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The Caiques have laid their second egg now. With each day, they get more and more protective of the nest box, the cage and the nest. Each day is a new adventure with the Caiques and each day I learn something new. There are no websites or books that can tell you exactly what a female Caique sounds like when she is laying an egg. Well, I had to learn that one first hand. When laying this second egg (since I have been watching her like a hawk to make sure I didn’t miss this one), Zorro made a noise I had never heard before. She also now uses this noise to protect her eggs from me and Dweezel (sometimes he is permitted to view and fondle the eggs, but other times he is not even permitted in the nest box). the noise is similar to the “trying to scare you away” noise, but quieter, higher pitched, and in short bursts rather than one drawn out note. She tilts her head to watch me, keeping the egg(s) under her neck for warmth, and makes this sound. Then she will raise her rump, in an effort to protect the egg(s) even more. She will even grab my hand gently and move it away or sometimes give me a small nip to get her point across. I was able to keep them out of the nest box for a minute tonight (by shoving a t-shirt in the entrance hole and praying it held its ground) so I could candle the eggs to see if they had any striations on the inside. Unfortunately, I did see striations in both eggs. Striations can be a sign of infertility, but I will keep my hopes up. Stranger things have happened, so I am not going to assume anymore that all the eggs will be infertile for sure.
The eggs:
Zorro warning Dweezel to stay away from the eggs:
The Parrotlets have laid another egg but there will be no pictures for a couple weeks. I am hoping that they take good care of this one and I am going to really limit the amount of times I check the box. I am so anxious to see babies from this pair, but I know I need to have patience and leave them alone so they can do what they do best.
So, unfortunately, the Parrotlets broke their only egg. They have still been mating everyday so I am still hopeful that they will lay some more and they will be fertile. Here is what the egg looked like. It had very faint stress lines on it that made it evident that the egg was not fertile, so that may have been the reason for them breaking it.
In other egg news, my female Caique, Zorro has been staying in the nest almost the entire day. She has had a swollen abdomen for a couple of days now (symptom of carrying an egg). She has what I like to call, “egg bum.” I am hoping that if she lays this egg with n problem, my male Dweezel will understand that he should be mating with her. If she actually lays an egg (since this could be a “false pregnancy” where a bird will do all the motions of laying an egg but not actually do it), I know it will not be fertile, since I don’t think they have mated.
The Parrotlets have laid an egg! Fertility won’t be known for another 6 days, but with all the mating that has been going on (and still is, as they are mating as I type this), I’m sure we will have a healthy clutch of babies by the end of February!
Parrotlets are the smallest parrots in aviculture. With an average length of 5 inches, they may look like harmless bugs, but as breeders, they can be overwhelmingly intimidating. They are close cousins to Amazon Parrots, known for being one of the best talkers. Parrotlets also have the capacity to talk, though their voices can be somewhat hard to hear and hard to decipher.
My male Pacific Parrotlet, Simon is a normal green. He is small but fierce and he guards his cage and mate, Doe, with an iron claw. He hisses and raises his feathers in an attempt to chase me away but I see it as a warning and continue to go about my business in their cage until he charges my fingers. Doe is a Blue mutation Pacific Parrotlet and she is much calmer than her mate. She sits calmly and watches me from afar, waiting until I replace the food dish with fresh goodies until she jumps to the front to eat.
They are housed in my kitchen, not only for quarantine, but also to keep the Lovebirds from harassing them. I first put them into a smaller cage until they got comfortable with their new surroundings and then moved them into a larger flight cage. Within minutes of putting them into the flight cage, they began mating, right there on the kitchen table. They mated a few more times before I was able to add their toys into the new cage. That was about 2 weeks ago. Hopefully within a few days we should see our first egg!
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