# The pair laid 1st egg...not setting at night



## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

Hi there,

Today I checked the nest, and found a single egg in the nest. I was away from the home for a single night, and just came in the night, I found the male sleeping in his usual place, and the female is sleeping outside the nest, on its opening, so practically it was not setting on the egg. I always leave the aquarium light in the night; to provide some lightining to the birds, when I turned the room light, the female went inside the nest. so what would be the cause that the pair (either the male or female) is not setting on the egg. I don't believe I have to let the room light working 24/7, shall I increase the light more than the aquariuam light?

This is the third clutch, two clutches were with their previous breeder, one of them was successful, and the 2nd was DIS eggs. The male is a mature one +1 year, and the female also is +1 year.

Thanks for your usual valuable support..


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

They may not sit full-time til she's laid the whole clutch. So you may have to wait til that happens. If she doesn't sit at night then you may have to leave the light on for them 24/7.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> They may not sit full-time til she's laid the whole clutch. So you may have to wait til that happens. If she doesn't sit at night then you may have to leave the light on for them 24/7.


Thanks roxy for your prompt response... If they don't sit full-time before the clutch is completed, would this affect the first eggs?

Would keeping the light for 24/7 affect their usual night sleeping ours?

Thanks again,


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

The eggs will be viable without incubation for ten days. The 24/7 light wont affect them, they'll go to sleep when they need to.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

roxy culver said:


> The eggs will be viable without incubation for ten days. The 24/7 light wont affect them, they'll go to sleep when they need to.


Thanks again roxy; 

I have increased the light a little, and am seeing the female is inside the nest, however, regarding the male, he won't start setting until the clutch is completed? since I am seeing him sleeping outside the nest

Thanks in advance.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It's usually the female's job to sit at night and the male's job to sit in the daytime. Some pairs might do it differently, but as long as someone is always in the nest except for short breaks it will be OK.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

tielfan said:


> It's usually the female's job to sit at night and the male's job to sit in the daytime. Some pairs might do it differently, but as long as someone is always in the nest except for short breaks it will be OK.


Thanks tiel fan... during Yesterday night, and Today morning, I noticed that the female is alway inside the nest, and the male is proteting the nest... Sometimes, the male is inside the nest along with the female, and would get out once he hears any sound...

Is there any special cautions I need to pay attention for during the laying period; I always provide them with Seed-Based diet, with greens & Veggies, cuttle-bone, Single Egg food meal every week, Bathing twice a week, vitamin in their water once a week.

Thanks,


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

Waiting your valuable feedback....


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

So...2nd egg was laid yesterday, which means that the hen started laying on 30th August. I was reading regarding the humidity needed, and found that it should be above 55%...here, the weather temperature is 28 C, and the humidity is 15% :wacko:....

I read that the humidity affects the last 7 days, is that true??

I have an aquarium near the cage, and I do believe its water vaporates, would this help?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The humidity level is most important during the last few days of incubation and especially during the hatching process. 

A humidifier is an easy way to add humidity to the room but there are other ways to do it if you don't have access to one. Evaporation from the aquarium will help raise the humidity level in the room. You can hang up wet towels or place bowls of water in the room to get additional evaporation. 

If you give the parents a bowl of water that's big enough for them to bathe in, they might wet their feathers and then go into the nest to bring in some moisture. My parent birds never do this however; the mother will get wet and then wait until she's completely dry before she goes into the nest, and the father doesn't even get wet. It drives me crazy, because I live in the desert and when the birds are breeding the humidity is often 5-10%. I usually take action to add some humidity to the bird room, but even if I don't do anything the eggs always hatch successfully. The parents must be doing something to keep a good humidity level in the nest but I don't know what it is. I'm sure that the quality of the nestbox bedding helps.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> Is there any special cautions I need to pay attention for during the laying period; I always provide them with Seed-Based diet, with greens & Veggies, cuttle-bone, Single Egg food meal every week, Bathing twice a week, vitamin in their water once a week.


If you have access to pellets and can get the parent birds to eat them, that would be a good addition to their diet. The parents prefer to feed soft foods to the babies (it's easier to digest), so it's desirable to provide high-nutrition soft foods. During the breeding period, you can provide a small amount of cooked egg or egg food every day. Pellets count as a soft food, since the parents eat the hard dry pellets and then drink water to soften up. Other soft foods include whole-grain bread, soaked or sprouted seeds (see http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=9019 ), and high-nutrition cooked foods like sweet potatoes. Use whole-grain products rather than refined foods like white flour or white rice. It's best to teach the parents to eat these foods before the babies hatch so they will already recognize these foods when the babies arrive.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

tielfan said:


> The humidity level is most important during the last few days of incubation and especially during the hatching process.
> 
> A humidifier is an easy way to add humidity to the room but there are other ways to do it if you don't have access to one. Evaporation from the aquarium will help raise the humidity level in the room. You can hang up wet towels or place bowls of water in the room to get additional evaporation.
> 
> If you give the parents a bowl of water that's big enough for them to bathe in, they might wet their feathers and then go into the nest to bring in some moisture. My parent birds never do this however; the mother will get wet and then wait until she's completely dry before she goes into the nest, and the father doesn't even get wet. It drives me crazy, because I live in the desert and when the birds are breeding the humidity is often 5-10%. I usually take action to add some humidity to the bird room, but even if I don't do anything the eggs always hatch successfully. The parents must be doing something to keep a good humidity level in the nest but I don't know what it is. I'm sure that the quality of the nestbox bedding helps.





tielfan said:


> If you have access to pellets and can get the parent birds to eat them, that would be a good addition to their diet. The parents prefer to feed soft foods to the babies (it's easier to digest), so it's desirable to provide high-nutrition soft foods. During the breeding period, you can provide a small amount of cooked egg or egg food every day. Pellets count as a soft food, since the parents eat the hard dry pellets and then drink water to soften up. Other soft foods include whole-grain bread, soaked or sprouted seeds (see http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=9019 ), and high-nutrition cooked foods like sweet potatoes. Use whole-grain products rather than refined foods like white flour or white rice. It's best to teach the parents to eat these foods before the babies hatch so they will already recognize these foods when the babies arrive.


Thanks teilfan for the detailed reply;

I have just added a water bowl inside the cage, and hopefully it will be enough to add humidity...

I will try to get pellets to provide it to the birds, and see what happens. I am expecting a new egg to be laid tomorrow, and this will be the 3rd egg in this clutch...

Thanks again,


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It can be difficult to convince cockatiels to eat pellets if they haven't had them before. But pellets are an excellent source of nutrition, and if the birds won't eat them right now they may learn to eat them eventually and will benefit at that time.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

tielfan said:


> It can be difficult to convince cockatiels to eat pellets if they haven't had them before. But pellets are an excellent source of nutrition, and if the birds won't eat them right now they may learn to eat them eventually and will benefit at that time.


I remember I saw a seed/pellet mix in a pet shop, would this be a good idea to provide to the tiels, since they will have seed/pellet mix; and they may try it?

EDIT: I got them DeliNature Seed/Pellet mixturel; with the following ingredients:
seeds, cereals, fruit (min. 9% of which 11% apple, 11% papaya, 11% kiwi), egg and egg derivatives (3% in the egg granule), derivatives of vegetable origin, herbs (min. 2,2%), vegetable protein extracts, minerals (min. 2% grit), various sugars, oils and fats, yeast.

Hopefully they will get used to eat it....


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It actually seems to work better when the pellets are served separately from the seeds. When they're mixed together, the birds usually pick out the seeds and leave the pellets.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

Well...the 3rd egg was laid yesterday, and am seeing the female inside the nest during the night, and the male during the day...however, if he hears any sound, he goes directly out of the nest to check...

I believe the incubation started from the 1st day of laying the eggs, which was 30th Aug...So, would I expect the first hatch to be on 20th Sept? (Assuming 21 day incubation period)

Thanks,


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It's OK for them to leave the eggs alone for a few minutes. If it's more than 30 minutes it's time to get worried about it. This is assuming that you have good bedding in the nest, see http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=27688 if you need any info on that.

If they really started incubating on Aug 30, the hatch date might be sooner than that. Typical incubation time is 16-18 days although sometimes it can be longer depending on weather conditions/time of year etc. But sometimes the parents will spend a lot of time in the nest without actually sitting on the eggs, and deceive us about the actual time incubation began. That's why 21 days is a typical estimate for the hatch date.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

If they've just started sitting at night, then you will count from then. Just because they sat during the day at first doesn't mean that the eggs were developing because they weren't sitting at night.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

Yesterday, the 4th egg was laid, seems the pair is going on track. These birds companionship is amazing, really I am learning alot of them.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

I have pictured the eggs, the pictures can be seen using the links below, I don't know if we can find the eggs fertility from the picture (from the egg color); since I don't want to disturb the pair and candle the eggs.

http://imageshack.us/f/12/20120907133617reduced.jpeg/

http://imageshack.us/f/138/20120908084826reduced.jpg/

I was expecting the 5th egg by Yesterday, however, seems the hen still didn't lay it, maybe the clutch will be only 4 eggs...

Thanks in advance for your usual cooperation


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The first link doesn't display a picture for me. There's a picture at the second link but it's so underexposed that I can't tell what the true color of the eggs is. 

Susanne (srtiels) has a photo collage about using egg color to judge fertility. I've posted it below, and you can compare it to your eggs to see whether they seem to be fertile or not. An egg that has been incubated for less than a week will probably look pinkish even if it's really fertile, but it will turn stark white after a few days of incubation.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

tielfan said:


> The first link doesn't display a picture for me. There's a picture at the second link but it's so underexposed that I can't tell what the true color of the eggs is.
> 
> Susanne (srtiels) has a photo collage about using egg color to judge fertility. I've posted it below, and you can compare it to your eggs to see whether they seem to be fertile or not. An egg that has been incubated for less than a week will probably look pinkish even if it's really fertile, but it will turn stark white after a few days of incubation.


Thanks tielfan, comparing the eggs with the picture you provided, seems all of them are fertile, they all are bright white.

As I said before, I was expecting the 5th egg to be laid on 7th Sept, however, no egg was laid from that time. Is there signs I can look for in order to assure the hen is not egg binded? Is it normal for the clutch to be 4 eggs? her last clutch was 6 eggs.

Thanks,


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

4-6 eggs is a typical clutch size for cockatiels so it's possible that she's done now. But keep an eye on her, and make sure she's getting plenty of calcium and vitamin D3. 

srtiels has an excellent article on eggbinding on her website at http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/egg-related-problems.html with lots of information on symptoms.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It will vary each time she lays eggs, but some hens will lay an exact amount. An eggbound hen will have trouble pooping and be fluffed up and no moving often and lethargic. If your hen is acting normal, she's not egg bound and has probably laid her whole clutch.


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## questionare (Jul 9, 2012)

tielfan said:


> 4-6 eggs is a typical clutch size for cockatiels so it's possible that she's done now. But keep an eye on her, and make sure she's getting plenty of calcium and vitamin D3.
> 
> srtiels has an excellent article on eggbinding on her website at http://justcockatiels.weebly.com/egg-related-problems.html with lots of information on symptoms.





roxy culver said:


> It will vary each time she lays eggs, but some hens will lay an exact amount. An eggbound hen will have trouble pooping and be fluffed up and no moving often and lethargic. If your hen is acting normal, she's not egg bound and has probably laid her whole clutch.


Thanks, the hen is acting normal, so, hopefully it is done now...


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