# HELP WITH BIRD EGG PLEASE!!!



## mira_kaylee (Dec 5, 2012)

Hey guys I know that this is a reptile forum, but I don't know who else to ask.....I went to PetCo a little while ago to get some stuff for my gecko, and lo and behold in the small birds pen they had an egg! PetCo told me that they didn't have the staff or facilities to raise a baby bird so they were just going to throw it away, but when I expressed interest they let me have it instead. Chances are 1/100 that there's even ANYTHING in the egg, it's probably empty, but if it isn't then I really want whatever is inside of it to hatch. Right now i put it in a small planter filled with cotton and set it under my tortoise's heat lamp (not IN the pen with the tortoises, it's sitting on a screened lid for a 10gal tank on the corner of the lid of their pen). My questions are 1.) What temperature should this egg be incubated at? 2.) What should I do to incubate it? 3.) How do I tell if there's a bird inside? The bird that laid it was pretty territorial about it before the associate took it out....it was still really warm because the bird was sitting on it :/ 4.) If there is anything inside, how long will it be until it comes out? Again, I'm really sorry for asking these questions on a reptile forum but I don't know who else to ask, I don't see any bird facebook groups that don't center around the game angry birds and there is no bird forum on the tortoiseforums, for obvious reasons..... -.- any advice would be helpful! The egg is about the size of a nickel btw and is creamy white. Please help?


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## kathyth (Dec 5, 2012)

Maybe you could google this question.
Good luck!


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## mira_kaylee (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm trying but there are so many sites and most of them just say "go buy this +$80 incubator!" and I don't have that kind of money right now.....i need a quick fix diy one-time-only kind of thing lol.


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## Jacqui (Dec 5, 2012)

What kind of bird was laying on it?


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## mira_kaylee (Dec 5, 2012)

I'm not exactly sure, I think that it was a green one, about 3 or 4 inches tall at most. It was in a huge octagon glass case with at least 40-50 birds in it of all different kinds....


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## Pokeymeg (Dec 5, 2012)

Those little finches lay lots of eggs, they are very rarely fertile though.


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## mira_kaylee (Dec 5, 2012)

There may never have been any little bird inside of that egg. There may have been a bird in that egg and I just did something wrong so that now it's not alive anymore. There is, however, a teeny tiny itty bitty chance that that egg has a baby bird in it, and if there is a bird in there then it deserves a fighting chance....


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## CLMoss (Dec 6, 2012)

Chances are that the egg is empty. In the event there is a hatchling, are you ready to feed this hatchling every two hours (even over night) for the next few weeks? Just asking...


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## yagyujubei (Dec 6, 2012)

Hatching bird eggs is a very exact thing. 1/2 degree too hot or cold, 1% too dry or wet, and it may not hatch. Parental care for chicks is also very exacting.Your heart was in the right place, but I think it's a no go.


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## mira_kaylee (Dec 6, 2012)

Yes, if something is in the egg then I am fully prepared to wake up every two hours for the next few weeks to feed it. Like I said, chanced are a million to one that there was EVER anything inside of the egg, but if there's something in there then it deserves more of a chance to hatch than a trash can gave it.


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## yagyujubei (Dec 6, 2012)

I suggest you stay away from the dairy section in the grocery store.


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## BrookeB (Dec 6, 2012)

ok when i worked at a rescue we would normaly find a person with a bird to have the bird hatch the egg... but you can also make a incubater with house hold items... it takes some time but it can be done... you need to find out what kind of bird it was for the temp and humidity... here are some ways to make an incubater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ1tyfvenqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3kz46mIIQE
also look up candling to see if you can see if the egg has anythin g it it... good luck


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## Ripkabird98 (Dec 6, 2012)

They are a nightmare to move. IF anything was in it- the car ride home killed it. This is coming from a 14 year old who has 7 parrots, and raised 2 of them from infants. I also volunteer at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

It's a parakeet egg, btw. I have two parakeets. They need to be fed every 15 minutes, not every two hours, so...


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## Laura (Dec 6, 2012)

i dont think bird eggs are as sensitive as tortoise eggs as for as movement... 
IF its fertile and IF it hatches... 
It will need to be fed from sun up, to some down... every 20 minutes or so for a few weeks. Special baby bird formula. They sleep thru the night...


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## Ripkabird98 (Dec 6, 2012)

Laura said:


> i dont think bird eggs are as sensitive as tortoise eggs as for as movement...
> IF its fertile and IF it hatches...
> It will need to be fed from sun up, to some down... every 20 minutes or so for a few weeks. Special baby bird formula. They sleep thru the night...



Yes. They are just as sensitive
They dont sleep through the night for several weeks.


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## CLMoss (Dec 6, 2012)

I understand your passion; however, this is not an easy thing to do. I know of too many deformed parrots from breeder that did not know what they were doing...


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## Ripkabird98 (Dec 6, 2012)

CLMoss said:


> I understand your passion; however, this is not an easy thing to do. I know of too many deformed parrots from breeder that did not know what they were doing...




Agree completely!

Please don't attempt to hatch this. If it even is fertile, it is dead. If it ISN'T it will be so deformed it's life will be a living nightmare. Just get rid of it. We don't need more parakeets anyway.


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## mira_kaylee (Dec 7, 2012)

This thread is now unarguably closed, at least from my end. I will no longer check this thread for any new replies nor come to it when I access this site. A big thank you for those of you who offered objective advice as I asked and a smaller thank you to those of you who offered the unrequested moral input.


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## CourtneyAndCarl (Dec 7, 2012)

Caring for baby birds is HARD work, and it's not just every two hours. Like someone else said, it's every twenty minutes or so INCLUDING night time when they are newly hatched, it's not until they are a few weeks old that you can skip night times and only do every two hours.

The odds of anything even being in the egg are very slim since parakeets won't breed unless there is a proper nesting site for them, but females will lay infertile eggs pretty often. If you really want to know, it's easy to tell if they egg is fertile, you just candle it, very simple to do. Turn all lights off and turn on a bright light bulb, hold the egg up to the light bulb and look inside. If there are little blood vessels in the egg, then the egg may be fertile, but in very early stages. If it just gives off a yellow-ish hue, then it's infertile. The closer the egg comes to hatching, there will be more and more veins and eventually the egg will be completely black because the baby bird is taking up all the space. If you candle it, there are some veins, but nothing changes from day to day, then the egg was fertile but the chick has already died. Bird eggs aren't going to be nearly as fragile as tortoise eggs, the parents themselves move them around all the time. 

Odds are, the egg will never hatch, but if you want to keep it in an incubator for 6 weeks, there isn't a problem with that. 

I used to breed cockatiels and I can tell you that if it does hatch, your best bet would be to get it to someone that knows birds and possibly has some nesting pairs because newborn birds are almost impossible to hand rear, even for someone that is experienced.


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## yagyujubei (Dec 7, 2012)

If she had only specified the answers she wanted...


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## CourtneyAndCarl (Dec 7, 2012)

Ripkabird98 said:


> Laura said:
> 
> 
> > i dont think bird eggs are as sensitive as tortoise eggs as for as movement...
> ...



Bird eggs are NOT just as sensitive, that is upsurd. Tortoise eggs can't even be turned over without what ever is inside dying. Bird eggs are not nearly as fragile, the parents themselves turn them over often. Turning them is actually a very important part of the incubation process.


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## BowandWalter (Dec 7, 2012)

mira_kaylee said:


> This thread is now unarguably closed, at least from my end. I will no longer check this thread for any new replies nor come to it when I access this site. A big thank you for those of you who offered objective advice as I asked and a smaller thank you to those of you who offered the unrequested moral input.



I've tried and failed to hatch many abandoned eggs, but I wish you luck! Everything deserves someone to fight for them.


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## tyler0912 (Dec 8, 2012)

Well, I Ordered Fertile Eggs Online And They Came Through The Post And 12 Baby Quails Hatched So, Bird eggs Must Be Fairly Hardy.


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