over, she will eventually die from the toll on her health. The pair needs a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets – not a seed diet. They also need leafy greens, veggies and some fruit. When they have the nest box, they need an egg food daily. This can be a dry commercial egg food or you can cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. This helps replace the protein and calcium she loses when forming each egg. A cuttle bone and/or mineral block can also help. If you have rested the pair and done all of these things, then she might have a health problem, or she just laid a small egg. But if she keeps laying small eggs, she should be checked out by an avian vet, and you should remove the nest box until she is fully healthy. Small eggs are rarely fertile.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda