My budgie has layed an egg, how do I know if it is fertile?

Question
Hello. I have two budgies and I am not sure of the sexes of them (well, obviously at least one is a girl!). I was cleaning their cage today and found an egg, I decided to leave it in the cage just incase.

Are there any signs that will show if it is fertile? If so, what should I do when it's time to clean them out? And what should I do when it hatches? Should I leave them to it, take it to the vet etc?

Will she lay more eggs? If so will all of these be fertile if the other bird is male? How long will it take for the egg to hatch if it is fertile?

Thanks!

Answer
Hi,

To check if your egg is fertile, you will need to do what is called "candle" the egg. Basically you can hold the egg up to a light source and in a fertile egg you will see veiny like structure in the eggg. Usually a infertile egg will look clear all the way through, no veins or apparent growth.

Now on to what you should do with the egg, this could go either way. If you wish to take on the task of raising baby parakeets you should probably do a little research into the care and feeding of baby birds. If the mother successfully hatches the egg(s) but does not feed them or rejects them from the nest, you will either be caught by complete suprise and watch as the baby bird basically dies from starvation or exposure to the drafts without the mothers protection. If you are considering breeding your parakeets you should probably invest in a "Breeding box". these boxes are fairly inexpensive and can be purchased just about any pet supply store or online pet store. The birds should take to the nest fairly easy as it is their instinct. The female can lay up to 6 eggs, and not sit on egg #1 until egg #6 is laid on the 5th or 6th day. Incubation of the parakeets eggs are usually 18 days from the day of incubation. You could be looking at 24-25 days from the time of egg#1 being laid until all eggs hatch together.




P.S. just a side note, to sex your parakeet look at the cere just above the beak. It should be where the nostril holes are. If the color is BLUE or PURPLE it is a male. Females will have a brownish color cere. This only applies to parakeets of normal color. Lutino or Albino birds may have the same cere color, thereby eliminating the chance to ID the sex by sight.


Best of luck!