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Some kind bird has laid an egg ontop of the rabbit cage.

3 replies

dooit · 21/06/2009 15:44

Perhaps she couldn't hang on til she got back to the nest and was overwhelmed by the need to push.

We just got home to find a perfectly formed pure white egg on the rabbit hutch. It's about 1 inch long. Any ideas what it could be? I don't think it's a blackbird or a magpie as it's the wrong colour.

The kids want to incubate it and see what happens. Any suggestions on how bwst to do that?

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dooit · 21/06/2009 21:01

I was just googling pigeon egg pics and I found this! Looks like a likely culprit.here

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dooit · 21/06/2009 20:55

Thanks beautifulgirls. It's a real mystery as to how it got on to the rabbit cage. There's a HUGE tree close to it but it's about 40 or more feet tall and I'm sure an egg falling from it would have smashed.

You are absolutely right re. the hatching wild birds eggs. I must admit I only really agreed to them keeping the egg as I'm 99.9% certain it won't hatch. They currently have it in a dish on top of the sky box (the cat usually sleeps there as it is rather warm!).

As children we once raised a jackdaw chick at home.The nest he was in had collapsed down our chimney and he was the only survivor. The imaginatively named Jack went on to be a real character in the neighbourhood as he would fly to the shop with us and sit in a tree outside until we came out. He was eventually re homed to a friend who had a pigeon loft and he did find a mate and leave home one day.

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beautifulgirls · 21/06/2009 20:11

It has probably been pushed out of a nest rather than just laid there. About 1 inch long - could be a pigeon egg? Incubation is really hard - you need the correct temperature, right humidity and to gradually turn the egg through the day too. An incubator would do all this for you of course, but is a huge investment for one egg. Aside from that there is also the rather huge issue of IF something hatches out how you rear it. Hand rearing baby birds is not an easy thing to do and the younger you start the harder it is. If you reach the stage of having a living bird, you also need to remember that this is a wild bird and should be treated as such and released back - quite an emotional roller coaster.
I'm also not sure exactly where you stand with a wild bird egg in your possession legally either, though of course it is quite clear you didn't set out to steal anything either!
All in all I think you should think long and hard about doing this. Have look in nearby bushes etc and see if there are any nesting areas that might just have lost an egg and you can try putting it back. It probably has the best possible chance if that is the case - but the chances are slim sadly whatever.

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