What to do about dirty eggs?

[Ricardo Ronsini]

Hello fellows.

I have some careless birds that occasionally poop inside the nest boxes, and not rarely the eggs get a little dirty, i heard that in this case the best thing that we can do is to clean them up with warm water, but i'm concerned that this could harm the embryos.

What do you guys do? Does anybody have tried to clean these eggs? Or the best is to let it be?

Thanks.

[ac12]

I leave it alone.
You risk breaking the egg if you try to clean it.
With some birds, you also risk them abandoning the eggs.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

So, they use the warm water to soften all the crap that is sticked to the eggshell, then it becomes pretty easy to remove.

My worry is that placing the eggs in warm water, and then taking them out to clean, would cause abrupt temperature alternation, and harm the embryo.

I never cleaned them before, but sometimes the chicks die in the shell, so i was wondering if this could prevent these deaths.

[lovezebs]

Ricardo Ronsini

I would definitely leave the eggs alone.
The parents turn them in the nest, so the poop will rub off eventually.
No body washes or cleans eggs in the wild.

Playing around with the eggs, you take a chance of breakage, abandonment, or adding too much moisture to the eggs and harming the possible babies.

So no egg washing, lol.

[Sheather]

I've actually washed cockatiel eggs in the sink. They hatched. Only in case of heavy soiling though. Finch eggs are more fragile so I've never done anything with them and have had dirty eggs hatch just fine.

[Ricardo Ronsini]

All right guys, thanks for the help