Hi! I have a male & female sun conures. They are both around 3 years old. They have bonded really well together & are never apart. For over 12 months they have been constantly mating, but I didn’t think this was a problem because I had never given them a breeding box. They also never venture to the floor of their cage. But, being Suns, they love people. They hang out in the front of my top often, just wanting to be close to me. They also love my husband & spend a lot of time on him. They have a habit of snuggling with me for about half an hour every evening before settling in their cage for the night. A week ago I stood up to put them to bed, & an egg fell off me onto the floor!!! She wouldn’t have a bar of it. I left it in their cage for a couple of days, too see what would happen, but she took no notice of it & I never found any more eggs. I took the egg away then & just presumed that it was her first time laying & she only laid the single egg.
Tonight, 8 or 9 days later, she has just laid another one! Again she has laid it in my shirt, not in her cage. I picked it up & put in back in with her & she appeared quite attentive with it. As I didn’t have a nest box for them, I got my husband to hang a snuggle hut in their cage & put the egg in there. I put the Suns back in their cage & tried to show her where the egg was, but the two of them just cuddled up where they normally sleep & went quiet for the night.
Would she have only laid these 2 eggs, a week apart, or have I missed finding others? Everything I’ve read tells me they generally lay every 24 hours, is this right? Is this egg no longer viable as it’s been left to go cold over night? How do I stop her laying – there is no nest box, I rotate them in 2 different cages, I rotate their toys. I can’t seperate them as they would fret. How does she hold the eggs in until she is down my shirt?
Please help!!!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Thankyou,
Raylene Frylink
Answer:
Hi Raylene,
Definitely take the hut out and throw it away. The fibers in these huts are very dangerous and have caused countless deaths, especially in conures. They are not suitable as a nest anyway, and adult birds do not need a bed of any type. Birds nibble and chew on these huts and end up ingesting the fibers, which collect in the digestive tract and eventually kill the bird. Fibers can also cling to the bird’s feathers and then while grooming, the bird accidentally ingests the fibers. These huts are also a huge hormone trigger for pet birds. If you Google about the dangers of happy huts, you will get many very sad stories and images. The Association of Avian Veterinarians does not recommend huts or beds for pet birds.
Now for the egg laying – your pair is not fully bonded as a breeding pair because of their attachment to you. However, they are still young. They are just at the earliest age when you should allow breeding. There are changes you can try to discourage egg laying, but to some degree you won’t be able to stop it completely because of having a male and female together. You need to be aware of and do away with all hormone triggers. You mentioned snuggling, and unfortunately you need to stop doing this. You should only pet them on the head and neck, and stop any contact with the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to have this type of contact, so when you snuggle with them or pet them below the neck, you are triggering their hormones and telling them you are a mate. The same goes for letting them in your shirt or lap – both of which are substitutes for a nest. I know this seems difficult, but it’s time to find other ways to interact with them, such as working on teaching them easy tricks. Hormones and chronic egg laying are such a big problem in pet birds that we have webinars on these topics every spring, and have a playlist of these webinars. I would highly recommend that you watch these, so you can better understand why you need to make changes for their sake. I’m going to provide that link, as well as a list of changes for you to make.
Generally she will lay 4-6 eggs, with a day in between each egg. But since she has no single nest, she probably isn’t developing eggs on any schedule. Or she may be laying elsewhere and eating the eggs. Each egg takes 48 hours to form and then she lays it. You can go ahead and take the eggs away, or let her keep them. It doesn’t seem to matter either way with parrot species, although sometimes a hen seems to stop if you let her sit on them and basically get the process out of her system.
Lastly, you are probably just experiencing the beginning of a major change in your birds as pets. Their instinct is to only have one mate, and other flock members are now viewed as rivals and must keep their distance. Avoiding hormone triggers is the only way you are going to be able to keep these birds as tame pets. The more these birds mate and want to nest, the less they will want to interact with people. The day may come where you can’t handle these birds anymore. If you decided to let them nest and raise chicks, you must cut off contact with them. Otherwise it can cause confusion with both birds, where they are torn between people and their mate. This can cause them to start attacking you, or even worse, one may turn on the other and badly injure or kill it. This can continue to get worse as they get older and more mature. It’s nothing personal if they become aggressive with you – they are not a domesticated species, so they act on instinct. And instinct often conflicts with what the owner expects of a pet bird. There is a hormone implant that can stop the female from laying eggs for a few months, and if she continues to lay eggs now, you might need to take her to a Vet for the implant. But if she gets it, it can change her bond with the male. It will likely make her no longer receptive to breeding, which can cause him to get aggressive with her. I know I’ve given you a lot of information here. And there is even more in the webinars, but again, I urge you to watch them so you can try to manage your birds in a way that keeps everyone happy.
How to discourage egg laying and hormones: You need to do all of these things to discourage egg laying. Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. Your goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
If she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only her head and neck – do not pet her on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
All of the above can apply to the pair, not just the hen.
