Bird Breeding Questions - Will the Bird Egg Hatch
When you start out as a bird breeder, it’s easy to become overwhelmed trying to find answers to the many questions you have. You may be hesitant to ask an experienced breeder some of these questions for fear that they will question your intelligence. Some people will tell you that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, but doing some research on your own can get you headed in the right direction. The first question most new breeders have is whether their bird’s eggs will hatch or not. A female’s eggs will not hatch unless they are fertilized. She will need to be paired up with a male bird so the eggs can be fertilized before she lays them. Many pet birds lay unfertilized eggs. When this happens you can put a male in the cage with her to fertilize the eggs or try to keep her from laying more eggs depending on what you want. If you have a single female bird and she continues to lay eggs, let her care for them as if they were fertilized and when she realizes that they aren’t going to hatch she will abandon them. Another common question from new breeders is whether or not it’s necessary to use nest boxes. Most experienced breeders would advise using a nest box even though some birds will lay and hatch eggs successfully without one. The nest box will aid in giving the parent birds a sense of security as well as providing safety and warmth to the babies. Another reason to use a nest box is that you would have quite a mess on your hands by the time the babies grew up if the bottom of the cage was the nesting area. The length of time it takes for eggs to hatch is another unknown for new breeders. Three weeks is the norm, but this does vary slightly from one species to another. Most birds will incubate the eggs as they are hatched, which means babies from one clutch could be anywhere from one to ten days old. There are some, however, that will wait until all the eggs are laid. Eggs that are incubated this way will all hatch around same time. If an owner wants the eggs to hatch around the same time, they can remove the eggs as they are hatched and then replace them after the last one has been laid. The problem with this practice is that the parents will sometimes reject the eggs after you have handled them. Finally, it’s important to monitor things closely while the mother is incubating the eggs. You may begin to think she is not getting enough food and water because the male is leaving the nesting box more than she is. This usually means that the male is feeding her so that she does not have to leave the eggs. More Articles on Bird Breed Selection: | 