Ask Lafeber

Question:

January 29, 2021

Eggs?


I have a question my parrotlets has 7 eggs in her nesting box, I’m a new bird owner and was wondering when should they hatch if Fertile. She started laying on January 7th we seen the first egg


Answer:

Hi Robin,

You didn’t mention a mate, but the eggs will only have a chance of being fertile if you also have a male in the cage with her. Parrotlet eggs hatch between 18-22 days, depending on the species of parrotlet. Because they lay egg every other day, the eggs will hatch the same way, so the best thing to do is count from the day the last egg was laid. I wouldn’t discard the eggs until 30 days after the last egg was laid. So the 7th egg was probably laid on January 19, which means you should wait until February 19th to decide they aren’t fertile, if they haven’t hatched by then. Breeding birds need a lot of extra foods in addition to their regular diet. Hopefully you have them on a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our foraging diets, and not a loose seed mix. If you are only feeding loose seeds, it’s too late to try to change their diet, but you can go ahead and offer pellets or our foraging diets. They are more likely to eat our foraging diets since those contain whole seeds. They are all nutritionally balanced the same as a pellet. You should also be feeding chopped veggies and leafy greens. And right now she needs cooked eggs with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with them. This provides extra protein and calcium she needs, and is also good for her to feed the chicks. If chicks hatch, you need to remove the nest box as soon as they have left it, to prevent her from laying eggs again too soon. If the eggs don’t hatch, you should still remove the nest box and rest the pair for 6 months. If you don’t remove the box, they will breed again immediately and this is not good for her health especially. You should limit them to 2 clutches per year with a 6 month rest in between.

https://lafeber.com/pet-food/bird-food/classic-nutri-berries/

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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