Diet for my finches

[Zebedee]

Last night I took my zebra finch to the vet because I suspected she was egg bound. She was and fortunately the vet managed to massage the egg out. I have looked again at what I am feeding her. She has cuttle fish, egg food, finch food, broken up egg shells and millet. They seem to prefer the millet and so there are normally 2 or 3 strings in - might this be a factor i.e. could they have fed largely on the millet and hence ended up with a calcium deficiency? They enjoy the millet so much but should I restrict it? Any thoughts as ever gratefully received.

[Societies&Zebras]

I would restrict it like only giving about 1 string of millet. Then once they finish it leave it still in there, so they realize "Hey its all gone maybe ill go try the eggfood or the seed" That might work. I'm not an expert just tryna help.

[delray]

Societies&Zebras brings up a good point.

[dutch]

Zebedee....birds indoors?

[Colt]

Zebedee - Yes I would restrict the millet. It's a great treat and fun for them to play with but a bit like candy. That's all they will want to eat. I normally cut my millet sprays into 1"-3" pieces and give one to three pieces to each cage depending on the number of birds. Occasionally I'll give the whole spray but not often. And my birds usually don't get the spray millet but once a week or so.

In addition to the cuttlebone (cuttlefish) I would offer a mineral mix and add crushed up eggshells from their homemade eggfood. Something similar to this:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11830

Also be sure the cuttlebone is positioned with the soft, chalky side where the hen can access it.

Furthermore I'd be sure they are getting a well-balanced seed mix. You might try mixing in appropriate finch-sized pellets to that as well, or offer them separately or mixed into the eggfood. Sprouted seed, commercial eggfood like Quiko's Classic or Goldy mixes can also be mixed into fresh hard-boiled eggs for the birds to eat. And don't forget fresh greens. Think dark and leafy like kale, romaine, and many others.

Remove anything that she might want to nest in for the time being. You might also consider adding a liquid calcium supplement to her water (per the instructions) in addition to everything else I've mentioned. The fresh egg food will allow her body to process the calcium in a much more efficient manner.

[MiaCarter]

Good advice here.

I might consider some Calcium Plus.
That also has D3 in there, which is required to absorb calcium and a D3 insufficiency can cause muscle weakness --- muscles are required to push out the egg.
(Notably, if you opt for Calcium Plus, I recommend putting it on food. It's much more cost efficient. Putting it in the water is a money-sucker, as you need to put a fair amount in there and a significant portion of the water is discarded.)

Or you could do a D3 supplement like Soluvite, and provide the calcium by scraping a cuttle bone over the foods that they do eat.

The problem is you can provide egg food and other fresh food supplements, but if they're not eating them or not eating in good quantities, they can end up deficient.

So for hens, I always make note of what they're eating then work with that to ensure they get sufficient Calcium and D3, particularly right before and during laying.

For instance, you could drizzle some Calcium Plus on the millet.
You could also do some virgin olive oil or coconut oil and lightly spritz and rub it on the millet, then coat with powder from cuttle bone scrapings and some Soluvite.

There's lots of approaches. But just beware that restricting the millet may not do the trick if she's not eating other foods because she doesn't like them. You'll need to watch and see what she's actually eating.

[finchmix22]

Zebedee
I only offer millet as a treat or when breeding and there are fledges. So, take out the millet for a while and, as Mia mentioned, add some Calcium Plus to the water or to the beak for a couple days, unless the vet gave her some calcium. My finches love the eggfood, I mix dry eggfood with the hard boiled eggs to make a crumbly mixture. I hope everyone stays healthy now.