Candling is the process of holding the egg of a lovebird up to a bright light to observe the developments of the embryo inside the egg. Performing this task are important to determine whether the egg is fertile or not, and if the embryo within the egg is developing corectly. Knowing whether the egg is healthy or not allows the bird owner to discard the eggs that will spoil, thus avoiding the spread of bacteria to the other eggs in a clutch.
Candling should be performed after the first egg has been laid from the clutch. After the first few day of incubation, the embryo has not yet developed enough to be seen within the egg when viewed with a bright light source. During these initial days, owners often make the mistake of assuming that the eggs isnt fertile due to the inability to see the embryo within the egg.
How to Check Lovebird Eggs
However, owners should perform candling after three or four days of incubation when the embryo has developed enough to be seen as a tiny red dot within the egg. Five days into incubation, the tiny red dot will have developed into thin lines that indicate the embryo within the egg. The embryo continue to develop during the incubation process.
Each day the embryo within the egg increases in size. As the embryo increases in size, the amount of space within the egg that the albumen within the egg occupies decreases. Additionally, movement can be seen within the egg, which indicate that the chick within the egg is alive.
If an egg does not display any movement of the embryo within the egg, or if the network of veins within the egg does not appear to be change from the other eggs within the clutch, then the egg is likely not developing, and you should remove it to avoid the spread of bacteria to the other eggs in the clutch. In addition to determining whether the embryo within the egg is developing corectly, candling also allows for the owner to determine the size of the air cell within the egg. Air cells within the eggs are located at the blunt end of the egg, and grow in size over time as the embryo release moisture from the egg.
By the last week that the eggs are incubated, the air cell within the egg should be approximately one-quarter of the size of the egg. Too small an air cell indicates that the humidity within the incubation environment was too high, while too large an air cell indicates that the environment was too dry to effectively incubate the eggs. Within the final few days of incubation, the embryo within the egg will begin to turn its head towards the air cell within the egg.
Eventually, the chick will begin to break through the shell of the egg, and may make soft sound within the shell to indicate its movement. It is important to avoid interfering with this process; the chick must struggle to extract itself from the egg and absorb the remaining yolk. Only intervene if the egg has exhibited an external pip (an opening in the shell) but did not proceed in breaking through the shell after two full days.
The candling process should be stopped after day eighteen of incubation. After eighteen days the eggs tend to darken in color so that they can no longer be effectively candled; candling at this late stage can potentially create stress or even chill the embryo within the egg. Thus, once the eggs reach the final few days of incubation, they should be allowed to remain in there incubation environment without disturbance.
By using a development chart and candling each of the eggs, the owner can create a record of the development of those specific eggs. By keeping such a record, the owner is able to become familiar with the development cycle of their lovebird eggs, to understand the specific conditions required to incubate those eggs, and to have knowledge and certainty in the care of those eggs. Thus, while candling does not play a major role in the development of the eggs, it provides the knowledge to the owners themselves to make those critical decisions.