Eggs

[Socalguy]

Bella has laid about 22 eggs since Jan, she does not have an health issues from it and we have tried lots of different things to try and stop this. We are considering going to the vet for a hormone chip. My questions is since she has no health problems should we look into the chip?
She is about 4 years old and I have read some of the other posts and we have stopped all of the hings that have been mentioned to stop such as nest type places, petting the back and other spots. We do have a male in another cage and they are not allowed to interact.

 

[GaleriaGila]

WOW! That's a lot of eggs, and likely a lot of strain on nutrition and calcium!
I'd listen to the vet and follow advice. Is it an avian vet?
If not... some links.

Certified Avian Vets
https://abvp.com/animal-owners/find-an-abvp-specialist/
If none are near you...
Avian Veterinarians
http://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
In my opinion, any of the vets listed here should be better than a regular vet.


Good for you, for looking into this even if no health issues are apparent... yet.

 

[EllenD]

The problem with a bird that is chronically laying eggs is that it is a health issue in and of itself, in the sense that it is extremely stressful on their entire body. It almost always causes a Calcium deficiency, along with overall malnutrition...

However, in my own personal experience, and in my own professional breeder advice, the biggest health issue/risk to Bella or any female who lays that many eggs (it is a huge number of eggs for an Eclectus) is the risk of her becoming Egg-Bound with every single egg she makes. And Egg-Binding is pretty much 100% fatal without immediate medical intervention.

The general issue with a chronic egg-layer is that over-time the stress that it does to their body starts to wear on them, both internally and externally. They usually start to lose weight and it's hard to keep it on them beccause all of the nutrition they take-in is leeched from them, the Calcium is leeched from their bones the entire time and this eventually causes very weak bones/osteoporosis basically, they start becoming so stressed that they start open-mouth breathing all the time, and it's just very, very hard on them overall.

The newer hormone "chips" are more effective than the older injections used to be, and they are so tiny that it takes no more than a small needle prick to inject them into their breast muscle. The newer ones usually start to show results within the first 30 days of the injection, and they typically shut down their entire reproductive system for an entire year now (it used to only be 3-6 months). And the risks to them are extremely small.

So, as someone who has lost a bird to egg-binding and who has seen the long-term effects of a chronic egg-layer, if you've already tried all of the non-medical ways of knocking her out of breeding-season, such as changes to diet, changes to her local environment to eliminate any nesting behaviors, putting her on a Natural Light Schedule, etc., then yes, I would highly advise you to at the very least have one hormonal implant put in her to see if it stops the egg laying. And if it does completely stop the egg-laying and she exhibits no unwanted side-effects from the implant, then there's no reason to not keep her on it. As you said, she's very young now, and the last thing you want is for her to start chronically egg-laying every year like she is now, and force her body to keep going through the tremendous stress that it endures when they lay clutch after clutch, because eventually it will catch up with her...And just to make a point, the fact that she's currently in good-health and has no current health issues does not in any way protect her from the stress that chronic egg-laying will cause to her entire body over time, nor will it protect her from egg-binding. The healthiest female bird in the world can suddenly become egg-bound without warning, even if their calcium blood levels are normal...Like I said, it's not at all about the condition of her body now, but rather what the chronic laying will do to her body over time; and the effects usually do start to wear on them very quickly.

Bottom-line is that to a chronic egg-layer, the long-term benefits of the chemical castration far outweigh the long-term negative effects that the chronic egg-laying causes to their bodies.

 

[Socalguy]

The problem with a bird that is chronically laying eggs is that it is a health issue in and of itself, in the sense that it is extremely stressful on their entire body. It almost always causes a Calcium deficiency, along with overall malnutrition...

However, in my own personal experience, and in my own professional breeder advice, the biggest health issue/risk to Bella or any female who lays that many eggs (it is a huge number of eggs for an Eclectus) is the risk of her becoming Egg-Bound with every single egg she makes. And Egg-Binding is pretty much 100% fatal without immediate medical intervention.

The general issue with a chronic egg-layer is that over-time the stress that it does to their body starts to wear on them, both internally and externally. They usually start to lose weight and it's hard to keep it on them beccause all of the nutrition they take-in is leeched from them, the Calcium is leeched from their bones the entire time and this eventually causes very weak bones/osteoporosis basically, they start becoming so stressed that they start open-mouth breathing all the time, and it's just very, very hard on them overall.

The newer hormone "chips" are more effective than the older injections used to be, and they are so tiny that it takes no more than a small needle prick to inject them into their breast muscle. The newer ones usually start to show results within the first 30 days of the injection, and they typically shut down their entire reproductive system for an entire year now (it used to only be 3-6 months). And the risks to them are extremely small.

So, as someone who has lost a bird to egg-binding and who has seen the long-term effects of a chronic egg-layer, if you've already tried all of the non-medical ways of knocking her out of breeding-season, such as changes to diet, changes to her local environment to eliminate any nesting behaviors, putting her on a Natural Light Schedule, etc., then yes, I would highly advise you to at the very least have one hormonal implant put in her to see if it stops the egg laying. And if it does completely stop the egg-laying and she exhibits no unwanted side-effects from the implant, then there's no reason to not keep her on it. As you said, she's very young now, and the last thing you want is for her to start chronically egg-laying every year like she is now, and force her body to keep going through the tremendous stress that it endures when they lay clutch after clutch, because eventually it will catch up with her...And just to make a point, the fact that she's currently in good-health and has no current health issues does not in any way protect her from the stress that chronic egg-laying will cause to her entire body over time, nor will it protect her from egg-binding. The healthiest female bird in the world can suddenly become egg-bound without warning, even if their calcium blood levels are normal...Like I said, it's not at all about the condition of her body now, but rather what the chronic laying will do to her body over time; and the effects usually do start to wear on them very quickly.

Bottom-line is that to a chronic egg-layer, the long-term benefits of the chemical castration far outweigh the long-term negative effects that the chronic egg-laying causes to their bodies.

Thank you very much, its off to the vet for Bella.