FINCHforum

Back Story: I Have been breeding my birds (gouldians) for a few years, with no issues aside form the occasional chick toss. In December of last year I switched my seed mixes from Kaytee to those provided by Ladygouldianfich.com. (breeding seed, resting seed, and the baby seed) As well as switching to her herb greens mix, millet spray, and adding kelp, seeing that it came highly recommended by several people on this sight. It is the only change I have made since breeding my birds last. When I went to breed my two pairs this year both of my hens ended up egg bound. There is cuttle bone in the cage at all times as well as a flavored calcium block, they get fresh fruits and veggies as well as boiled egg with shell at least once a week, most often more but I do occasionally forget there is also commercial egg food available at all times, as well as dried greens and kelp. One of the hens (first timer) has been egg bound twice, she has been going to town on the cuttle bone, the other (my trooper) has hardly touched it (though in the past she has had no problems eating it)

Both hens have been diagnosed as egg bound by a vet and "treated". In talking to my vet he is inclined to blame the seed, I am having a little trouble with that seeing as how you all use it so successfully. Any ideas what could be going on?

I can't speak for the seed, I use a basic mix from local feed stores.
Sounds like there are enough calcium sources and the hard boiled egg should be giving them Vitamin D for calcium absorption.
Is there a chance you are feeding too much of something that has oxalic acid or phytic acid in it that is preventing the calcium from being absorbed?
The page about nutrients and their sources and safe and unsafe foods are here:
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/safe_toxi ... _foods.php
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/nutrients_and_sources.php

Hope that helps a little

Purely anecdotal but I would wonder if it is a calcium problem.

My Gouldians don't seem to be interested in cuttle bone at all. I provide them with eggshells ground up in an old coffee grinder and with oyster shell. That and commercial egg food and greens.

When laying they go through what seems to me like a huge amount of both types of shells.

I have seen data on other birds showing that the calcium in one egg shell represents something like 10% of the hen's total skeletal bone stores of calcium. Thats a huge turnover in calcium metabolism every day. She temporarily "parks" dietary calcium in bone and then dissolves that bone to provide calcium to make eggshells.

Calcium has to be in balance with other minerals especially Phosphorus (roughly calcium 2: Phosphorus 1). It's possible that some other mineral is over abundant and throwing the calcium out of wack, or under abundant and the calcium is NOT being absorbed and used properly. Just because you provide something that seems balanced does not mean that they are eating it that way..., ie, you can't be sure exactly what see in a mix a bird is eating. It's also possible that she requires something at a higher rate then normal and that your last feeding program provided that. Bottom line...if what your doing isn't working for YOUR birds...go back to what was working and see if the problem fixes itself.

I didn't see any mention of a mineral mix. I like to offer a cup of free-choice mineral mix--Abba minerals, oystershell grit, charcoal, Morning Bird's trace minerals, crushed eggshells. I tried the calcium blocks one time, but my birds didn't touch them, and some of my birds don't touch the cuttlebone. My birds usually eat a lot of the mineral mix, and in breeding season, the hens will clean up the crushed eggshells.

I would also keep some liquid calcium on hand. In an eggbinding emergency, a drop of liquid calcium to the beak, a heat lamp, and some humidity can work wonders.

Thank you all for your replies, I will be switching back to at least a partial mix of the Kaytee seed and I will be checking into a mineral imbalance as well. Thank you!

I don't know if you can edit your thread's title but you would get a lot more feedback if the title was more explicit.
Good luck.

paul-inAZ wrote: I don't know if you can edit your thread's title but you would get a lot more feedback if the title was more explicit.
Good luck.

I agree, the more explicit yet compact the title, the more responses. Often, when members don't have a lot of time to spare, they will scroll through the topics, only reading those that sound interesting to them. Vague titles often get overlooked. Farmgirl cannot edit that post at this time, but any moderator can do it for her. Farmgirl, if you would PM one of the moderators, we can edit that title.

Thank you, those that did take the time to answer pretty much confirmed my suspicions about it possibly being a mineral imbalance instead of just the seed's fault. I don't think that any other answers are necessary. I am taking a look at what my birds get and will probably be making a few changes soon. Thanks again!

Sally wrote: I didn't see any mention of a mineral mix. I like to offer a cup of free-choice mineral mix--Abba minerals, oystershell grit, charcoal, Morning Bird's trace minerals, crushed eggshells. I tried the calcium blocks one time, but my birds didn't touch them, and some of my birds don't touch the cuttlebone. My birds usually eat a lot of the mineral mix, and in breeding season, the hens will clean up the crushed eggshells.

I would also keep some liquid calcium on hand. In an eggbinding emergency, a drop of liquid calcium to the beak, a heat lamp, and some humidity can work wonders.

can any 1 show me hoe to get the liquid calcium? i tried walgreen and all they have was pellets..thanx sally in advance

It's not always easy to find human-grade liquid calcium locally. I found that the big chain drugstores did not carry it, but I found it at a local 'mom and pop' pharmacy. But what I use is liquid calcium made for birds. I use Morning Bird liquid calcium, it is available from many online vendors.