FINCHforum

Hi,

I have several birds at home right now: 1 canarie couple that don't get along, 1 toui, a couple of society finches, and a red-ear waxbill couple.

Right now, my female red-ear waxbill is not doing well at all. Yesterday, I found her at the bottom of her cage, hobbling along and all puffed up. So I immediately put her in a nursing cage, away from her mate, and then I ran to this forum to find some advice.

Following what I read, I put a regular lamp over a corner of the cage and a heating pad under it. I went out and bought liquid calcium supplement, because they built a 4 stories nest and were laying eggs. Her mate keeps calling her, which breaks my heart everytime.

This morning, she seems better, less puffy and moving in the cage a bit mor actively. And then I noticed that she has a bare patch of skin near her neck, at the back of her head. Could she have a parasite or something ?

Thanks in advance for the help !

Josée

Well at first I thought "egg bound".... but do you think that he is plucking or someone is plucking the feathers out of her?

I think your doing everything right, but I would watch her to make sure that she is not egg bound. Do you feed them egg food? There is a recipe online that I make for my birds and feed them every day.
If she is not egg bound, then she is possibly being plucked. It doesn't sound like mites especially if the other birds don't have them.

Please keep us posted and keep doing what your doing. Keeping her warm is most important.

What does eggbound means exactly ?

Sorry, but this is my first experience with breeding birds.

Here are some pictures of the sick baby:


and this is the bare patch on her head:

Josee,

Eggbound is when they cannot pass an egg. It is usually from lack of calcium. If this bird is laying alot of eggs it could be depleting its calcium.
Do you feed it egg food? There is a recipe for this if you want it.

It really looks to me like it is being plucked. Hopefully someone else can give some advice, but to me it appears to be having its feathers plucked out. I would not put it back in the cage with the others for a while. The cock will eventually stop calling for it. I had to seperate a pair of mine and they have quit calling each other. Do you have them in seperate rooms? Please keep us posted.

Thanks for the answer. The couple is alone in their own cage, I don't have enough space in my house for a big aviary. I did provide them with a 4 feet long cage though. And even though I separated them, they can still see each other.

Update on her condition: She is a LOT less puffed up and up on a perch, but she is waving back and forth...

I do feed them egg food on a regular basis, along with oyster shell grit. Right now, in her nursing cage, she has: egg food water with calcium, millet, regular grains. And a blankie If someone wants to see what she does I can film her and put it online.

Thanks for all the help !

Well, thanks to all your help and the information on this great site, my bird seems to be doing a lot better today !

She is back in her cage with her mate, and seems to be doing well. I'll still keep a close eye on her for the next few days. And I'll put a picture of them up later today !

The bald spot looks like feather-plucking to me, too. As far as egg binding, that is a definite possibility, since she is in the process of filling a nest. In addition to calcium, they need vitamin D3 in order to utilize the calcium they ingest. They can get this from sunlight, some from full-spectrum light bulbs, or from supplements that contain D3. Some also think that they need vitamin A or an oil additive like wheat germ oil, safflower oil (add a little to their eggfood).

Last year, I had a problem with egg binding with several hens. This year, not one case of egg binding. I can't pinpoint one thing, but they all have full-spectrum lighting and supplements formulated for breeding birds.

is there anyway you can take a picture of there nest they built and there cage. What did you do to get them to build a nest? i think i have to get some plants or something for my orange-cheeked waxbills because i heard they like a lot of plants to hide and nest in.

Well, I first made sure I had a long enough cage for them. Right now they have a 4 feet long cage

Then I went to the dollar store and bought plastic foliage and fixed it from top to bottom in the cage in a corner. Gave them coconut fiber and then they just went ahead and built the nest right where I put the foliage !

Here is my picture album from facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... =583768050
My red ear waxbill are called Puffy (female) and Bandit (male). Spidey and Jane are my society couple that have yet to produce one fertile egg

Enjoy !

That is a big nest. I went to walmart last night and bought 18 ft. of fake vines and put them in the cage for the waxbills they seem to like it, they hardly ever sit in there nest but since i put the plants in the cage they have big in the nest trying to fix it up.

I'm glad to hear that my trick worked for you !

The nest shown in my pictures has been a work in progress for the last few months. They gradually built a second floor, then a third, and about a month ago they decided to add a fourth floor... We called it the 4 apartment condo !

And my female is doing so much better now, that they already started building anew nest yesterday ! I'll post some pictures later, I'm at work now, but they are sure working fast on it

Thanks for all your help !