Incubating eggs is the second step in breeding parrots. You could do the first part correctly and then fail in the second, causing you losing the new hatchlings. It’s very important to learn how to incubate parrot eggs properly, especially if the pair the eggs came from is mating for the first time.
So, How To Incubate Parrots Eggs?
To incubate parrots eggs, you will need an incubator prepared with rotation, temperature, and humidity systems. Calibrate the temperature to 99F, and the humidity should be between 40-65% to prevent the eggs from getting dry. Rotation is to imitate the movements of natural incubating by female parrots.
They could feel stressed and anxious, leading them to destroy their own eggs because of this tough time. And to incubate and hatch parrot eggs at home, you basically have two options. One is to let the mother do her job if you are sure that the mother won’t destroy the clutch of eggs.
The best way to determine this is to go back to her history. Did she mate and lay eggs before? Did she destroy her eggs before? If you do not know and you are just breeding parrots for the first time, I highly suggest that you use an incubator. In this article, you will learn everything you need on how to incubate parrot eggs, and how to hatch them at home.
How Do You Know If a Parrot Egg is Fertile?
If you found an egg inside you inside your parrot’s cage, you may want to know if the egg is fertile since some parrots can lay eggs with a mate. Obviously, if you have only one parrot without a mate, then it’s an unfertilized egg for sure.
The hen could lay unfertilized eggs even if the male mate is around in the same cage, and sometimes this actually could happen after mating, especially if they were mating for the first time because male parrots could do it wrong, and the female would lay eggs thinking that the fertilization happened correctly.
So it’s a good idea to make sure if the eggs are fertile or not, and here is a video showing that:
What to Do to Incubate and Hatch Parrot Egg at Home
First of all, to incubate parrot eggs, you have to decide whether you want to use an incubation device from the first time you find the eggs, or you want to give the mother a period of 5-1- days to do the job herself. The decision is up to you to make if you trust your parrot with eggs, then you are alright to let her incubate the eggs for a week or so.
However, knowing how many eggs you have will help to know which incubator is the best. Some parrots will lay 2 eggs, and some of them will lay 12 eggs during the breeding season.
So, take the eggs from the nesting box of your parrots, be careful some parrots could show aggression. Take them carefully and put them in the incubator. The bigger part (Air Cell) should slightly face the upper side, here the next picture to know where is the Air Cell.
Putting the egg this way will prevent them and save them from getting harmed when the incubator rotates them. You should get an incubator that performs this rotation, and set it up to rotate every 3 hours.
Most incubators won’t perform a full rotation, so you have to do it yourself once every day and flip the eggs 180 degrees toward the opposite side. Candling the eggs is essential to determine if the chicks are about the hatch, and you can do it just the same way I mentioned earlier in this post, just like you are checking if the egg is fertile.
You should look at the Air Cell, at the hatching time it will get a lot bigger, up to half of the egg, and when you see this enlargement in the air cell, you should remove the egg from the incubator to the hatching box, the rounded Air cell will turn to be a larger and elliptical shaped.
One of the 2 sides of this elliptical Air Cell will extend down to the opposite side of the egg, the other side will remain at the same place. And this is called the drawdown that indicates that the hatching is very close, and in most cases, it will happen in no more than 3 days.
Determining the hatching signs from the Air cell Enlargement and drawdown is easy, but it could be tricky, so I recommend that you candle at least one egg every day. This way, it should be easy for you to notice the differences when they occur.
You should use the brightest light you got to candle the eggs. The brightest light is always the better. This will allow you to notice many details that you need to determine the hatching signs.
If you find this hard and risky, it’s ok to let the eggs in the incubator until you see the first pip in the eggshell, then you are all good to put the eggs in the hatching box.
How Long Do Parrot Eggs Take to Hatch?
It depends on the breed. Some breeds need 24 days to hatch, some of them need 32 days, but almost every breed of parrots needs 18 to 34 days to hatch.
What Temperature Should Parrot Eggs Be Incubated at?
The perfect temperature and humidity actually depend on the breed the egg came from, but in general, almost all parrots eggs can hatch with a temperature around 99F.
Of course, this temperature is not ideal to breed parrots, but it’s only ideal to incubate the eggs, and you can only provide it with an incubator or by letting the hen d her job.
The humidity is also an important factor to get a higher success rate hatching parrot eggs, lack of humidity could lead to the eggs getting dehydrated, and the death of the chick, eventually.
The ideal humidity to incubate a parrot egg is between 40% to 65%. This also depends on the breed, so before you set a certain humidity degree in the incubator I suggest doing research online for the specific breed you got.
For example, if you successfully bred Quaker parrots, the ideal humidity for them is 65%, African grey, macaws, and cockatoos need different levels of humidity.
Can You Incubate Eggs Without an Incubator?
To hatch a parrot egg without an incubator, you need to imitate the perfect temperature, humidity, and continuous rotation that is found either in an incubator or under the hen. And just by thinking about it, it’s clearly a hard thing to do, especially for temperature and humidity. You will need a steady humidity and temperature to hatch parrot eggs without an incubator or the hen.
Any drop in humidity or rise in temperature could cause the egg to get dehydrated, leading to the death of the new chick. The rotation is also a necessary thing that the eggs need, at least every two hours. I don’t think it’s a very good idea to try to incubate the parrot eggs and hatch them without the mother or a specialized incubator; you are basically risking the new hatchlings.
Further Reading:
What Do Baby Parrots Eat and How to Feed Them
How to Wean Baby Parrots?
Hello, my name is sadeq and I am obsessed about parrot And I am here to share everything about raising pet parrots and how to be good owners to your bird.
