finch eggs coming out crushed

[finchguy]

Hello all members,

I have recently started breeding finches and one of my female zebras is “ laying” more like pouring out crushed eggs. I have been giving her calcium egg food, and fresh water, and seeds, also millet. I think that she has a lack of calcium, so I am going to the health store tomorrow to pick up some liquid calcium. How much should I give her? Do I use a syringe or do I give it in her water. I really want her to make it. Also, I just went to pick up a pair of zebras a couple days ago and she has bee lying for a year every day and has always had good firm hard eggs. What is wrong here? Is it just that the female is not ready? She I 1 and half years old so I think that she should be fine.

Please help,

Kevin

[HoangQuan]

Can you take some photos of those "eggs"? I think 1 year old zebra is certainly ready to breed. Is she looking ok after laying all those eggs?
In my opinion, liquid canxi is for emergency like eggbound, I'd rather supply my finch with cuttlebone or egg shell, cuz we can never really know how much the amount of canxi they need, so just let them choose what and how much, to eat.
Best wishes for you and your finches, hope eveything will be fine soon.

[Sally]

She may not be absorbing the calcium. Birds need vitamin D3 in order to utilize the calcium they eat. You can give her a supplement that contains D3, or add some cod liver oil to her eggfood. If you are making fresh eggfood, you could add 1/4 tsp. cod liver oil to 1 egg, and then enough dry ingredients like commercial eggfood, yellow cornmeal, nestling food to dry it out a bit.

Just noticed that I didn't say how many eggs, so added that.

[lovemyfinch]

I was going to say the same thing as Sally.

[finchguy]

I just washed off today, and her cloaca is very inflated. It is pink and squishy. I did not take a picture of the egg and now it is somewhere in all the bedding. Sorry. Someone told me on Pigeon-Talk to give her cinnamon tea. I don’t have any on hand. But what does it do. I will take a picture of her “area” though, so you guys can have a better look and idea. I have only ever seen her lay the one. But she has already laid a good one that they are sitting on. And the after the good one, all the other bad one s started.

[ac12]

Sally
I thought egg has D3
If so mashed hardboiled egg + crushed egg shell should be OK.

[Sally]

You're right, egg yolk does contain vitamin D3, but I still add cod liver oil to my eggfood, just because I am following the Green Day Diet, which uses it, and the person who developed this diet has not had any eggbinding at all.

[CandoAviary]

You're right, egg yolk does contain vitamin D3, but I still add cod liver oil to my eggfood, just because I am following the Green Day Diet, which uses it, and the person who developed this diet has not had any eggbinding at all.

In regards to the diet that he uses in his green day diet, it is great to prevent eggbinding. But also much has to be attributed to the free flying space the birds have. With the muscle condition of these birds they are stronger and therefore can push the eggs out.
Good diets and plenty of excercise for conditioning hens before egglaying goes a long way

[Sally]

I agree free flight is great, but all my birds are breeding in cages, and I have not had a case of eggbinding in several years, so diet has to have had an impact. Doug also did his breeding in cages until this season, when he started letting some of them have the run of the bird room.

[Hilary]

How long have they been sitting on the one egg? If it's more than two weeks old you can probably safely toss it and take away the nesting material to give her a break. If you get the liquid calcium I would put two drops or so in a cup of water, changed daily, and I only add calcium to water for a day or two then step back and watch the hen for further problems. I don't give liquid calcium directly (drop to the beak) unless a hen is in distress and is eggbound. Best of luck!