Hi

I have a pair of sun conures -- Rocky and Bullwinkle. We've again had chicks fail to exit their eggs. They've started, but haven't quite made it. This is the second time that we've been in this situation. The birds on a diet of breeder pellets and fruit. We had a large bowl of water in their cage to try and increase the humidity this time -- we thought that the shells may have dried out last time (it's been a fairly hot summer) and Rocky has diligently looked after her eggs. An avain vet has looked at some of the dead chicks and they weren't deformed; however, as they had started to hatch, he couldn't do bacterial cultures. One breeder suggested using orchid mix in their box to try and stabilise the micro-climate, but Bully seems to have a finicky constitution and I'm afraid he'll pick up some nasty bacteria from the mix (I know I sound paranoid, but he spent a fortnight in intensive care followed by 6 weeks of being crop fed early last year).

I'm at a loss as to what to do and would be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks in anticipation

Kallisen

i wish i could help ive just bought a breeding pair myself.Do u have any tips on keeping them quite have mine live in my front room and the male seems to take great pleasure in screaming the house down.They r semi wild whick isn't helping but hand taming is going well but the screaming is becoming a problem any help would be greatfully received.

My male tends to screech when he's bored and in his cage. Either take him out or give him something to keep him occupied such as stuffing clear staws with sunflower seeds (a treat at our house) so he has to chew through the straw to obtain the seed. Cheap and keeps them entertained

i would love to take him out but their not that tame yet i'll try to entertain him instead thanks

Have high expectations and birds will follow them. My conures were allowed out of the cage the same day they came home. They were far from tame as they had been in a pet shop together for a year before I bought them. They were flying back to their cage within an hour, familiarising with the room, fllying to me within a day and stepping up within a week. You need to have the right balance of patience and persistence. They areclever birds, just let them get on with it.

As for screeching, it's natural for a conure, just try & distract him. My male does it too. If I say "Kiwi be quiet please" he says "OK,OK" then laughs and does it again. Entertaining them is the key.

if the chicks are pipping and then dying in the shells, it could mean that the humidity has been too high during most of the incubation. i had a similar roblem with quail, the chicks would pip and then die in the shells, it turned out that id had too high a humidity during the incubation period, and they eggs had not lost enough water, so when the chicks piped the remaining fluid in the egg set like glue when air was alowed inside the shell, trapping the chicks inside.