Why is my conure laying eggs, plucking, and breathing heavily?

Thanks for reaching out about your conure. The bobbing of the tail could be an indication the there is another egg or breathing difficulty. Try taking her into the steamy warm bathroom to see if that will assist in laying an egg. If not, she needs to be presented to veterinarian today. Good luck.

It is possible the stress of chronic egg laying may be affecting her appearance and feathers. Remove any nesting boxes in the cage. If she's laying in the seed bowl, use a smaller container that she cannot sit in. Limit Camille's exposure to daylight to 8 hours or less. Use a dark cage cover or sheet to block light if necessary. Use a calcium fortified seed mix. Leave the fake eggs in the cage for at least 4 weeks.

Laying so many clutches of eggs and raising that many chicks can be taxing on a bird. Ideally, a breeding hen should have no more than two clutches per calendar year. Remove the remaining chicks from the cage if they are eating on their own. Remove the nesting box as well. Separate the male and female. Drop room temperature by a few degrees and gradually limit her amount of daylight she is getting. This may get her out of "breeding mode" and stop her egg laying. She should be seen by an experienced avian veterinarian to make sure the inflammation around her vent is not infection.

Feed a good quality pelleted diet (Harrison's, Roudybush, Lafeber, Pretty Bird or Exact) supplemented with a fortified seed mix and fresh greens and vegetables. Provide a cuttlebone or mineral block. Always have fresh water available. Provide an appropriately sized nesting box and suitable nesting material (straw, Aspen shaving, shredded newspaper, etc.).

Feather plucking is often associated with boredom, or other issues within their environment, but the cause of this problem is not always known and highly debated amongst avian experts. Making sure she is not bored is a good first step. One good way to keep your bird busy is by making them work for their food. Birds in the wild spend most of their time foraging for food. Instead of just putting food in their bowl, you can hide it, or put it in puzzle toys that require them to do some work to get the food out. I fed my parrot almost exclusively this way. Other enrichment options include putting a mirror in the cage and putting her in other environments. It's best to give your canary as much possible space that you can to let her fly and roam around. You may consider getting perches or other cages for different rooms, or outside. If you can afford to have a flight cage built, this would be even better. Below is a link to some more information about enrichment ideas: http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ It's also good to make sure she is getting enough sleep. This is best achieved by keeping the bird in a dark room during sleep time. Birds should have 12 hours of sleep a night, so don't feel bad about putting her in a dark room for that amount of time. Diet is also very important. She should eat mostly a formulated pellet diet like zupreem. Make sure she is not eating a seed, or nut based diet as these are too fatty and can cause issues leading to feather loss. For more information about diet, read the article at the link below. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/canaries-feeding Lastly, make sure she is bathing regularly. Dry feathers can itch, break and cause them to pluck. It's good to put a bird bath in the cage as much as possible (once a day would be best). I hope that helps and Tweedy gets better soon.

Hi there, I'm Dr G and I see a lot of birds. Your conure, even though he is not pulling feathers out is still having some "feather picking" or at the least over grooming. This can have so many reasons! So many! Often at this time of year, it relates to seasonal sexual behavior. It can also be a skin infection, stress of some sort, loneliness, and more. I would recommend an exam by a vet to rule out medical problems before starting to work on behavioral reasons. Increased bathing/misting encourages normal grooming behavior. Making sure your bird is on a low seed/high pellet diet and the pellet is free of colors and dyes. (Just make changes slowly). Make sure you are not encouraging sexual or mating behaviors in your bird by not kissing them, not snuggling them too much and not petting along the lower back or abdomen area.

A female does not need a male in order to lay eggs. Once she matures (at around 1 year old), she will begin to lay eggs. They will be infertile in the absence of a male. If placed together and conditions are right, they may mate and she will lay fertile eggs. They typically lay a clutch of 4-6 eggs with 24-48 hours between eggs. Incubation lasts about 3-4 weeks.