Guy makes a range of 3D Printed and hand finished Eggs to assist with captive breeding programs throughout Zoos Victoria and Australia.

They include :-

Finches

Scaly-Breasted/Musk Lorikeet

Sacred Kingfisher

Rainbow Lorikeet

Supurb Parrot

Gang Gang

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo

Plumed Whistling Duck

Bush Stone Curlew

Hardhead

Black Swan

He Ho

OBP

Plains Wanderer

EMU Solid & Re-Breakable

RadjahShelduck

Black Breasted Buzzard

How to make 3D Printed Eggs

Design the Egg using OpenSCAD (CAD Program using Programming/Maths) as close to the shape of the Egg for that particular Bird usually from a profile Photo of a real egg.
Create an STL File for input into a 3D Printer Slicer – Turns the CAD File into Layers (Effectively Slicing the Model) so that it can be Printed Layer by Layer on a 3D Printer. This also generates a support like an egg cup to hold the egg as it is being printed.
The Infill density on the 3D Printer is set to approximately 80% (Normally 15%) to achieve the closest weight to a real Egg – percentage varies with Egg Size and Shell Thickness,
Finished 3D Print has Lines that need to be Sanded to a Smooth Egg like Surface.

Eggs for Black-Breated Buzzard Demonstrations|Guy Pilens

Replica Emu Egg to demonstrate Black-Breasted Buzzard Egg breaking behaviour..

These replica Emu Eggs are 3-D Printed and designed to break open when struck by a rock, replicating the natural behaviour of the Black-Breasted Buzzard. The Egg halves are held together with rare-earth magnets allowing the eggs to be quickly reset between demonstrations.

Guy developed the Re-Breakable Emu Egg in conjunction with the Bird Team at Healesville Sanctuary and now makes them available to other Zoos in Australia that fly Black Breasted Buzzards.

Black Breasted Buzzards have an unique ability to use a tool (Rock) to break into Emu Eggs. The only other bird in the world that exhibits that skill is the Egyptian Vulture.

Guy’s re-breakable Emu Eggs for Black-Breasted Buzzard Demonstartions are now at Healesville Sanctuary- Vic, Tooronga Zoo – NSW, Alice Springs Desert Park & Territory Wildlife Park – NT, Eagles Heratage (WA) & O’Reillys Rainforest Retreat – Qld.

How to make a Re-Breakable Emu Egg

Design: Guy Pilens

First produced: 2023

Application: Wildlife Education Demonstrations

This project reflects the philosophy in my book The Contribution Shift – small innovations that improve systems and help people do their work better.

Making the Egg re-breakable requires a more steps than a Solid Egg.

Design the Egg using OpenSCAD – this time it is a Hollow Emu Sized Egg

Transfer the Egg to Blender (Another CAD Program) to Post Process the Hollow Egg – Slice the Egg where the Two Halves Crack apart – this is a complex Plane that generates Teeth at many complex angles)

Then the halves have their magnet holders attached and edges thickened & strengthened.

3. Then its of to the Slicer and 3D Printing (The Egg takes 24 hours to print Top and Bottom.

4. Magnets are attached with Epoxy Glue and then covered with Hot Melt Glue.

5. Next its Sanding out the Printing Lines and Honing any Gaps between the Halves with a Nail File until there are no Gaps around the join where the Black Breasted Buzzard could use their Tallons to open the Egg.

6. Final Process is Airbrushing the unique surface finish of the Emu Egg, this is achieved with Many, many layers of Spattered Airbrush Dots, White, Black and Turquoise. Then multiple layers of Eurothane are applied to the Egg to protect it from the Hammering it will get with the Rock the birds use to open it.

Swan Eggs for Melbourne ZOO

Melbourne Zoo’s pair of male swans are practicing their parenting after keepers used 3D printing to create artificial eggs for the loved-up couple.

Click on this text or picture to hear the Zoos Victoria Facebook Story of Billy & Elliot and why we made them some replica Swan Eggs

A passionate volunteer at Healesville Sanctuary has 3D printed fake swan eggs for Melbourne Zoo’s courting pair of male rescued swans, so they can experience the first stages of fatherhood.

The announcement was made on Zoos Victoria’s Facebook page, as Melbourne Zoo’s resident birdkeeper Ben explained the prevalence of male courting among swans and how the couple could benefit from experiencing the nurturing stages of raising eggs, despite their fake nature.

The video explained that its swan pair, Billy and Elliot, had both been rescued after dog attacks and now lived at Melbourne Zoo, as they can’t be returned to the wild. In spring, the swans began courting each other.

Australian black swans Billy and Elliot live on a billabong in Melbourne Zoo’s Australian Bush habitat. Both stayed at the zoo after being rescued following dog attacks, as they could not be returned to the wild.

This southern hemisphere spring the doting duo have been feeling a little frisky and have been courting – behaviour that is not particularly rare when no female swans are present.

Melbourne Zoo Bird Keeper Ben Oliver says: “If they don’t have a female mate, they will often display to each other; we see them making beautiful shapes with their necks, vocalising and swimming on the water in a pair formation.”

As well as having a romance, the male pair had also constructed a nest – and keepers have used 3D printing to give them a chance to exercise their parental instincts.

Oliver adds: “We wanted to let them have the chance to explore their reproductive behaviours so we asked one of our volunteers, who can print 3D eggs, to make some we could put in the nest.” Zoos Victoria Volunteer Guy Pilens used a computer program and 3D printer to create a clutch of five dummy eggs, to the exact shape and weight of real swan eggs.

Swan eggs are not the only reproduction in Guy’s repertoire, he has printed 20 different species of bird eggs for Zoos Victoria, from tiny little finch eggs to Emu eggs. While the male swans didn’t sit on the eggs, they did react to them when they saw them in the nest, giving the pair a chance to practice their protective and territorial behaviours.

This Article was so popular it was referenced and reprinted on Websites around the world:, even a 3Dprinting site :-). – here are some of those websites