upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Some of you old timers may remember me although it's been a long time since I posted; and "hi" to all of you, old friends or new.

I'm very worried because over the Christmas holidays Rufous surprised everybody when "he" laid an egg. (S)He was supposedly DNA sexed as a chick, but either the check was wrong or the breeder realized I wanted a male and lied to me. (I'd much prefer to think the test was wrong, as my avian vet says they were sometimes.)

In any case, she has been showing nesting behaviors for the last couple of days and tonight seemed to be straining as if she were trying to lay another egg. Dr. Bloss said egg binding is unusual in Macaws, but I'm worried and have no one I can ask tonight so I'm praying someone will read this post and tell me if I should be worried. I had a terrible experience with the emergency vet hospital (who supposedly has an avian vet) a couple of months ago, and I later found out that doctor only works Thursdays and Fridays. Ruf is acting okay now, but I was really scared a little while ago.

Hoping to hear from someone tonight so I can either face that hospital again or sleep easily without being scared to death. I will, of course, call Dr. B. tomorrow.

If you are in doubt or your macaw looks like it is laboring to pass an egg I would at the very least call the emergency vet. Def call your vet in the morning regardless. Something you can do in the mean time is try putting either some red palm oil or wheat germ oil on the cloaca. If you do not have any of that you could use veggie oil if you need to. Also, try putting a warm compress on the cloaca or a heating pad. You can also try soaking here bottom in some warm water. Make sure you give her plenty of calcium. You can try hard boiled eggs with the shell all smashed up or you can scramble the eggs with the shell and give that to her. You can also try wheat bread soaked with some milk or you can try giving her a little plain yougurt. You can also give her dark leafy veggies, most are high in calcium. That is about all I can think of off the top of my head. I don't have much experience with macaws, but do breed amazons, tiels, and a few other birds. I have used all of these remedies I have suggested with other type of birds with success. I hope at least some of this helps. Hope your little Rufous gets better quickly. My wife and I will keep your FID in our prayers. Let me know how she is doing and how everything goes.

Andy

Andy, thank you SO much for your prompt reply, and thanks, too, to the Webmaster who emailed me to tell me I had a reply. She wasn't thrilled, but I did get some oil on her cloaca and I'll do it again before bed. She hasn't seemed to be struggling since I posted, but I will absolutely be calling my wonderful vet first thing in the morning.

Keep her in your prayers, and I'll let you know how things come out. (I hope that's figuratively not literally, lol.

First clutch egg binding is exremely rare, one in a million or more!

Again egg binding is found with breeding pairs who regularly lay clutches and is more common with Too's and other birds.

No need to fuss with Rufus, relax mom this is only nature taking it's course. Single eggs in a clutch is also common for first timers.

Dutch

This concerns our Too but it might help. We knew she was a she but she had never shown any signs of wanting to lay an egg. However when we brought home a Grey & he came with a bucket of toys we decided that the bucket was a great idea & got one for her. Well needless to say it wasn't too long before she was throwing out the toys (which is what they do, at least all of mine) but then she would try to make a nest & lay an egg in the bucket. After 2 eggs we removed the bucket & no more eggs. I'm not sure how this helps you other than to maybe look at what you may have changed in her world recently & remove it & see if her behavior goes back to pre-egg laying.