# egg bound & future prevention



## sarahxx92 (Mar 25, 2011)

Hello everyone!
its been a long time since I've been on here & I'm sure most of you won't know me!

I came on here last night and thought I posted this question but something must have gone wrong as I can't find my thread now! never mind 


anyway to try to explain quickly my oldest budgie Kirby got egg bound in the last 48 hours. We ended up at the vets & they injected a needle into the egg withdrawing the contents allowing the egg to deflate and then Kirby was able to lay it last night! thank goodness! she had is SO worried.

So now Kirby is in recovery, she has two types of antibiotics & a pain med.

The vet suggested that we get her an injection called Lupron every 4-6 months to stop her laying any more eggs. the injection is quite expensive and I'm worried it will be quite an ordeal for her to go through so often. But I also don't want for this to happen again.
has anyone had any experience with that injection?

I know there are other ways you can prevent breeding so if you are experienced at preventing birds breeding I would also love some direction on what to do. 

a little background information on Kirby-
she is 6 years old and has never laid an egg before or even shown interest in breeding.
I think the change in dynamics in the cage has maybe triggered this with Kirby. In the past we had 4 budgies- Kirby (female), Charlie(male), Ollie(male) & Daisy (female).
The two boys Ollie and Charlie were always together they acted like a pair despite being both male. So when Ollie suddenly passed away Charlie was very sad so we introduced another male- Kiwi. 
This was all fine until Daisy passed away and we introduced another young female Bluebell. So we then still had two boys and two girls. 
Kirby was acting pretty normal until Charlie passed away. Yes we've unfortunately had bad luck lately and a lot of loss so we decided not to buy any more budgies. leaving Kirby the oldest female, Bluebell a young female and Kiwi a maturing male.
This is when Kirby and Kiwi seemed to pair up. I noticed very quickly as they became inseparable!

so now Kirby is in our quarantine/hospital cage while she recovers and kiwi is chirping away all day wondering where she is. Kirby doesn't seem too bothered I guess because she's tired from the whole experience. 

Do I put Kirby back with Kiwi when she's better? or do I keep her separate?

Should I consider buying another male bird to put the number of males and females back to an even number & this may help Kirby not to feel so territorial and possessive of Kiwi since she is worried Bluebell might get his attention??


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Hi Sarah,

Glad Kirby is ok, I am sure that was a scary situation. Females can lay eggs even if they are not mating and sometimes even single hens can be chronic egg layers so perhaps the vet wants to use the Lupron to deal with hormonal issues. I have had 2 birds get Lupron injections, although for different reasons but both did fine with the injections and they were more frequent than every 4-6 months.
Do you have anything in the cages that could be used as a nesting site, if so it would be best to remove the objects.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*There are definitely steps you can take to prevent breeding. Have you actually seen Kiwi and Kirby mating?

Rearranging their cage frequently, and limiting the light they get to 8 hours a day will help tremendously. Please be sure you never put a nest box or anything that could be used as a nesting site in their cage.

When they come into condition, limit the amount of protein in their diet at that time. 

If Kirby is happy in a cage on her own, you could also consider keeping her caged separately from Bluebell and Kiwi and just let them have closely supervised out-of-cage time together.

Best wishes!*


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## sarahxx92 (Mar 25, 2011)

FaeryBee said:


> *There are definitely steps you can take to prevent breeding. Have you actually seen Kiwi and Kirby mating?
> 
> Rearranging their cage frequently, and limiting the light they get to 8 hours a day will help tremendously. Please be sure you never put a nest box or anything that could be used as a nesting site in their cage.
> 
> ...


Hi FaeryBee,

No I've never actually seen them mate but I assume the wish to lay eggs may be due to her new interest in him even if the egg was not fertile.

We've never bred so there has never been a nest box in the cage & she didn't make a nest or area to lay. She did completely shred a toy that had popsicle sticks on it though but she's always been the type of bird to destroy toys so I didn't think much of it!

It's very hard to tell when Kirby is in condition since her cere is nearly always the exact same brown colour?

Kirby has always lived with other budgies so I feel she won't be happy by herself- also kiwi has been calling out to her a lot and I'm a bit worried he is fretting for her but I want to keep her separate at least until she finishes her medication!

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## sarahxx92 (Mar 25, 2011)

Cody said:


> Hi Sarah,
> 
> Glad Kirby is ok, I am sure that was a scary situation. Females can lay eggs even if they are not mating and sometimes even single hens can be chronic egg layers so perhaps the vet wants to use the Lupron to deal with hormonal issues. I have had 2 birds get Lupron injections, although for different reasons but both did fine with the injections and they were more frequent than every 4-6 months.
> 
> Do you have anything in the cages that could be used as a nesting site, if so it would be best to remove the objects.


Thank you for your comment! I don't think we have anything in the cage that could be used as a nesting site. 
How often did your budgies get the injection then?

My vet seemed to think it was so strange that Kirby has never laid an egg then nearly at the age of 7 decides to lay one & get egg bound!

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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

One of my males had a testicular tumor and was feminizing due to it and was given a series of injections a month or so apart, and I had a female with an ovarian tumor that was also given the injections but just a couple of times. The frequency of injections may be different depending on what it is being used for.


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