Help hatching Green Cheek Conure

[Delilah1337]

It’s time to admit that I officially have Hatching Fever.

I started with chicken eggs and now I have some pheasant eggs due to hatch in a few weeks. So far my hatch rates have been really good even though I’m still a beginner. Now that I’m comfortable with my incubator and have a better understanding of the whole process, I think I’m ready to try my hand at a different kind of bird. Ever since I first saw them I have known I wanted a Green Cheek Conure, now I think I want to try hatching my own little fella. Now I know this is going to be a different process and will require a lot of research before I begin but I really think I can do this. We have the time and space for a new bird and I have experience with larger parrots so this is going to be exciting.

Here’s where you guys come in… This site has been a huge part of my success with my chickens and I am incredibly grateful for all the great advice and knowledge. I’m hoping to find someone on here that has experience with hatching birds like the Conure or anything of the sort. I would love to connect with someone that can offer some tips and support to help me hatch a healthy happy bird. I won’t be looking to hatch for a while but eventually I will need help finding Fertile eggs, they aren’t quite as easy to come by as chickens

Hopefully someone here has eggs or knows of a friend that has them and is willing to sell me some. I have had eggs shipped before with great success and I’m willing to try it again if needed. I am only going to hatch a couple birds because I do not want to sell or breed them, at most I will hatch 5 birds. The ideal situation would be for me to find eggs from two different blood lines so I could have a pair without them being siblings. Ok so this is getting pretty long, I am just so excited with the idea and can’t wait to get started!! If anyone wants to help me I would be much appreciative, feel free to PM me or reply to this thread, I look forward to hearing from my BYC friends

 

[punk-a-doodle]

This is what I would strongly suggest:
Start with fertile pigeon eggs (these are surprisingly hard to come by through sellers, so I *think* you can legally raid feral pigeon nests under bridges and other easy access places as I *think* they are considered a pest species and not a regulated species...check on that though). You can get pigeons off local online classified sites for 3 bucks each, and just wait for them to lay eggs. For your first attempt, I would just help the parents raise the baby (pigeons need crop milk from their parents the first few days), and just start helping them feed their two babies starting at about day 4, and increasingly switching over to feeding and brooding them yourself as they age. Pigeons have a unique ability to suction up liquids, so, by using a Kaytee hand feeding bird formula, you can rig up a feeding method that does not require a feeding tube. I would build up to the feeding tube. The feed must be at *exactly* the right temperature. Too hot and you can burn a hole through the crop killing them, too cold and that can also cause complications. When inserting a feeding tube, you *must* make sure the tube goes down the correct hole, or you will fill the lungs up with fluid and kill the bird. If you do a search for "punk-a-doodle hand feeding" you will hit other posts I've made that have more detailed instructions and images. Pigeons are much, much easier to hand feed and raise then other birds (they also do not need to be fed as often), but they still take a learning curve.

Then, once you can raise pigeons like a pro, I would obtain a single, young green cheek. See how you like the species for a pet, or if you do. Then, I would obtain a breeding pair or mate you conure, and go through the same process of first sharing the care of the baby with the adults, and slowly working up to completely hand-rearing them. Just realize that care is much trickier for the parrot species than the pigeons, so research carefully and thoroughly and have plans and back-up plans.