Female Zebra Finch Losing Balance? Help!

[Zebrafinch000]

Hello,

My female zebra finch has been having some balancing issues in the past several days and it really worries me. She used to have problems laying eggs and sometimes she would not be able to stand or land. Usually I would feed her some eggshells and fish oil then she would get well after a few hours. However, this time it seems to be a bit different. She still eats, fights, and chirps, but she has problems balancing herself whenever she tries to scratch or land on perch (but it is not as serious as the times when she was unable to pass an egg), only it has been this way for several days, which is longer than usual. I tried feeding her fish oil and eggshells but it doesn’t really do the trick and she doesn’t seem to want to eat those (she eats a lot of spinach and millets). Thing is, before it all started, she did eat some of her own eggshells. I am not sure if it has anything to do with why she’s sick now but looking up these symptoms on the Internet has led me to believe she’s lacking calcium. I’m not sure what I can do or what I did that might have contributed to this. One thing is that she seems to make weird noises (whenever she wants to mate she would make those noises. Most of the time her tail tilts upward (as if she wants to balance herself) and sometimes her wings are droopy and she doesn’t even dare scratch herself with her leg because she knows she will fall. Otherwise she seems normal. I also tried feeding her more variety of food but she doesn’t eat them. The calcium supplement I ordered will arrive tomorrow, and I hope it will help her.

*The other female finch has absolutely no issues and they eat the same food every day. However she never really had any issues passing an egg.

Thanks for reading!

[Fraza]

Zebrafinch000 I had something similar to Thai with my heck finch and she couldn’t even fly up and land on a oerch cos her balance was so off I filled the bath water with warm water and trapped her inside it and didn’t let her out for about 15 min then I let her back in the cage with lots of greens and egg anyway about 30min - 1hr later an egg was laid

The warm water does the trick because of the steam that gets created and the warm down there below

[Zebrafinch000]

Thanks for your reply Fraza! The thing is, I’m not even sure if it’s egg binding that’s causes my finch to lose balance as it’s not exactly the same as how she was before: this time she can fly and she acts more normal (less sick), but it’s been several days. I read that if there’s an egg stuck in the body, the bird can die within a day or two. It’s been four days and I’m not sure what I can do. Did it happen to your bird for more than 1-2 days as well?

Perhaps I’ll try using your method because she actually wanted to take a shower yesterday. It took her many attempts (I believe she was afraid to jump into the water because of her balance problem). I provided her a more shallow dish and she just went in there but didn’t act like her usual self (she was very “polite”!). But it actually made her go back to the usual dish for a more normal shower. Poor thing can’t even shake off the water and scratch herself properly afterwards. But at least she still eats, takes shower, chirps normally. She still poops, but it seems to be not as frequent. It also seems she’s a bit tinier than before. I remember when she has problems with eggs, she would puff up and act really sick.

But thanks again!

[Fraza]

Zebrafinch000 yeh I’m I sure and no mine was only u TIL I did this however they can act all kinds of ways when they are egg bound and I trying cannot think of anything else apart from has she got a broken toe my society recently broke his back to and he’s wobbling abit when he’s landing/standing you can check by waiting when it’s stood on a perch and if it’s not gripping just staying staight

[wildbird]

Also, provide dried herbs. Sometimes birds will self-medicate by picking the herbs they need to eat. I had one that got well after a few days of eating the herbs she needed. I use Twin Beaks Herb Salad.

[Fraza]

Zebrafinch000 I really think it may have a broken toe now I’ve read over your symptoms I’ve had 3 birds now that have broke their back toe and they do the same thing

[Zebrafinch000]

Thank you for your advices Fraza and Wildbird.

Yesterday she was a bit better, but was having same issues: still eats and acts normally besides the balancing issues. She even took two showers! But now she doesn’t even eat any eggshells/fish oil that I gave her (she hasn’t been eating those two days ago). I believe those are not something that she needs right now.

@wildbird I checked out the herb salad that you recommended; it seems to be a really good product. How long have you been feeding your birds the salad?

@Fraza did your birds recover on their own? Is there anything I can do now? I was suspecting that she might have something else other than egg binding but I can’t quite figure out what it is, so thanks for your input. I’ll try to see if there’s anything wrong with her back toe.

[Fraza]

Zebrafinch000 okay Yh they get better by there self just keep giving all the nutrients and it take about 3 weeks

[Flight Feathers]

It’s sounds like you’ve already had some good advice, but I just wanted to say that I hope she makes a full recovery!

[wildbird]

Zebrafinch000: I've been using the herb salad for about five years. Any new birds get it right away. The one that seemed to medicate herself is only a year and a half old. Sometimes they don't eat it much, then all of sudden she started picking certain herbs out to eat. So I kept replacing the herbs in the dish. She only would pick out certain ones and left the rest. I kept the leftovers to mix in at another time. Those herbs are still good, but not what she needed now. She did this for about a week and then recovered and doesn't look for those herbs now.

[Flight Feathers]

Zebrafinch000: I've been using the herb salad for about five years. Any new birds get it right away. The one that seemed to medicate herself is only a year and a half old. Sometimes they don't eat it much, then all of sudden she started picking certain herbs out to eat. So I kept replacing the herbs in the dish. She only would pick out certain ones and left the rest. I kept the leftovers to mix in at another time. Those herbs are still good, but not what she needed now. She did this for about a week and then recovered and doesn't look for those herbs now.

Wow! That’s amazing! Would it be possible to grow the herbs and dry them yourself?

[wildbird]

There are a lot of herbs in this mix. You would have to know the growing conditions required, know how to dry them and have lots of patience.