Intro and help with infertile egg laying !!!

[Scooter too]

Hello !

I am new here ! I have a Congo Grey, who is a rescue. She has been with me for the past 9 years, and I know she was with at least 2 homes previous to her coming to me.

 

Scooter came to me via a friend who rescued her from a horrible situation. The bird was in a cage, on the porch of a home, outside in the snow ! They bought her for $100 rusted small cage and all, and then kept her in that cage for the next year, but they never "clicked" with her. I mentioned that I had always wanted a Grey, but they are so expensive. The new owners gladly gave her to me. That was almost 10 years ago.

 

I immediately found a used macaw cage in the pennysaver, and bleached and steam cleaned it thoroughly, and set up Scooter's new condo in our family room. It took her about 6 months to start to come to the side of the cage, and get near to me. It took another 6 months for her to start actually talking -- and to decide that I was "her person".

 

I never knew for sure if Scooter was a he or she until two nights ago, when I couldn't figure out why Scooter was on the floor of the cage for so long. Now, Scooter is a shredder, and LOVES to shred. I provide her with paper towels, the rolls from non glued paper towel rollers, newspaper, shredders, and all sorts of things to shred all the time....so I was not really concerned -- and she loves to make a tent out of a newpaper and hide under it....so nothing new, but she was on the floor of the cage for more than two hours (unusual) I stuck my hand in there, and found a really BIG egg !!!

 

According to her band, Scooter is 17 years old. This is the first egg I have ever seen.

 

I looked up everything I could on the internet -- and found "take the egg away immediately" and "DO NOT take the egg away under any circumstance!!" So, I took it away, and then put it back !!!

 

Scooter is interested in the egg -- she plays with it gently, sits on it a bit; appears to be eating and drinking normally. she is interactive with me, lets me put my hand in there, came out yesterday, played with me. she is very extra lovey - which is NOT like her. She want's head lovey's which is unusual, and would allow me to touch her all over which is VERY not like her. I can see she is very "hormonal" and do not ever touch her tail end, because she is always trying to "feed me or my hands" anyway....

 

So.....take the egg away, leave it....????!!!!

 

Andi

[aerial.2000]

I thought I heard to take it away after a day or 2 ...? But I could be wrong wait for an expert opinion.

[Timbersmom]

I've seen the more experienced people on the forum say to leave the egg until she is no longer interested in it.

[judygram]

Hello Andi and welcome to our family.

Well thats one way to find out what sex bird you have but from information I have learned it is best to leave the egg for a period of time, allow her to sit on it or whatever she wants, she may even lay another or two before she quits, then after several weeks remove them and all nesting materials so she will get over it.

You are right about the touching, when she is hormonal she will want you to touch her all over but you must not, avoid touching her down the back, under the wings and anywhere around the tail area as it will be sexually stimulating to her, when she shows you she is wanting that just say no thanks and walk away.

One thing I would suggest is limit the shreddable things to when she is out of the cage so she doesn't have much stuff inside the cage to make nests out of, leave toys in the cage that she can play with but not shred up like paper and such.