On Friday I got given two show types from a strange old man. The Cock is a nice normal grey, the Hen is an ugly looking thing and really nervous. he told me he thought she was sick as she has a large lump, so got them home and had a look at her and decided she looked like she had egg bum.

 

Gave her a nest box and within 20 mins she laid a soft shell egg. It was really strange almost runny and fun to play with, anyway removed it. Added a larger cuttle bone to her cage (which she has almost eaten all of it!), gave calvet straight to the beak and also added it to her water. Sunday she had laid another egg again really soft. so wondering if there is anything else I could do to help her?

 

She really likes her nest box and spends most of the time in there, the cock is going in and feeding her and they are a bonded pair which is good. Not really caring about getting eggs out of them but want to make sure she does not damage herself. Any suggestions as to what else I can give her or should I just wait and hope the eggs harden up.

 

Oh also I have removed the second soft shell egg as I am sure it would not be viable and also they would break in the box and then I would have to clean it again!

I would remove her from a cage with a nestbox as its encouraging her to lay eggs she obviously isnt in condition for. Put her in a hospital cage with warm lamp and wait for the egglaying to stop. Then dont breed her till she is in peak condition. The calcivet was a good move

okay will do, I was just worried that she would hold the eggs if I remove the nest box and become egg bound but will transferr her to the hospital cage which is 95% done and will work for the time being.

 

Thanks Kaz

Agree with Kaz remove all nesting sites ...

 

Keep her warm - She needs D3 to carry the Calcium to her body!!!!

 

Unfiltered sunlight is the best form .. Put her out side for 20 mins a day in direct sunlight -

Edited September 30, 200816 yr by Neat
added more

okay will do, I was just worried that she would hold the eggs if I remove the nest box and become egg bound but will transferr her to the hospital cage which is 95% done and will work for the time being.Thanks Kaz

Soft shelled eggs alone can make her eggbound regardless of nestbox or not as they are a difficult egg to deliver. BUT keep the drop of calcivet to the beak daily till she is past this and also the warm lamp cage too

Keep her warm - She needs D3 to carry the Calcium to her body!!!!

Some added info Neat...Calcivet carries vitamin D3

Neat, thanks. I think I have a UV lamp sitting around at home as I work during the day so can't get her outside and the weather is a bit all over the place at the moment.

 

Thanks Kaz, you really are a wealth of Knowledge when it comes to think like this. Should I add the cock to the hospital cage as well as he is feeding her and looking after her and the cage is big enough?

Edited September 30, 200816 yr by Angelic Vampyre

You dont need the uv lamp as calcivet has D3 in it

LOL I have just been told :hap:

 

That's what I get for shooting my mouth off Hahaha -

You have the calcivet and it contains D3.

 

Note for future UV lights don't do the same for the birds

Neat, thanks. I think I have a UV lamp sitting around at home as I work during the day so can't get her outside and the weather is a bit all over the place at the moment.

 

Thanks Kaz, you really are a wealth of Knowledge when it comes to think like this. Should I add the cock to the hospital cage as well as he is feeding her and looking after her and the cage is big enough?

Add him for that reason YES...but if he tries to continue mating with her remove him

Thanks will do

Can anyone tell me why a UV light won't work? We use a UV light to mimic the sun for reptiles to allow them to generate vitamin D so why are birds different?

 

Thanks

That would be because lizards and Snakes are cold blooded

 

I am looking for it now so don't quote me 100% yet with it for birds - When i find it I will

post it ... But the use of UV lighting in a grey area some experts say it decrease a young birds sperm ???

Edited September 30, 200816 yr by Neat

But they don't need UV light to warm them up, that's why we can use a normal lightbulb as a basking lamp, they do need a UV light though for exactly the same reason as birds do, for vitamin D. In my reptile set up I use a flourescent UV tube(which doesn't release much heat) and a normal light globe for warmth

 

 

Those snazzy Arcadia flouro tubes recomended by some of the big breeders are I believe similiar spectrum to sunlight, so they would include a UVA and UVB component I would imagine

Edited September 30, 200816 yr by melbournebudgies

Member renee is using arcadia lighting. Perhaps she could share what she knows ?

That was all o could come up with , aren't you the wildlife guru

I haven't any idea about them only to stay away : But i knew the blood thing LOL

 

Be interesting to find out .. .Like I said don't quote me on it ... Still looking for the info .....

 

There is heaps that can argue the point that the UV globes only allow so much % and other say you don't need it etc ...

 

I guess it comes to personal preferences - But i will find that article, from the breeder that said something like that ...

okay here is the article I was talking about ... And well may have confused myself ... Warned you all

 

It is by James Bratt

"Photoperiodism & Lighting In The Aviary"

Until recently, we have also had a very limited understanding of the specific messages required by the hypothalamus to release its peptide messengers and start the cycle of fertility. For example, in some species of birds the reproductive cycle is rigidly controlled by day length. For years, Budgerigar breeders have acted on the belief that this was also true with regard to Budgerigars. As a result, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on artificially increasing the length of time lights are left on in the aviary to duplicate springtime daylight hours.

Many periodically breeding species, such as the Budgerigar, appear instead, to use other sources of environmental stimulation and are not highly affected by photoperiod. For instance, when comparing the effects of natural daylight with a regime of 2 hours of light and 22 hours of darkness and 6 hours of light and 18 hours of darkness, there was no difference in egg laying incidence of singularly caged Budgerigars as long as they were provided a nest box and exposed to male vocalisations. In fact, hens kept in total darkness but provided a nest box and exposed to male vocalisations also laid eggs at the same rate as those exposed to natural daylight.

 

On the other hand, fledgling Budgerigars exposed continuously to light showed that at day 84, all had small testes which had not progressed to the point of producing sperm. Fledglings exposed to natural light until the same age, however, had large sperm producing testes. Hens also exposed to continuous light failed to lay eggs. When exposed to 14 hours of light and 10 hours of darkness, only 1 of 12 hens laid eggs as compared to all of the same hens laying eggs when exposed instead to natural daylight.

In respect to egg laying and sperm production, it seems clear then that too much light rather than too little light will negatively affect the breeding cycle of Budgerigars. Without realising it, current practices of increasing the day length to replicate spring conditions with artificial light may account for the high incidence of infertility experienced in many aviaries. Exposing breeding pairs to natural daylight cycles or replicating the normal spectrum of light and day length, regardless of season, might be the single most important variable with regard to fertility that a breeder can control.

Using vita-lights or full spectrum lighting in the aviary becomes especially important in this process. An additional benefit is that many aviaries do not have exposure to natural light or as a result of where and how they are constructed, ultra violet rays are unavailable to the birds. (Glass or Plexiglas for example blocks ultra violet rays) Vita-lights or full spectrum lighting within these structures decreases our reliance on Vitamin supplements and allows for the natural synthesis of Vitamin D3, which is intimately involved with egg laying.

okay so the long and short of that article is: Natural light is good and sunlight similiar lightglobes/tubes are good but too much of either is bad

yep

 

So next time I will make sure I read it correctly - My brain is in overload

okay so I had a plan I was a women with a plan, I catch her, I catch her mate and I move them into the hospital cage and I go to clean the cage and the box and I find two nice hard normal looking eggs I did not check the nest box on Monday and well she must have laid one then and one today. She seems alot better in herself so I put her back with her eggs but moved the heat lamp so that part of the cage is warm (opposite end to the nest box as I don't want the egg to dry out) and put the cage near the water thing I have that will keep humity in the air.

 

Should I foster her egg out to another pair (both my pairs that are sitting on eggs have 7 eggs each so might have to hit up MB or pippi for a foster mum) or should i leave her on them and let her ride this out. She really does seem 75% better and since she laid two normal eggs maybe it was just a bad run for the first two. okay I am confused going to go do some googling.

Maybe your Calcium kicked in

 

 

I would leave her for the moment as it sounds like you have treated her for the problem successfully, if you have any problems let me know, I have eggs all over the place so I'm sure I can put them somewhere for the time being and we'll see what happens when chicks start arriving and it becomes clear how many actually bubs there will be in nests.

Member renee is using arcadia lighting. Perhaps she could share what she knows ?

 

Yep, hello, glad to add my two bobs worth.

 

I installed arcadia lighting after the Nationals in June I think. I run it from 7am to 8pm. The birds absolutely love it and my breeding season has been a resounding success, over 115 babies and counting.

 

The clearest indicator of its success is that I had a couple of ino pairs that I had put down in May and because of the position of them in the breeding room they weren't getting as much as natural sunlight and of course with the onset of winter it was gradually getting less and less. Needless to say they weren't doing much and I was considering pulling them and trying later on in the season however, within a week of the arcadia lighting being connected both pairs went down and I have had 2 rounds out of them.

 

So, yes I totally recommend it and I have contact with another breeder here in Perth who has had similar success.

 

With regards to the article above....

 

Who in their right mind would keep lighting on longer than spring/summer daylight hours?????

And who would leave their birds in the dark for extended periods????

 

I appreciate that these 'test' results are interesting and I was familiar with the topic but really lets keep it simple.

 

DON'T subject your birds to unnatural surroundings.

DON'T feed them anything that is far off their 'natural' diet.

Edited September 30, 200816 yr by renee

Renee where do you get your tubes from and how many do you have per unit area?

 

(Hope you don't mind me asking this here AV figured you might be interested too )

Renee where do you get your tubes from and how many do you have per unit area?

 

(Hope you don't mind me asking this here AV figured you might be interested too )

 

I got mine from Wattle Grove Pet Store ... Birds and something. I paid $56 per tube and I rigged up 3 for my breeding room. I think it's about 4m wide by say 10m. You can get the fluoro fittings from Bunnings for about $30 each. Yes, it was a major investment at the time but one I do not regret in the slightest.

So, they are essentially the full spectrum ones used for lizards then? So I guess I would only need one in my large flight and then one in my breeding aviary, not so bad

So, they are essentially the full spectrum ones used for lizards then? So I guess I would only need one in my large flight and then one in my breeding aviary, not so bad

 

No, they are definitely NOT the ones used for reptiles. I first tried to source them from my local Aquarium/reptile store and when I started looking at the spectrum analysis of the different tubes it became very apparent that the Full Spectrum for Birds is DIFFRERENT from that used for reptiles, fish, etc. I have thrown out the tube coverings with the spectrum analysis so I can't post a photo but because it's not the same I then had to drive *** and gone to Wattle Grove to get the special Bird fluoros.