So, as many of you know, I have two cockatiels. And, as many of you are well aware, they want to be parents. We have had almost every crazy experience you can think of concerning the issue, including (but not limited to) having an egg laid on my chest, having both birds fall in love with me-- wait, Daisy was in love with me, Toto was more in love with just my feet--, and delivering a baby via C-section, or whatever the bird equivalent is. Two years ago, Daisy laid 23 eggs before we finally put a heat rock in so the babies would survive (Daisy and Toto haven't mastered the whole incubation concept). So, we had two little babies (one via C-section) and they grew up to be spoiled, obnoxious, and LOUD creatures that drove me so crazy that I finally dumped them on a friend of mine, who actually quite enjoys them. Go figure. Unfortunately, only hours after the little ones moved into their new home, Daisy and Toto were looking for a suitable nest.
"No way!" says Mondo, "Make 'em stop!"
Unfortunately that's impossible. So guess what? We have eggs again. We didn't give them a suitable nest, but it didn't squelch their spirit, so they finally started a clutch on the floor. The eggs have not developed, as Toto and Daisy still forget to incubate them, but I've left them in the cage in order to keep Daisy from having to lay more.
So it was one morning that Toto and Daisy were loudly expecting breakfast when I discovered that one of the eggs was missing. Upon further investigation, it was discovered to be resting peacefully in the food dish. The food dish, mind you, that sits six inches above the nest. How could this happen? In my experience, eggs do not simply sprout legs or wings and move themselves to higher locations. Eggs are also spherical in nature, not lending to an easy grasp for a bird with sharp beak measuring about one third the egg's size. The only other creatures with the capacity to move the egg were my husband, who had a good alibi for the time of the incident, and the dog, who could have lifted the egg, but definitely couldn't have gotten the cage open to do so.
It was a huge mystery for over a week. Mondo and I decided that the most likely scenario involved aliens with very large ears. We went on vacation, (see previous post) and on our return trip received a phone call from our neighbor/pet sitter. She'd been unable to reach us when she was with the birds, but explained that Toto had an egg attached to his belly, and she was unsure what to do. Since we got home before she had a chance to come back over, we got to solve that one. Sure enough, Toto was moving another egg. Lots. He was pacing, climbing, squawking and calling as if nothing were out of the ordinary, and an egg was bouncing about just in front of his legs. Humorous sight, actually.
Turns out that if you leave eggs out long enough, they'll rot. And when a bird tries to move a rotten egg with his sharp beak, the egg can puncture and ooze. And since said bird is incubating said rotten egg, the ooze dries and attaches itself to the bird's feathers. Oops.
And you'd think after all this, I'd remove those rotten eggs, but I haven't and probably won't... They don't stink as far as I can smell, and honestly, spoiled rotten eggs are SO much better than spoiled rotten baby birds!!
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