My macaw recently made an egg

[SkyBirdie]

And i have no idea what to do ;_;

We know that Petra is a female, but benio, we're not 100% certain... might be a male, considered how benio behaves (crazy at all times) xD

But newly i discovered an egg behind Petra.
what do i do? ;_;

[liz]

Leave it if she is sitting on it. You can't take it away or she will lay another. If it is not fertile she will give up on it. If she layed it to get rid of it then you can just take it out. Candle it.
You also need to reduce the protein in her diet.

[SkyBirdie]

How do i know if it's fertile or not?
guess we'll have to wait and see if there is anything in that egg

How much less protein in their diet is it talk of?

[liz]

Put the egg on a flashlight glass. A fertile egg will not look like a normal chicken egg inside. Depending on when it was laid you can see some red in it.

Mine get soaked grain that I rinse before giving and fruit and veggies chopped to the size the Amazons can pick up. The cockatiels do not hold their food so I chop in small. That is all I give them during the day unless they beg something.

I give them seed in the evening but they don't eat it all since they were still eating breakfast when I put it out.
Cut back on seed and nuts. Pajarita has me using budgie food since there are no sunflower seeds.
I give them one almond with their supper. I used to give them half a walnut with breakfast but now I save it for an afternoon treat.

[Wolf]

Make certain that she has a cuttlebone or some other source of calcium available to her. This is so she does not weaken her bones by migrating calcium from the bones to make the shell for her eggs. Before I say to reduce their protein which seems to need to be done with the way that most people feed their birds, I would need to know about their diet so if you can tell me what you normally feed them for breakfast and dinner as well as any treats during the day then we can give you better advice in regards to protein levels .

For now don't do anything about the egg. B&G Macaws normally lay between 2 and 4 eggs per clutch and will probably lay them every other day until they have finished laying. I wait until they lay more than one egg and then I remove one egg and freeze it for an hour or so and then let it warm back up to room temperature and mark it with a felt tip marker before returning it and doing the same one egg at a time until all eggs are marked. Then she can sit on them until she is done with them and then I get rid of them. I want to order some dummy eggs so that I can just switch them out.

[Pajarita]

Skybirdie already told us what they are fed - and is wasn't good (it included bread with jam and seeds/nuts for breakfast). He also told us that they have been kept at long days for the last 7 years.

Skybirdie, don't worry about whether the egg is fertile or not unless she is actually incubating it which I doubt she will do as she has no nest - UNLESS she laid it in the closet because that would be her nest - in which case it would be best if you got yourself a fake egg and replace the real one with it (you might be able to use a chicken egg, too).

Cuttlebone is good but only if she has been taking a supplement with vit D3. If not, you need to get yourself some Calciboost (aka Calcivet) and give her 5 dosages (one each day for 5 days in a row).

[SkyBirdie]

Skybirdie already told us what they are fed - and is wasn't good (it included bread with jam and seeds/nuts for breakfast). He also told us that they have been kept at long days for the last 7 years.

Skybirdie, don't worry about whether the egg is fertile or not unless she is actually incubating it which I doubt she will do as she has no nest - UNLESS she laid it in the closet because that would be her nest - in which case it would be best if you got yourself a fake egg and replace the real one with it (you might be able to use a chicken egg, too).

Cuttlebone is good but only if she has been taking a supplement with vit D3. If not, you need to get yourself some Calciboost (aka Calcivet) and give her 5 dosages (one each day for 5 days in a row).

Ehm... we did manage to build a nest in their room, and petra laid it there, not in my closet.
First egg she made was basically beside me, when i had them in my room, Petra just flew down besides me, where i was laying down (we were all to relax before bedtime) and made an egg on my pillow, but we had an unfortunate accident with that egg :/
After she laid it, looking like she had no idea what she just got out of her, she flew back up to benio on the closet door, which they were at, surprisingly not inside the closet, they've stopped going in my closet for a while now.
but the accident was my fault :/
i was about to carefully take the egg into their room, but stumbled and lost the egg on the floor, so it cracked, and the egg plumm spilled :/

2nd egg arrived a few days later after the first egg, and i do not know how well that is...
as petra is just incubating it, so i'm not gonna bother her whilst she looks after the egg, is that a bad thing? .-.

Sorry for late reply...

[Wolf]

The nest and her sitting on her egg? It depends on who you wish to go by. Myself, I would let her sit her egg, but I would see if she lays another one to replace the one that got broke and then replace them with fake eggs as quickly as possible or steal one egg at a time and freeze it, some people recommend boiling them and then when the egg is back to room temperature put it back and do the same with the other egg.

Have you made any progress in improving their diet? it is actually very important if you want them to remain healthy.

[Pajarita]

Skybirdie, personally, I would not risk her actually incubating a fertile egg. Your birds have not had a healthy diet for a very long time and have their endocrine system all screwed up by the incorrect light schedule so the chances of a healthy, strong baby coming out of that egg are very slim.

[Wolf]

There is plenty of evidence showing that the parents birds' diets have a major effect on the baby birds development while it is still in the egg and that can mean weak babies or even ones that did not develop properly and that will die regardless of how well they are cared for after hatching. So it is very important that you don't take the chance that the egg hatches, it will just lead to heartbreak for you.