Lately G, my 15 year old African Gray parrot, had taken to playing in paper shopping bags. We'd put one on the couch as we watched TV and she's run in to her paper cave and start shredding the bottom. She seemed to love it and would hide in the bag shredding paper for hours at a time. Every once in a while she'd come out climb into my lap and raise her wings. I'd stroke her under the wings for a while, and then she'd run back into the bag.
Much our surprise we found an egg on the floor of her cage last Friday morning! The egg is about 1.5 inches long, seeming rather massive for a bird whose whole body length is just under 9 inches. She seemed indifferent to her production, and the egg is infertile as we have no male parrots in or flock. We've had her since she was a chick and this had never happened before. We had the vet check her out to make certain that she'd not become calcium depleted, and she was fine. The vet did tell us, "No more paper bags and no more stroking under the wings or on her back; only only on her head or face." It seems that the bag play was "nest building" and the under wing areas are erogenous zones on birds. Who knew?
I've attached a photo of the egg next to a dime for scale.
Much our surprise we found an egg on the floor of her cage last Friday morning! The egg is about 1.5 inches long, seeming rather massive for a bird whose whole body length is just under 9 inches. She seemed indifferent to her production, and the egg is infertile as we have no male parrots in or flock. We've had her since she was a chick and this had never happened before. We had the vet check her out to make certain that she'd not become calcium depleted, and she was fine. The vet did tell us, "No more paper bags and no more stroking under the wings or on her back; only only on her head or face." It seems that the bag play was "nest building" and the under wing areas are erogenous zones on birds. Who knew?
I've attached a photo of the egg next to a dime for scale.
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