# Incubating Problem :(



## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

Hello everyone, 

My teils have *laid 6 eggs till now* and another one is coming up tomorrow 

My problem is the parents don't incubate the eggs always, its kinda uneven,
During the day time i see male and female sitting in the cage depending upon the requirement.

During the night usually the female incubates, but there have been instances when during the night they both don't go and most of the time its the day before another egg will be laid, for example like tomorrow there will be a new egg and today(its already night) *from the past 5-6 hrs they haven't incubated* the eggs but they will go inside to check the eggs 

Perplexed, i have kept their cage covered with a cloth with the hope of them being warm and ok 

*Other details :*

-Temperature here is around *91 F during the day and 70 F during night*.
-I haven't candled the egg because the tiels are not tamed and i don't want to scare them further
-Both the parents bath almost regularly, even if i dont provide them water for bathing they will go and sit in the water cup placed for drinking.
-As far as i think the incubation process was started the time first egg was laid because she was sitting in her nest almost the whole day.

I am totally confused what is happening, kindly suggest where m i going wrong.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

If the weather is very hot, the eggs will stay warm enough without being incubated. Artificial incubators usually aim for a temperature of 99-100F. Your air temperature is a few degrees cooler than that, but it might be warmer inside the nestbox because it's a small enclosed space.

A very experienced breeder who used to be active on this board (srtiels) lives in Florida, which has a hot humid climate somewhat like Kolkata. She observed that her birds often wouldn't incubate when the weather was hot, and the eggs hatched just fine. 

Since your parent birds are spending a lot of time out of the nest, you might be able to candle the eggs while they're out if you think it won't frighten them too badly. If you stuff a small towel in the nestbox door, they won't be able to come into the box to see what you're doing with the eggs. They won't be happy about it, but it's much less alarming than seeing hands in the nest or seeing the nest with no eggs inside. This will work best if the nestbox is on the outside of the cage. If it's inside the cage, there's no way to check the eggs without causing a big disturbance.


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

I am not worrying about incubating during the day time which they are very regular, but as the evening approaches it becomes a little worrying because then the temperature drops a bit and they don't incubate.

Can the egg survive if the temperature is around 70F ?

Sadly the nestbox is in the cage, i am really scared to try candling them, its first time for me 

She laid another egg today and i see her incubating !!


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

sorry off topic,
she has laid 7 eggs so far, and i m not sure of her 8th as of now though i see a little bump,
could you please tell can mating in between laying egg result in double clutches ???


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

If the first couple of eggs are infertile, she'd be able to tell and may lay more to make up for those. A double clutch is when there are babies in the nest and she starts laying more.


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

so does it mean i will have more than 8 eggs i mean more than normal clutch size ??


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It can happen...candling the eggs would definitely help you know for sure though. I had a clutch of nine and a clutch of eleven once. Some hens just lay more than normal.


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## heyholly (Nov 8, 2012)

Hi there

I wouldn't stress just yet most pairs won't start full time incubation until they've layed the entire clutch. If she's finished laying the whole clutch and they still choose not to incubate the eggs it could mean they're infertile so it's worth candling the eggs. Don't be worried about scaring them of the nest, unlike other bird cockatiels aren't concerned about human interference. Cockatiels on the whole are excellent breeders and parents, it's very instinctive to them, so I think you just need to trust that they know what they're doing


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

When did she lay the oldest eggs? If they're more than 3 weeks old, she has given up on them and is laying a new clutch to replace them.

It's possible that the older eggs didn't hatch because of the irregular incubation. First-time parents will sometimes do badly the first time and then do better the second time. But if there are too many eggs in the nest it will be hard for the parents to keep all of them warm, and if a viable egg is pushed too far away from the parent it may get chilled and die.

Not having access to the nestbox makes it difficult to solve this problem. Is it possible to reconfigure things so the nestbox is on the outside of the cage? It would be a one-time disturbance, and then you could manage the eggs with less trouble.


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

heyholly said:


> Hi there
> 
> I wouldn't stress just yet most pairs won't start full time incubation until they've layed the entire clutch. If she's finished laying the whole clutch and they still choose not to incubate the eggs it could mean they're infertile so it's worth candling the eggs. Don't be worried about scaring them of the nest, unlike other bird cockatiels aren't concerned about human interference. Cockatiels on the whole are excellent breeders and parents, it's very instinctive to them, so I think you just need to trust that they know what they're doing


So you mean partial incubation is possible ???
Ok i will do something to find out if they are fertile..


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

tielfan said:


> When did she lay the oldest eggs? If they're more than 3 weeks old, she has given up on them and is laying a new clutch to replace them.
> 
> It's possible that the older eggs didn't hatch because of the irregular incubation. First-time parents will sometimes do badly the first time and then do better the second time. But if there are too many eggs in the nest it will be hard for the parents to keep all of them warm, and if a viable egg is pushed too far away from the parent it may get chilled and die.
> 
> Not having access to the nestbox makes it difficult to solve this problem. Is it possible to reconfigure things so the nestbox is on the outside of the cage? It would be a one-time disturbance, and then you could manage the eggs with less trouble.


She laid the 1st egg on 13th Feb.

She is not doing it the first time, the breeder i bought her from said she was already 2 n half yr old and has bred couple of times, 
i understand my nest box is making it quite difficult for me to deal with it, i will see what can i do with that, their aggression has gone so far that they won't let me change water and food dishes 

Thank you for the support, if you have anything else to suggest please !!


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## heyholly (Nov 8, 2012)

In the initial stages of egg laying, they can sit on and off the eggs, but if the temperature outside is fairly warm they may also be regulating the temperature inside the nest. It's a little strange, not entirely uncommon, but a little strange that they feel the need so badly to protect their nest. They could be feeling a bit insecure about their surroundings or their nesting site. This could cause them to stress and become aggressive and disrupted their incubation process, but I couldn't say for sure. In any case, it'll be hard to make any decisions until you know if the eggs are fertile and even if they are, if it's hard for you to access the nest box now, its going to make it hard for you to monitor the chicks as they hatch and grow to. It may be worth pulling the eggs now moving the nest box to the outside of the aviary and starting again before the end of the breeding season. It's a hard decision to make, I know, no one like to have to do it. See how you go though, maybe leave it another week or two before you go down that road. Hope that helps


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

heyholly said:


> In the initial stages of egg laying, they can sit on and off the eggs, but if the temperature outside is fairly warm they may also be regulating the temperature inside the nest. It's a little strange, not entirely uncommon, but a little strange that they feel the need so badly to protect their nest. They could be feeling a bit insecure about their surroundings or their nesting site. This could cause them to stress and become aggressive and disrupted their incubation process, but I couldn't say for sure. In any case, it'll be hard to make any decisions until you know if the eggs are fertile and even if they are, if it's hard for you to access the nest box now, its going to make it hard for you to monitor the chicks as they hatch and grow to. It may be worth pulling the eggs now moving the nest box to the outside of the aviary and starting again before the end of the breeding season. It's a hard decision to make, I know, no one like to have to do it. See how you go though, maybe leave it another week or two before you go down that road. Hope that helps


I think i will wait for the incubating period at least 
Thank you for the suggestions !!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

I'm guessing that you can see inside the nestbox somewhat, since you know how many eggs are in there. Can you see the color of the shells very well? An infertile or undeveloped egg will have a slightly translucent pinkish color; a fertile egg that has been developing for several days will be a stark white color; and an egg that started to develop but then died will turn to a dark grey color.

The egg that was laid yesterday should still have the pinkish color, so you can compare the other eggs to that one to see if the color looks any different.


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## madyrocksin (Dec 10, 2012)

I dont see any grey colored eggs neither i can see any pinkish sought off, all are mostly as you mentioned are stark white even the new one which she laid !!

I am just trying to be optimistic and hope that the weather here plays a good safe role for the eggs !!


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