Grumpy Is About To Lay Eggs

Oli Fry

Regular Member
Some of you will have followed the saga of Grumpy the African grey and her recent escape and recovery. Thanks again for all the encouragement. Anyway, it seems that absence really does make the heart grow fonder as she and Clayton have been observed mating - for the first time in ten years together. She has a swollen abdomen, is spending much time in her box (which is usually only used for rummaging about in) and is clearly on the point of laying a clutch. I'm guessing that the eggs will probably be infertile as the mating was probably a one-off and there is generally very little affection between her and Clayton - Clayton does his best but is generally sent packing if he tries to preen her or move things past the feeding stage in any way.

Grumps has a slightly bent spine, I think, which leads her tail to to sit at a slightly odd angle (she was calcium deficient as a baby and was quite weak due to, you guessed it, her and her parents being fed poorly by her breeder). I'm a bit worried that this could make her susceptible to egg binding. Does anyone have any advice? It's too late to take her to vet, as she's very fat now and needs to be in her box most of the time. Her diet is good (organic pellets, sprouted seeds, loads of fruit and veg plus scrambled egg, nuts, the odd bit of fish/a chicken bone etc etc).
 
Aww bless her, sounds like she has a good diet can you add some calcivet powder to her food that should help her as greys often lack in calcium and even more so when producing eggs. Also some egg food like CeDe or EMP - moistened in a dish on it's own.
I am sure others will be along with advice too.
 
may be she needs to go for a long fly about to help loose weight Ha Ha but she has tried that, I would agree with Diana and also try to make her work for her food to help keep her fitter try to train her to forage more. My Reggie and Molly are all over each other at the moment.
 
Congrats to Grumpy!! Sounds like she is getting a great diet, plus being outside she'll be getting sun/Vit D. Doesn't hurt to add a bit of extra calcium in the form of a supplement to the diet right now as Di advised. Plus leafy greens (such as kale), oranges, figs, almonds and seseme seeds are all natural sources of calcium.
 
Hahaa. Yes Michael, maybe next time she should stay out for a few more nights and maybe even go up against a bigger hawk! Nice picture of R&M - a loved-up couple in contrast to C&G, whose relationship is more akin to Basil Fawlty and his wife. Do your pairs still get along with the other greys in your collection when the are nesting? Roz, Diana, Grumpy will now get extra greens and almonds.

The news just in this morning is that one healthy egg has been successfully delivered...I'm guessing there might be two more on the way.
 
How very eggciting, I do not have any problems with the greys but Reggie and Molly stick together, Max and Mo stay together but both pairs will go over to Holly at times. Holly is normally more interested in me than the other greys if the others get close its away from Max and Mo's cage and away from Molly's Box.
 
Well, three eggs appeared - two of which went back inside Grumpy after a week (she ate them). One remains and I've decided to let it go full term without interference. I'm not sure whether I want it to hatch or not. I'd be very surprised if it was fertile but you never know. If a baby does appear and survive it will be remaining with us.
 
Well, the story has ended for now as the remaining egg has now finally been abandoned. It wasn't fertile, which comes as no surprise....
So it will soon be time for Clayton and Grumpy to leave my parents' garden and make the journey back home to their new aviary in London.
 
Just a tip for you … when future eggs appear then you can pre-decide if you wish them to have the ability to be hatched or not.
I get a pencil and mark each egg with a faint line so I know I have seen that egg just in case one gets broken and replaced without my knowledge I can check. The reason of it being a faint line … just as I can see it so too can the birds!
If I do not want eggs to hatch but do wish the birds to complete the process of laying and sitting to get it all out of their system then I pick each one up and hold it separately in my hand and shake it as hard as I can for a good 20 second blast to stop anything from developing inside.
Some people put a tiny pin prick in the eggshell but that can be a smelly messy thing and the birds can detect it and kick it out of the nest and replace it with another one.

Then again perhaps it would be lovely to see and meet the children of the raptor slayer :lol: have images of a chickies with serious attitude!
 
That's brilliant advice - thanks.
At first I was sure I didn't want a baby, but now I'm a bit disappointed - he or she would have been quite a character and it would have been nice for the parents to have a family. I now need to decide whether to carry out my original plan to create a slightly bigger flock of greys. We'll see..
 
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