I've been breeding two budgies.

 

There's another forum that talks about my experiences so far:

 

http://forums.budgie...showtopic=33062

 

So at the moment, I have the mom and dad budgie in a cage together and I put the two baby budgies in a separate cage.

 

I've noticed that the mom and dad are still in breeding condition months after they had their first round...About two months perhaps?

 

The mother has been acting strangely, because she is puffed up sometimes and she is arching her back so that her back is quite flat and her tail is horizontal. I've noticed a lump near her bottom, and I don't know if that could be egg bound. She has calcium, as I have a cuttlebone in there. I don't know whether or not I should put her nesting box back in the cage...Because I don't want her to start another round because I researched online that it can be dangerous for her to lay too many eggs per year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please tell me if I can avoid starting another round of chicks without causing her to be egg bound.

 

Or tell me if I need to put the nesting box back so she has a place to lay her eggs

 

I'm in need of help!

Edited May 28, 201410 yr by Aquafroste

Hi Aquafroste,

 

I guess the first question is aside from the lump, is her vent normal? If she's egg bound, the vent is usually distended and you may even be able to see the egg. If all looks normal around there, it's likely she's not egg bound. I must say if she's eating the cuttlebone, it's likely she doesn't have an egg binding problem. If she is, make the room nice and warm and then rub a bit of olive oil on her vent to help her pass the egg.

From your description, it may be possible she's producing eggs, but you also need to consider that the lump may also be a tumour of some sort. The only reason I say this is because she's also puffed up - clearly she's not right. I've had experience with a female who laid two successful clutches in a row, and we thought she was going for a third (her rump was quite swollen - so it looked like she was going to lay again). She was like that for a few weeks, then her tail feathers fell out and she started bleeding. It was a cancerous tumour and we had to put her down There was just no way to know - and this was before we had an avian vet.

 

If you want to stave off breeding again, don't give her the box and try to reduce daylight hours for them. If she does lay an egg, she'll do it on the bottom of the cage which won't do any harm (you should then give her the box if she's laying another clutch though). Do you have any vitamin supplements (that include vitamin D) that you can put in their drinking water to support her system in this time of questionable health? If she's not egg bound, and she's still not looking 100%, it may be best to get her checked by your avian vet.

 

Good luck and hope she'll be okay

Um...

 

My female isn't really tame...

So I tried looking at her again, and I noticed that her feathers are kind of unruffled near her vent, but it's not swollen.

One day she consumed like one third of the cuttlebone...

And lately I haven't observed her touching it that much since.

Would not putting the nesting box in cause her to have egg bound because she doesn't have a place to lay her eggs?

 

I'm confused, how do tumors form???

 

And I don't have any vitamin supplements, but I could try getting some if you know any specific ones that will help.

 

I also know that puffing up can also be a sign of content?

 

She is interacting with the male quite often.

 

Still not sure whether or not I should put the nesting box back...

 

Would it harm her if she laid too many eggs?

It is fine for a pair to raise two clutches in a row. Especially if the first clutch was only two chicks. It's not the laying eggs that stresses them, it's the raising and feeding of babies.

 

But if you do not want more baby budgies, then definitely do not give her the box back. Taking the box away and allowing the hen to lay the next egg or two off the perch is how we get them to realize that breeding time is over. So no, it will not harm her to have no box for the egg. Usually what happens is that any eggs in the "production line" just get resorbed into the body. Ones that have gotten far enough along to have a shell on them will get laid, but it is usually just one or two, and then the hen stops forming any more eggs.

It certainly sounds like she's getting enough calcium if she's smashing the cuttlebone that much! Doesn't sound like she's egg bound at the moment from what you mentioned. In order to check her out properly, you may just need to catch her and give her chest and rump area a good inspection to see what's going on.

 

Budgies usually only puff up (when healthy) when they're tired and are going to sleep. Being consistently puffed up though is generally not a good sign. If they're content, they'll likely sit there and chirp their little beaks off!

 

So far as I understand it, tumours are just one of those things that budgies are very susceptible to. As in humans, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it

 

Soluvite D is a good all round vitamin supplement for their water. You should be able to get it at your local pet store, if not it's readily available online.

 

How's your female doing today anyway? Any better?

She's doing a little better...

 

She doesn't seemed to be puffed up all the time, the other day I checked and saw her looking a little stiff and scared for some reason, and I tried to make her feel comfortable by feeding her some seeds, but maybe she was being content.

 

But the day when she consumed quite a large amount of the cuttlebone was possible a couple weeks ago...I'm not sure if she is still using the cuttlebone or not.

 

The two chicks still have watery stools, and it's been a few months ever since they started eating seeds. Is this still normal?

Hard, small, round black poops are what's normal. But what's normal for one bird can be different than what's normal for another bird. If they drink a lot of water or eat a lot of veggies, that could make their stools on the wet side.

 

Do they have any other symptoms? Maybe you could post a photo of these watery stools so we can see what we think of them.

I'm starting to get a little worried about their stools, because they don't seem quite normal...

 

I'll post a photo of them tomorrow.

 

But I saw today that the female was using the cuttlebone