Misconceptions of calcium

so last night I had another 'shell-less' egg laid by one of my female canaries.

'what?? why has THAT happened AGAIN??'

A few months back when Tundra(my cockatiel) laid a shell-less egg, I took her to the vets to see Evan. he explained calcium will NOT be absorbed unless they receive Vit.D3 as well.....ok, makes sense.

...make not to self....add Vit.D3 daily

Even though Tundra is my pet, not a breeder bird, she has NEVER ever laid an egg, much to my surprise when she laid one without a shell, she was not feeling well at all.

Since then I have been adding liquid vitamins which contains Vit.D3, as per Evans instructions.... giving them the prescribed amount daily.....I thought it was making a difference, until last night when I saw the shell-less egg.

So I did my own research last night, spending quite sometime on google.
I came across this very simple - yet good article on calcium and absorption in birds-not just small birds, ALL birds, except for Eclectus parrots.

I also researched the foods that contain Vit.D. The problem is most of the foods should not be given to birds, such as fish, dairy, soy etc....

there are other foods that contain Vit D3, such as hard boiled eggs, and meal worms-which my canaries and finches LOVE....personally I find them yucky

to this degree, obviously my birds are not getting enough, after I had been giving the liquid vitamins for almost 2 months I had hoped that issue had been resolved. much to my disappointment, it has not.

I feed them leafy greens at least 4 times per week which contains that important vitamin for absorption, it's the first thing they go for....and the plates are toally clean by mid afternoon.....still not enough??

ok, one thing I have stopped is giving them hard boiled eggs. idk, for some reason I just stopped giving it to them quite a while ago, and moved onto other things....ok going back to basics.

could it also be occurring due to changing their seed??....I use to give them Versele-Laga canary seed, now I give them In-tune made by Higgins(not Hagen)

make not to self...- compare calcium levels and vit.D3 on both bags.

maybe eggs are they answer,they certainly didn't have this issue before, so now I'm going to start giving them hard boiled eggs again, and compare calcium levels on both bags of food.

this is why I LOVE birds, they are so complex and I love learning about them.

if anyone else has any other suggestions I would love to hear them!!!!!

here are the articles:

Lady Gouldian Finch .com - Vitamin D in Cage Bird Nutrition

Food Sources of Calcium and Vitamin D - HealthLink BC File #68e

here's a picture of the shell-less egg laid by one of my canaries.

Interesting.....and sorry about Tundra
Being winter, do they get direct sunlight (meaning outside not through window)? Being in Canada I doubt it, same as me here on USA's east coast. They need it to be able to absorb the Vit.D.
So if using indoor UV lighting, are we using the right bulbs?? There was a debate on this, I know, but thinking that if this happens to you Crimson, and you're taking great care of your birds, chances are it could happen to all of us.
So figuring out what's happening with Tundra is important to ALL of us bird keepers....

You mean Higgins Vita Seeds??? Aren't the In tunes the pellet mix?

I remember reading about the egg issue and why it does that many years ago when I first started so that's been like 17 years ago. But for the life of me, I can not remember exactly why. But I do know it is usually due to calcium deficiency but you have been supplementing it. Have you tried giving some egg food and see if that helps???

Echo,

My Canaries lays eggs in fluorescent lighting and none are like this.....But they eat vitamin enriched seed mix along with pellets, fresh fruits and veggies, etc.

echo- since Tundra's vet visit, she has not laid any more eggs, so I am assuming the liquid calcium and vitamins are helping somewhat.

I don't use UV lighting, I find it expensive, and for the amount of birds that I have, it would add up in a hurry.

mikey-my mistake...I meant the Vita Seed. in my aviary I have cuttlebone, Burtons egg food, and Twin Peaks Herb Salad at their disposal daily.
I also put dried powdered Kelp onto their seed, which is high in Vit. A and amino acids.
I have started adding red palm oil onto their veggies, I just mix it right in once per week.
AND, they get their veggies, grains, leafy greens, etc.... heck they eat better than I do,lol.


from day one of owning birds, nutrition has always been high on the list of priorities for me and my birds, like most of us, as bird owners we want to make sure our birds remain healthy.

maybe it's a combination of switching seed & no eggs.

I just checked the Versele Laga site on the amount of calcium. I has oyster shell and sea minerals in the seed, but does not tell you the precise amount.

Higgins Vita seed has similar ingredients....again does not mention how much.