FINCHforum

I found this article, and thought I would post it here. Any comments from people who have experienced egg bound females?

http://www.pamperedpeeps.com/gouldianeggbound.htm

The article isn't bad, but it is always better to use preventative measures rather than reactive ones when it comes to egg binding.

We have not had ahen get egg bound in years since we got our progem down to this:

Quality seed
Miracle Meal
Herb Salad
Calcium
Palm oil meal
Keep humidity to a range of 25%-45%
Keep temperature to range of 65-75 farenheit

We run a cold air humidifier during the winter instead of a hot vapor humidifier for a couple of reasons. One is that the hot ones can harbor bacteria from the heat, and are very difficult to clean. The cold ones you can use a bacterial inhibitor that you can't use on the hot ones because it is harmful to breath when it gets hot and vaporizes. Another reason that we we don't use the hot vapor humidifiers is that if left on for to long it can lead to a coccidiosis because of the warm wet environment you create with it.

Sean

If anything down here in florida, i would need a dehumidifier I think it averages 45-55% year round, with it being worse during the rainy season

Bonnie - you stop complaining about Florida weather ! I'd trade you for our winter right now! lol

Sean - thank you - I agree that prevention is better than curing - and I will keep your notes. Keeping a very healthy, well cared for finch is more appealing than trying to heal a sick one. I still have no intention of breeding, but that doesn't mean they won't try on their own.

Kiko - I honestly have never even see snow I don't know if I like it or not, but I do know that when I went up to Georgia for a bit I was saddened by how brown it was...I kind of like having leaves on the trees all year round. I dont like how humid it is in the summer, it is so sticky and grose, it makes one such as myself really hate clothing.

I'd like to correct an inaccuracy I found in the article Kiko posted.

The most common reason why hens become eggbound is dietary and is due to insufficient levels of:
1. protein
2. vitamin A
3. essential fatty acids
4. calcium WITH vitamin D

in the diet. This webpage on our website explains why hens need these four nutrients to form and pass eggs ... www.fairestfinches.com/catalog/item/4448943/5362951.htm.

Vitamin A is most abundantly found in animal sources -- i.e., egg or insects -- but also is added to many food supplements. Essential fatty acids can only be found in oils. Many aviculturalists regularly offer oiled seed to their birds in order to provide the essential fatty acids, but we have found that our birds prefer the dry Palm Oil Meal. Everyone knows that hens need calcium to form the egg, but in order for a hen's body to process and absorb the calcium, she also needs a certain amount of vitamin D. A bird's body will make its own vitamin D if it can be housed outdoors in the sun for at least 20 minutes. If that option is not available, it is very important to offer a vitamin D supplement (i.e., a liquid calcium supplement with vitamin D added to it).

Of course, the exercise of flying is very important too since it helps birds build strong muscles and bones. But exercise from flying has little to no impact on preventing egg binding. And, I haven't heard of anyone teaching their hens to do Kegels.

Michele[/list]

What are the symptoms of an egg bound bird, one of mine has recently been spending too much time scraping away in one of the food trays, it doesn't look any different but it's behavour has really changed a lot over the last month or so.

I haven't had an eggbound bird in quite a long time (knock on wood), but once you have seen one, it is easy to recognize. Usually, the hen will sit on the floor of the cage, puffed up, with wings drooping down, eyes closed or nearly so. She will not want to move. Birds sit puffed up when ill anyway, but this is a little different. If it is breeding time, and a hen exhibits these symptoms, I would suspect eggbinding first.

Eggbinding can be prevented easily. Fairestfinches already posted a lot of good advice earlier in this thread.