Parrots: how to understand that a female is pregnant?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

If the parrots have formed a pair, the male gives the female signs of attention, and she favorably accepts them, the breeder can hope for replenishment in the family of pets.

All preparations are over, the days go by and the impatience grows. What are the signs that a female parrot is pregnant? How to understand that fertilization was successful?

Preparing for nesting

Parrots will safely bring and raise offspring if you carefully prepare the steamed, that is, birds that have created a harmonious pair. Work begins almost a month before the proposed masonry:

• The season of the year is important for breeding. It is better to organize nesting in the spring. Daylight hours are long enough, air temperature and humidity are optimal. The spring-summer variety of fresh food will benefit both older birds and young birds. Growing babies will have better conditions than winter chicks.
• Parrots are released to fly every day for a month. Active walks will strengthen the muscles and speed up the metabolism.
• Simultaneously withthis begins an intensive course of vitamin and mineral supplementation. Special preparations for birds are used, preferably recommended by a veterinarian or an experienced breeder.
• In the last week before mating, the diet is enriched with additional protein and sprouted grains.
• Departures from the cage are completely cancelled. They try not to disturb the birds.
• The nest box is hung up. The parrot house should be spacious enough to accommodate a bird with grown chicks. At the bottom there is a small hole for eggs. The top cover is hinged. The best material is wood. The box is hung outside the cage. The notch aligns with the side door so that the birds can freely climb inside.



• If the birds are interested in the house, then the mating took place, and the female parrot is pregnant. How to understand that laying will begin soon? A little more than a week is left until X-hour. This will be indicated by behavioral and physiological signs that even a novice breeder will notice.
• As soon as the first egg appears, the amount of protein in the diet decreases. Gradually, the amount of succulent feed also decreases. While the female lays and incubates her eggs, she is fed with one grain mixture or steamed cereals so as not to provoke diarrhea. Feeding gradually returns to normal just before the first chick leaves the nest.

Behavior of a female parrot during pregnancy

Physiological signs of an interesting position will appear when the first egg begins to form. A week after fertilization, it is already obvious that the female parrot is pregnant. How to understand that this happened in the first days? A sign that the female is preparing for laying will be her changed habits:

• The bird begins to actively eat sepia, mineral stone and try "by the beak" everything it can reach.
• The female is actively plucking feathers near the cloaca and on her stomach.
• Feed refusal possible. At the same time, the male feeds the female from his beak; she will accept such courtship favorably.



• Some clumsiness in movements becomes noticeable.
• Most of the time the bird is dozing.
• When she is awake, she builds a nest. The female will either fill the nest box with sawdust, or throw away the ones laid in advance. In any case, she will prove herself a full mistress.
• Female can become aggressive and irritable. Grumpy intonations will appear in her chirping, she will avoid the hands of the owner and hide in the house. The female can also show a negative attitude towards the male.

Egg maturation in parrots

The female parrot has only one ovary. Egg cells mature in it in turn. In the vesicle containing one of the cells, the accumulation of nutrients occurs. This forms the yolk of the future egg.

When the enlarged egg leaves the ovary, it enters the oviduct where fertilization takes place. An embryo is formed, which begins to develop rapidly. At this time, the yolk continues to move along the oviduct, asconveyor. In one section, special glands will cover it with a thick mucous membrane - protein. In another, it will become overgrown with a thin shell film, similar to soft skin. At the last stage, the egg acquires a hard shell, rich in calcium.

Full maturation occurs in a day or a little longer. All the while, muscle contraction creates a rotational movement of the egg, propelling it forward and shaping it. This process causes great discomfort to the bird.

The state of the female during the laying period

By outward signs, you can see that an egg will appear soon:

• The female's abdomen is greatly enlarged. There is swelling in the hypochondrium until the egg is fully formed.
• Ready to go, it becomes highly visible. The area of the cloaca swells and becomes very red.
• Growing in size, the egg interferes with digestion and the transit of feces. Therefore, bowel movements become rare, but the feces come out in large portions. The stools have an unusual smell. Possibly loose stools.
• Before the female lays an egg, her tail begins to rhythmically, in time with her breath, tremble. It's like ice fishing with a fishing rod.
• A completely bald "brood spot" appears on the abdomen.

Egg laying

During this period, the birds are especially in need of peace, and the close attention of the breeder does not please them. It is known that the female parrot is pregnant. How to understand that the egg-laying process is also going well? It is enough to look into the nest box only once a day.

The female laysan egg every day. Usually there are five or six of them. Young pairs bring up to twelve eggs, mature - only three or four. It is not necessary that all of them will be fertilized. The female sits on the nest when the first two or three eggs appear. She carefully warms them, regularly turns them over and sorts out the bedding. The bird leaves the clutch only to empty its intestines. The male does not participate in the incubation of eggs, although he feeds the female and stays in the house for a long time.

The incubation period for eggs in parrots is about eighteen days. By the time the first chick appears, the clutch will be completed. The female will gradually begin to regain strength for a new, no less difficult period of feeding the chicks.