Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 8/9/2006

Question
I am going to try and make a long story short here.  Last night our female bird of two plus years passed suddenly due to an accident having nothing to do with her health.  She had recently made a nest and we were watching for eggs.  (we have a male also) The morning after the accident that took the mother bird's life, we found a single egg.

We were of course estatic to have the chance to save this only potential hatchling of our beloved parakeet.  I ordered an incubator from Ebay - and Ill admit the cheapest mini incubator they had as its all I can afford at this point, but it will not be here for a few days due to shipping and such.  I had a friend tell me that she had hand raised her tiels - and had used a water bottle and towels to keep the egg warm... Im not sure what I should do..

Do I risk waiting for the incubator or should I be getting this egg to 99.5 ASAP?
Help please?  Thank you!

Answer
Hi again, Rebecca.

You don't have to keep the egg warm UNLESS the female had started the incubation process.  If the incubation process had been started before the female died, yes, you definitely need to keep the egg at about 99 degress F.  Please refer to the answer in my other response you posted a question for.  If the egg has been allowed to cool, even for 15-20 minutes (depending on the ambient temperature) and the incubation process had begun, nothing you do will help the egg.  But you need to know whether incubation had started or not.    

Chrys