it had to happen I suppose but how I wish it hadn't.
have my first case of an egg bound finch today, one of my painted's.
she is now in a cage on her own with plenty of food and water available.
other than waiting I'm not sure what else I can do. she had access to plenty of shell grit and cuttlefish(ground & whole).
always had fresh green food and live food available.

Hi Mick
I have also had my first egg bound birds in the last couple of weeks - a star finch and a Bourkes parrot hen. I did the same as you - basically just keeping them quiet and warm with extra soft food / vitamins in the water - they both passed the eggs by the following day with no other assistance. Would a calcium supplement in the water also be beneficial as treatment? My birds are on the same diet as always and I have never had the condition before. Maybe the weather is a factor - ours is very unpredictable at the moment - 35 one day and 18 the next !

she didnt make it went out and put the heat lamp on early last night. but this morning she was gone.
weather here has been all over the place as well. have had a couple of days over 40 a few high 30's but the rest are 18 to 25.

Sorry to hear about your hen.

Sorry to hear Mick. Keep finches long enough and you get the odd egg bound hen, even if you do all the right things. Most of the time they will pass the egg themselves given heat and humidity in a hospital cage. You could give them seed soaked in cod liver oil, but I think by the time they show any signs it is too late for any other treatment anyway. I'm not a big fan of added calcium supplements to their diet. I feel if they get plenty of greens and grit in their diet, there shouldn't be any need for it.

Egg binding is easely taken care of as long as it is being recognized early, that is crucial to the survival of the bird, in a laying hen, egg binding, in the majority of cases, will occur when the first or third egg is being layed which is early in the morning or late in the afternoon, if not attented to immediatly she will die a very painful and slow death, they usually don t last the night, Egg bound Hens are always puffed up, head under the Wing huddeld on the floor and heavy breathing, these are the visual symptons, they offer almost no resistance when caught up because they are so weakened by trying to exspell the egg, inspecting the Vent, one can see the swelling caused by the egg, by placing a fingertip on the Vent itself(gently) one can feel the egg that got stuck, what to do next, isolate her straight away, place her in a warm inviroment give her two drops of CALCIUM SANDOZ direct to the beak, place in Cage on her own, seeds, add three drops of CALCIUM SANDOZ to one ounce of drinking water one ounce is 28.4 ml, 30 ml is a good quantity and give her two more drops direct to the beak if she has not passed her Egg in an hour, two things are very important QUIET and Warmth, NOT HEAT, she is under enough stress as is, any thing between 20 and 25 C will speed things up and things will be hunky dory within the next four hours or sooner, once the egg is passed keep her by herself over night and release early the next morning if she looks and feels O.k, if not straight onto anti biotics, once released back into Aviary she may or may not re enter her box, if she doesnt look for forster parents to take care of her clutch, she will soon recommence breeding actvity. Calcium Sandoz is a baby food syrup that can be bought at chemists or Vets. Gouldians are Lime lovers and should have copious amounts in front of them, by way of feeding cuttlefish, raw eggshell twice a week, or ordinary garden lime from Hardware stores or Nurseries in a separate dish in a dry spot in the aviary, as far as Egg shells is concerned , rinse the whole Egg under warm water crack the egg which you keep for yourself place the shells into your aviary or cage stand back and watch what happens, their little tongues will lick the egg white that is left in the shell 20 to the dozen which is protein, plus eating the egg shell is calcium, lime and trace elements, I have never stuck any problems when feeding raw egg shell. Try it you will be pleasantly surprised, hope this helps, Best wishes from Huckleberry