I just lost my baby,princess.I came home to find she had laid an egg.The shell looked thin.There was a small mass of tissue protruding from her vent.I immediately took her to the vet.The vet said she had prolapsed her oviduct.She said the tissue was very dusky and circulation to the tissue was badly compromised.She said that if she tried to put the prolapse back the tissue would probably become necrotic due to the poor circulation.So,we had poor little Princess put to sleep.The vet said was caused by lack of calcium.Now,Princess loved cuttlebone.She also adored her mineral block.Since this happened I have been adding PRIME vitamin mineral calcium supplement to the rest of the birds feed.But tonight I was reading that you can give too much calcium.I am very upset and now confused,too.This was a horrible death for my poor little baby and I don't want it to happen ever again.But,now I am afraid I will harm them with too much calcium.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks.

Sorry to hear about Princess, I don't think your birds will overdose on recognized vitamin preparations, cuttlebones or vegetables containing calcium. Hopefully one of the breeders will pop up to tell you there might be a danger if using added calcium supplements, found a post by Daz dated March 13th under food and nutrition where he addresses this so scroll back a page on this topic.

Edited May 1, 200619 yr by Phoebe

Quite often birds like to just nibble at the cuttlefish, but don't actually eat any. Is this possible with your little one? When I have my hens breeding I pop the cuttlefish above the seed container, if they just nibble the dust falls into the seed, and they get a good dose when they eat the seed.

Quite often birds like to just nibble at the cuttlefish, but don't actually eat any. Is this possible with your little one? When I have my hens breeding I pop the cuttlefish above the seed container, if they just nibble the dust falls into the seed, and they get a good dose when they eat the seed.

What an excellent idea Lin.

I am sorry for your loss. I lost Spangle the same way... but I don't believe that calcium defeciency is involved. Spangle was on cuttlefish and calcium added to the water. I maybe wrong but spangle was on a high calcium diet when she prolapsed.

hugs sorry to hear about your loss

Quite often birds like to just nibble at the cuttlefish, but don't actually eat any. Is this possible with your little one? When I have my hens breeding I pop the cuttlefish above the seed container, if they just nibble the dust falls into the seed, and they get a good dose when they eat the seed.

Very possible,thank you for the great hint.

 

I am sorry for your loss. I lost Spangle the same way... but I don't believe that calcium defeciency is involved. Spangle was on cuttlefish and calcium added to the water. I maybe wrong but spangle was on a high calcium diet when she prolapsed.

Sorry to hear about Spangle.What did your vet attribute it to?

Sorry to hear about Spangle.What did your vet attribute it to?

 

 

She wanted me to start a pellet diet but is is too high in calcium. I have altered my Budgies diet to include different vitamins. I have had no other problems since.

This is misleading people. Pelleted diets are not all too high in calcium. Too much of one thing will be too much calcium. A more common problem in pelleted diets is too much protein but again, too much of one thing will be too high in something.

 

Feed an array of things rather than overloading on one type of food. Even fresh foods can cause an overdose of a vitamin or mineral if it makes up too much of the bird's diet.

 

I highly recommend Feeding Your Pet Bird as it covers all of this very well.

 

And remember that not all pellets are created equally just as not all seed mixes are created equally. No matter what you feed, read the ingredients and know what you're feeding before it goes into the dish. That's the only way to make heads or tails of feeding a bird.

This is misleading people. Pelleted diets are not all too high in calcium. Too much of one thing will be too much calcium. A more common problem in pelleted diets is too much protein but again, too much of one thing will be too high in something.

 

Feed an array of things rather than overloading on one type of food. Even fresh foods can cause an overdose of a vitamin or mineral if it makes up too much of the bird's diet.

 

I highly recommend Feeding Your Pet Bird as it covers all of this very well.

 

And remember that not all pellets are created equally just as not all seed mixes are created equally. No matter what you feed, read the ingredients and know what you're feeding before it goes into the dish. That's the only way to make heads or tails of feeding a bird.

 

 

uuummm eterri I think you missed this Post I believe the study was carried out with the World Budgerigar Organisation involved.

 

Calcium concentrations in seeds are insufficient, but calcium concentrations found in most pelleted diets will be too high and could be toxic.

 

That was the findings.

 

Protien information in regards to Budgerigar Diets

Edited May 12, 200619 yr by daz

Quite often birds like to just nibble at the cuttlefish, but don't actually eat any. Is this possible with your little one? When I have my hens breeding I pop the cuttlefish above the seed container, if they just nibble the dust falls into the seed, and they get a good dose when they eat the seed.

 

oh! that's a great idea! I'm going to do that!

thanks lin!

I've been recommended to put some calcium supplement in the birds' drinking water. I was told that birds can't digest the type of calcium that calcium blocks contains. The birds often don't eat calcium blocks cuttlefish or oyster shell grits enough to maintain calcium levels high enough. I use The Birdcare Company's product (Calcivet).

 

Here is some information about calcium I found from another forum:

 

The control of blood calcium levels is a homeostatic feedback system. The process works like this:

 

1. The bird consumes calcium which is absorbed into the blood - so the blood level rises

2. The excess calcium is pumped into the bones where it is stored

3. Blood calcium levels drop as various organs take it up and the kidneys remove some

4. So the bones are forced to pump some back into the blood.

 

This process is all activated by hormones.

 

Imagine the situation where the body is constantly fed good quality (easy to absorb) calcium. Calcium is always moving into the bones and never moving out again. Nature doesn't waste resources so it cuts back on the effort it puts into the movement of calcium from bone to blood. This is fine until a big demand occurs for calcium (most commonly egg production in birds and milk production in mammals). Suddenly the animal needs more calcium than it gets from the food but the bones are unable to provide enough quickly enough. In an emergency like this calcium is withdrawn from other organs. This leads to failure in nerves and muscles. Birds get egg bound and mammals get milk fever (stagger around and fall over).

 

In other words they show a symptom of calcium deficiency despite high levels of good calcium supplementation.

 

By using an 'on/off' regime of Calcivet supplementation we actually exercise the bodies ability to mobilise calcium both in and out of the bones. Hence no egg-binding or milk fever.

 

Because pellets diets are fed daily they cannot risk using calcium sources that could cause this issue. So they rely on good old limestone (calcium carbonate). This is a very difficult form of calcium for birds to absorb. So it often leads to calcium deficiency. Particularly as very few people feed pellets at anything like 65% of the diet. Twenty percent is probably more typical even in America.

 

However with Harrison's High Potency pellets at 65% I would only use Calcivet once a week at a dose of 0.5 mls added to the fresh food (I am assuming the bird actually consumes the full 0.5 mls).

 

Malcolm Green

Director

The Birdcare Company

Interesting facts

Not all pelleted diets are the same, keep that in mind. In fact, many of them are VERY different. A high quality pellet is well-balanced, it just takes some looking to find what your birds need. The biggest concern is not making their diet ALL pellets. Pellets should make up 50% at the most as the protein content is believed to be too high for budgies to eat it on its own. Of course, no food is a complete diet on its own.

my old birds werent intrested in pellets.daisy had a prolaspe. i very carefully gently pushed it back with some vaseline and a cotton bud this happened after her first clutch of eggs that wasnt any good ,it happened again i done the procedure again and gave her chance to pick up and then decided to sell her to an eldery friend who promised not to breed from her,and today she is still doing well.although i supply cutlefish and idone block and oyster grit when the mating time started i would by egg food that had vitamins in and made it quite moist to they could absorb more fliuds it has worked for me in the past. bobbyness