Hi everyone!

Hi,
Jan and I are the parents of two lovely GCC's. Gracie laid her first egg on December 6th 2011 and her final 7th egg on the 21st December 2011.

It is now January 15th and no hatches yet...

Her mate, Cheeky was mating with her constantly, prior and during the laying period. Gracie has been faithfully sitting on the eggs in the nesting box. She came out for a little food and water and a quick 'bath' once in a rare while.

Today (15 Jan) she is still returning to the nesting box to sit over the eggs but spends more time out with Cheeky.

We have not interfered with the nesting box arrangement and have provided the best food we know of, including hard boiled egg, egg shells, different feeding station with high quality conure food and another station with fruit etc.

So... we believe we are still in the viable hatching time... but we certainly would love to hear from someone who can offer their experience in this area.

We have raised smaller birds before, but this is our first Conure egg laying experience.

Many thanks,

Mike and Jan

Hi Mike and Jan and WELCOME!!

I believe the GCC's are 26-28 days for the incubation of the eggs. I'd wait a full 30 days from when the last egg was laid to see what happens.

What's the back ground on Gracie and Cheeky? Age? Did you get them as a pair? If so, were you told they were "proven" or what? Are they DNA sexed? If so, do you have the DNA certificates (I've been told more than once birds were DNA'd but lost the paperwork, yadda, yadda, yadda . . . and the birds ended up not the sex represented)? Two females will go through the motions like a true male/female pair. Just wondering since 7 is a lot of eggs. Not super unusual, but still a lot.

If you're sure you have a true pair - how long are Cheeky's nails? Sometimes long nails prevents successful fertilization of the eggs. Have you candled the eggs for fertility? If not, then you can open them up after the 30 day mark and see if any were fertile. If fertile, you can determine at what stage they died which would help with troubleshooting.

Anyhoo - looking forward to hearing more about the pair and any other pets you have!

Hi Welcome! Hopefully our resident breeders (Patdb being one) can give you some help!

Hey and welcome to the forum. 5wks? don't think they're gonna hatch. Yeah everything PDB said. Is this their first clutch ? If so ,they rarely get it right the first time. You should tell us all about them. Do you have any other birds? Really glad to have you here, great members and a good forum.

welcome aboard


dusty

Welcome in Paradise!

Hi again everyone!

Thank you Patdbunny and everyone else for all your responses! It is so good to know that we are not alone and you have been so kind to take the time to answer our call for help!!

We found our two Conures at a local breeder just south of Barrie, Ontario. He is an older man who has raised Conures and other species for many years. Victor assured us the two GCC's in the one cage were a 'proven pair'. We fell in love with them and you know the rest....

Now, that was 14 months ago and 'Gracie and Cheeky' seem really happy with us. They often preen each other although sometimes we think Cheeky is pretty pecky towards Gracie..

We have not had them DNA sexed. In regard to Cheeky's nails... they are now a little long.

By the way, today we noticed that when Gracie came out to eat, she covered the eggs up with bedding material. She then uncovered them when she went back to sit over them.

Sorry we don't have much more info to offer... we do have a brooder set up with lights and heat lamp[, together with syringes and baby food.

Thank you all again!

We look forward to hearing from you again.


Mike and Janice

Welcome to Paradise, always good to have new members. You could not be in more capable hands than Patdbunny and Henpecked! Hope all goes well, let us know what happens.

Welcome!

Hi Broggi
Welcome to Paradise! I agree with Roger, you couldn't receive better advice than that from PdB and Henpecked. I'm a new breeder as well and their advice has been invaluable. FWIW, I agree with Henpecked in that those eggs are probably not going to hatch. It's a bummer (I know) but they'll get it right eventually.

Follow these guys' advice and you'll be in a good place to be able to help them along for next time. It's good to have another novice breeder around, it's hard being the only one who doesn't know what they're doing sometimes!

Welcome again, it's great to have you!

You might want to open those eggs to see if any were fertile and if so at what point they died. (Again, I'd personally wait until the last laid was 30 days old, but I'm a wishful thinker.) A lot of times 7 is too hard for the parents to incubate successfully so none end up hatching.

Clip their nails and get them DNA'd just to double check. DNA's not expensive if you do it yourself instead of through the vet. Not sure what it'll cost in Canada. I think Avian Biotech will do international orders.
http://avianbiotech.com/

I had meet a fellow in Canada who works doing DNA on birds ,alas i lost his info. I've sent him a PM but he's not been active lately.Maybe Goggle Parrot DNA testing in Canada ? Good luck.

these people are in toronto
http://www.healthgene.com/avian-dna-testing/

MAILING ADDRESS:
HealthGene Corp.
2175 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario M6M 3Z4
Canada

Phone: 416-658-2040
Toll-Free: 1-877-371-1551
Fax: 416-658-2042
Email: info@healthgene.com


dusty

Hi everyone!

WOWZA!!!

It is so so wonderful of you all to be so kind to respond and advise us and help us in our GCC journey!!

Yes, our hope is waning now for a successful hatch. This may well in fact be their first egg laying. The breeder who sold them to us said they were a 'proven pair'... but that could mean they perhaps had only accepted each other as 'mates'.

Thanks for the info on the nails and DNA sexing. We have now found a really good pet store in Barrie (PaulMac) and they will do the DNA sexing for us for only $25.00. Trimming those nails is going to be a mission... unfortunately, both birds nip us at any opportunity... even when we regularly change their food and water dishes..... but we will get it done!

Sorry for the long post.....
This morning it looks now that we might have a 'Round Two' approaching.... because Gracie is eating like crazy and going for the egg shell food more often.

They are both bringing out small pieces of nesting material and chewing it up.

They are back to mating now.. several times a day. They had previously stopped doing this after the last egg was hatched?!

We would like to wait the full 30 days...... just in case....

By the way, Gracie covers the eggs with nesting material when she comes out to feed and uncovers them when she returns to sit on them.

Thank you all so very much, we will keep you updated!

Jan and Mike

I don't mean to be a Debbie downer, but have you seen the Ontario kijiji and Craigslist? SO many conure breeders pumping out babies and selling them unweaned, as well as tons of rehome ads everyday... Like, there are so many breeders and people who don't want them,.. Do you really want to add more to that?

Hi GlassOnion,

Yep, I see that. We plan on keeping our little flock within our family.

I think that you're making a good decision by not letting them get right back into the egg-laying business, especially if you're going to get the DNA and the nails done. Again, that's just my novice opinion though. If you want to wait a while, pull their nest box for now and take away all the "nesty" stuff. After laying a seven egg clutch and brooding it for as long as she did, your hen probably needs some time to get back up to optimum health for a second round. Go get the DNA and grooming done (use a towel to catch them to avoid those nasty GCC nips!) and just let them settle back into a routine. Then put that nest box back up and give it another whirl.

Good luck! (And I'm anxious to see what PdB and Hen have to say.)

I would tend to agree.If your not in any hurry for the sound of begging babies,LOL i'd give her a break.

Sometimes the "break" allows them to reset their sexual clock somehow and allows a better possibility for success on the next clutch. If you really thing she's going to lay again, you need to do something now - clean the box out (for the next laying) or take the box down (give them the "break"). If she lays when there's already 7 eggs in there and the new egg gets mixed up with the old ones, you won't be able to tell them apart. The more eggs in there, the less likely she'll be able to incubate them enough to hatch them successfully. It's really, really hard for them to heat large clutches, or several clutches of eggs that the old eggs don't get removed first.

Hi friends,

Thank you Pdb, Henpecked, ScooterNScotty, Dusty, Margaret, RogerP, Glass Onion and Vicki...... sorry if I missed anyone!

Your assistance has been invaluable to us.... we are pulling the eggs out tonight and will check with LED light for their status

Pat, as you suggest, we are going to remove the nest box and clean it.. Gracie must need a good deal of rest/nourishment after being in that nesting box for so long..

Thank you all for your support!!

We will keep you updated... if that's ok.

Jan and Mike


Oh and Vicki... yes we are definitely going to need some kind of protection to handle 'em.... the towel sounds good - for when we go for grooming and DNA!

We will keep you updated... if that's ok.


you better....lol


dusty

dusty wrote:

We will keep you updated... if that's ok.


you better....lol


dusty

Oh yes, please do!

Hi and BroggiandMik, and Gracie and Cheeky too! Good luck to you on your breeding quest, look forward to reading about it.

Hi again!

Update: 6:45pm Mon 16 Jan 12 - removed nest box and eggs.

We knew you had it right folks.... and now we see the eggs,
they are white shelled and all clear inside, with a tiny air bubble.

A big ruckus in the cage though! Jan and I are very sad but we
want our birds to be happy and healthy!

So we are cleaning out the box. We will re-attach the box to the
outside of the cage next time btw.

Thanks again to all..... and 'hi' to 'evil chicken'!

Mike and Jan

Hi everyone!

Gracie and Cheeky were gingerly exploring the clean nesting box today...

We moved the nesting box to the outside of the cage, (allowing entry from the inside), the whole box was thoroughly cleaned. Broggi re-filled it with clean nesting material 'Carefresh'.

Now, the birds have ventured into the nesting box and are busy prepping a bed for a comfy night's sleep....

Clip those nails.