FINCHforum

Yesterday my zebra finch hen started being fluffy , I am not sure how long the egg laying proccess is , but as a preventive measure i tried to catch her and apply some oil on her vent area , i dropped grinded cuttle bone in water and in the seed mix and put another cuttlebone close to her .
I am pretty lousy at catching the birds so it took a while before I caught her , then she got out of my hand and when she landed on the ground she landed with both wings spread out wide , but i think she was just tired .
During the day today it will be pretty warm which I think will help her with the egg laying .
Symptoms i have incountered are :
-fluffiness (but she didnt look like she was doing very bad , she just looked like she was fluffy)
-constant grooming of the vent area.
-during the night she was constantly hitting the nest plastic with something in almost a rhytmic manner , ever 10 seconds she would hit the plastic with something.
-she seemed less scared from me then she was a day ago , i needed to touch her for her to start running away(and I still couldnt catch her properly )
Any advice would be usefull thanks in advance and sorry if I wrote something wrong or bad I am doing this hastly.

She seems she is trying to push the egg out I am not sure , she kind of closes her eyes and the lowers her head a bit and then a bit more , until she reaches a certain position , she stops grooms her vent area and repeats that proccess.

I never bought any vitamins or calcius ,she always had cuttlebone and egg shells inside the cage , I am not sure what calcium source I should use to make calcium shots , if anyone knows that please help .

I never bought any vitamins or calcius ,she always had cuttlebone and egg shells inside the cage , I am not sure what calcium source I should use to make calcium shots , if anyone knows that please help .
She also doesent sit on the bottom of the caged , she is either perched or standing on the mineral cup , but I havent noticed her eating , nor pooping.
And she did lay eggs excessively , I did not know how to stop it , I searched everywhere and couldn't find anything .
I removed the nest but she would be looking very sad , I removed it multiple times actually but always ended up puting it back inside the cage..I am afraid if she is currently producing an egg and if I remove a nest she would not pass the egg because she wouldn't have where too pass it? I dont know what I was thinking ...

If she doesent pass an egg in a few hours and I see that she wont pass it , i will have to try and massage her so she passes it and I need instructions ..

Would she show all those symptoms if it was a case of an injury ..e.g. leg , wing ?
I think I have seen something on the back toe on the right leg , i am not sure though , i havent seen any blood ..
but if she has an injured toe that would explain the sound I was hearing over the night , it sounded like she was pulling one of her leg up and then back down again ..

Now she became a lot more energetic and she isnt fluffed up anymore unless the male starts grooming her then she fluffs up even more then when she is sick , i cannot see if she passed and egg but she started pooping again , her vent area is a bit wet now and she still grooms the around her vent area

the oil to the vent is not a good idea, as she passed the egg the oil can transfer to the egg and clog the pores of the egg, allowing bacteria to form...this can kill the embryo. oil will do nothing for an eggbound hen. If you turn her over and look at the belly if you suspect eggbinding it will look like she has an egg shaped bulge under the skin if the egg is down by the vent. If it is higher up and she is in distress she need heat, and calcium (see below). if in distress and the wings are stretched out and she is on the floor of the cage she needs immediate help, even a vet.


instead use direct heat from a heat lamp (this helps when a bird becomes fluffed so they do not use there reserved energy up trying to stay warm and with eggbound hens the warmth relaxes the muscles to lay the egg.

You also need to keep liquid calcium with D3 on hand (calciboost is good), some pipettes or dropper and dose her to the side of the closed beak closest to the base of the beak, do not pry the birds mouth open. The drop will slide in....try to get at least 4 drops in the first day.

When a hen is nesting prior to eggs being laid add the calciboost to her water and remove the calcium once she is done laying

If her droppings are stringy and she is tail pumping, rapid movement of the tail up and down she may have worms...you may have to deworm her and her cage mate(s). Droppings will look like they are in segments..... is her vent dirty? I would also wash the oil of her feather and vent

cindy She passed the egg about an hour ago , she was getting more and more energized as time went by , she layed an egg and when I saw it it was ruptured , but I think it was ruptured later because it held the shape .
She was not on the bottom of the cage , she was perched the whole time , a little unbalanced but perched and would not run away unless i touch her , now as soon as i open the cage door she flies to another branch,she is still grooming around her vent area but I think that it is because the egg got glued to her feathers i think, she didnt have any dropping before she passed an egg , now she eats and poops normaly , a little more white then i preffer but that is to be expected as she didnt drink any water , she recovered like it was nothing , thanks for the help though xD

cindy wrote: the oil to the vent is not a good idea, as she passed the egg the oil can transfer to the egg and clog the pores of the egg, allowing bacteria to form...this can kill the embryo. oil will do

There is no embryo , she started laying eggs excessively I now removed her nest , I dont know what else to do to stop her laying any more eggs ..

what all are you feeding her and is she still with a male?

StodOne wrote: Now she became a lot more energetic and she isnt fluffed up anymore unless the male starts grooming her then she fluffs up even more then when she is sick , i cannot see if she passed and egg but she started pooping again , her vent area is a bit wet now and she still grooms the around her vent area

when you mention "wet" is it sticky wet like possible an egg broke?

cindy I am feeding then a few different types of seeds i stopped giving them greens i want to make sure that i knowwhat i am giving them i am afraid to give them something that they cant eat , it was not sticky i dont even think it was from her i think she might have taken a bath she did have an egg stuck to her but it was a small surface of an egg stuck under her vent area , i also gave them an egg every 3,4 days but i stopped i am not sure if i should give her any more eggs..
She is still with the male but i wont be separating them they are too in love grooming each other the whole day where he goes she goes always haha xD
I removed the nest but when i turn on the night lights she jumps a few times where the nest once used to be and falls down, silly xd and then she gets into the mineral cup as if it was a nest..but this time im not giving her the nest back

What happened to your female? Is she OK?

kind Regards

Zebrafincher

Zebrafincher She is wonderfull , like nothing even happened