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Post by leslyk on Mar 31, 2013 7:03:07 GMT 10
Hello everyone,
I havent contacted you for a while but i do need urgent advice. I have an Alexandrine female for about a hear and a half. It is spring here and she has laid her first unfertilized egg. I made the mistake of giving her towel rolls to play with. Completely stupid of me. Anyway we have an egg. My girl is relxed and not aggressive at all. What do i do now? Take it away or leave it. Should I move her house into another room and control the light. Please advise and thank you for all your good advice!
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Post by avinet on Mar 31, 2013 10:35:09 GMT 10
I doubt the towel rolls were an influence - when spring comes around an Alexandrine hen can get hormonal without any prompting at all. Usually that is accompanied by some serious protective behaviour so if she is not aggressive you are very lucky. Leave the egg with her - if you remove eggs she is likely to lay more to make up a clutch of 3 or 4 eggs, and as a result can become depleted in calcium leading to egg binding. The chances are that she will lay her quota of eggs and start incubating them - after a couple of weeks she will likely lose interest and the eggs can then be removed. However all hens are different so to some extent you will have to play it by ear. Manipulating their environment to "turn off" the hormones can be effective. We have 10 Alex's in the house, 5 of which are females and three of which get incredibly hormonal in the spring, as do two of the males. Some springs have been very bad and we did resort to hormone injections for a couple of years and they were very effective. That was while my daughter was working for an avian vet and she was able to get the injections at cost. She foolishly left that job and so that is too expensive these days. This last spring was especially bad so we did turn to environmental manipulation. Having light reducing curtains keeping the room dark for all but 8 hours a day, and giving them only a poor quality budgie seed mix - Woolworths home brand from memory. Withing a couple of weeks the breeding cycle came to an abrupt end - thankfully. Wasn't very fair on those who were not causing a problem but life is like that at times  A final note - if your bird is on a pellet and fresh food diet then she will be getting enough calcium in her diet but if she is on a seed and fresh food diet then a calcium plus vitamin D 3 supplement would be advisable. cheers, Mike |
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Post by leslyk on Mar 31, 2013 14:59:36 GMT 10
Hello Mike, Thank you so much!  My baby hates pellets although I have tried. I give her Prestige Premium and fruit and veg and so first on my list today is Vit D3. You have helped me very much, thanks. I love my Alex and would be desolate if she encountered serious health problems. Lesley |
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Post by avinet on Mar 31, 2013 16:23:01 GMT 10
That is calcium plus D3 - in Australia I recommend Vetafarm's Calcivet as the best around and most decent pet shops will sell it. However you are presumably in Europe, so I can't recommend ant particular brand - just make sure it has calcium and D3 - and a good one may also have minor amounts of magnesium.
Given your bird will not eat pellets (unusual for an Alexandrine, all my 10 happily eat pellets) then a weekly dose of Calcivet is a good idea. A seed plus fresh food diet is deficient in calcium and since I assume it is an inside bird it will also be deficient in D3
It is worth working on the pellets, they form a much better diet for an Alexandrine. From looking at the web site for Prestige Premium seed mixes, the Australian Parakeet Loro Parque Mix is the most suitable for an Alex - and I see that it does contain reasonable calcium and D3, provided via an included pellet as well as shell grit. However such mixes are only effectively giving the bird the right amounts of nutrients if they are eating all the contents of the mix, and are not selectively eating just some of the contents.
Unfortunately most birds are selective, eating only those seeds they like and often not eating the pellet and shell grit in those mixes that include them. The sunflower is usually the favourite and will be eaten first, with the bird's hunger often being satisfied with sunflower alone. So the bird ends up with an unbalanced diet, high in fat and ultimately suffers from fatty liver problems. An Alexandrine on a high fat diet can perhaps do better than many species, but even so, instead of having an expected lifespan of maybe 40 years, it will likely live to only half that age.
Pellets on the other hand have a similar dietary composition in each individual pellet, so the bird is bound to get a balanced nutritional intake, and be healthier as a result. When my Alex's were having hormone issues last spring, they were moved form a good pellet diet to a poor seed diet - almost instant change in behaviour with breeding behaviour turning into early moult. And once they started moulting they returned to pellets for the good nutrition needed during the moult.
cheers,
Mike
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Post by lesleyk on Apr 9, 2013 4:52:59 GMT 10
Hi Mike,
Thank you again for your advice. Poor pellets sounds logical in a funny kind of a way. I am ex South African moved to Israel 14 yrs ago. Always had dogs :-) We have a very large community of African Ring Necks made their homes here. Fell in love with Alexandrines quite by accident. I will try much much harder this year with the pellets. Dont want to go through another month like this. Need to enter next breeding season with more confidence. My girl is fine. She has had four eggs (my complete fear was that she would be eggbound). Sitting on the last one constantly. I have arranged towels for her and half her cage is covered for privacy. I have given her two bowels of mixed food including pellets and sprinkle everything with Benelux egg food. Of course apple and red pepper on hand. She is relaxed and friendly and comes up for kisses and hugs and of course hurriedly eats. Your replies have helped me very much. Dont feel so helpless. Weather is erratic. I have moved her to the window for ultra violet but window isnt open all the time.
Thank you!
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Post by lesleyk on Apr 9, 2013 5:07:14 GMT 10
Dear Mike,
10 Alexandrines! I could only wish!
You must be living in an amazing place and live a great life!
Best regards,
Lesley
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Post by lesleyk on Apr 15, 2013 4:21:44 GMT 10
Dear All and Mike,
Just wanted to mention that Baby is fine. She has behaved beautifully. She left her eggs after 16 days and has returned to herself. I have watched her closely for any health problems but she is her normal gentle loving interested self (apart from chewing my new sandals). She loves going on walkabout. Best regards and carry on with your excellent work!
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Post by avinet on Apr 15, 2013 21:49:42 GMT 10
Glad to hear everything is back to normal
cheers,
Mike
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