my canary laid an egg without a shell!

[crimson]

I have never seen this before. Imagine my surprise when I saw this laying on the bottom of my canary cage. she's a beautiful crimson yellow & ino (red eyes) she's been nesting, just for a few days now, and I noticed she was on the bottom, sort of puffy, and I said to her "you look like you are going to lay an egg, I hope your not egg bound". Now I am not psychic by any means, but I've seen other canaries do this when they are ready to lay, particularly if they don't have anywhere to lay the egg.

all my birds receive Avi-Cal daily which is sprinkled onto their food.I've got 2 huge jars of it, and I rarely forget to put it on.
they get so many leafy greens, and veggies loaded in calcium as well.

I know this is from lack of calcium, and really this is a first for me and my birds.....

luckily she passed it without breaking,otherwise she would be dead.

this is not a common sight so I wanted to take this opportunity to let you see an egg laid without a shell, wow!.... note the black dot in the yolk, it feels rubbery, and is very pliable. when I first picked it up, to remove it from the cage, I accidentally dropped it and it didn't break! god I was so relieved, I just about cr(&&^d my pants!

the second pic, is of the yolk under our microscope with it lit below the egg.

 

[MikeyTN]

It basically did not develop properly before she passed it out, like you say, lack of calcium. I've seen that happen before in the past. Be watchful of her!!!!

 

[crimson]

I'm removing the nest. how much calcium does she need anyways??!!
I know they need plenty, and they get plenty, but maybe she's not absorbing it.....hmmmm, now I have to research that.

 

[crimson]

I'm removing the nest. how much calcium does she need anyways??!!
I know they need plenty, and they get plenty, but maybe she's not absorbing it.....hmmmm, now I have to research that.

I found out that vitamin D3 helps absorb the calcium.

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

 

[Echo]

I'm removing the nest. how much calcium does she need anyways??!!
I know they need plenty, and they get plenty, but maybe she's not absorbing it.....hmmmm, now I have to research that.

I found out that vitamin D3 helps absorb the calcium.

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

Great article! I like to add eggs in my daily mash, however, I do not do that in the summer as it spoils so quickly! Thank you for reminding me to get back to it!!!

And boy, am I glad the egg did not break in her!!!!! WOW!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Lol when I saw the title I thought "let's go see what type of weird poop this is" but it really is a egg without much of a shell. Really interesting, that's good that you found out about the D3.

 

[Kalidasa]

That is bizarre. Well, on the good side, she didn't lose much calcium, as there is no shell. It's so fascinating and creepy at the same time.

 

[Kalidasa]

I can't stop looking at it

 

[BillsBirds]

That's a first for me. Very interesting!

 

[crimson]

I can't stop looking at it

I know, me too!, it's not like you see this everyday.
It's like were finally able to see inside an egg, the big hidden secret, lol.

 

[crimson]

That's a first for me. Very interesting!

me too Bill, I was wracking my brain last night what I can give her in a huge hurry, so this doesn't happen again. Next time she might not be so lucky.
Canaries lay eggs everyday, so today she just may lay another one

I have moulting vitamins from Veta Farm which have D3 in them, I'm going to give her hard boiled egg today, and anything else I can think of....

I've only had her since mothers day(May)

 

[crimson]

I'm removing the nest. how much calcium does she need anyways??!!
I know they need plenty, and they get plenty, but maybe she's not absorbing it.....hmmmm, now I have to research that.

I found out that vitamin D3 helps absorb the calcium.

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

Great article! I like to add eggs in my daily mash, however, I do not do that in the summer as it spoils so quickly! Thank you for reminding me to get back to it!!!

And boy, am I glad the egg did not break in her!!!!! WOW!

I've been doing that for the past 3 weeks, along with the egg food, but without that vit.D it just won't absorb.

 

[crimson]

Lol when I saw the title I thought "let's go see what type of weird poop this is" but it really is a egg without much of a shell. Really interesting, that's good that you found out about the D3.

now that's what I call really weird poop, LOL!

I have to say I'm a bit embarrassed by this. I knew a long time ago calcium does not absorb without vitamin D3, I honestly thought the veggies were had the vitamin in it.

Now I'm suspecting more of my birds are deficient.

 

[crimson]

I can't stop looking at it

would you like me to ship it to you?,LOL

 

[DallyTsuka]

do you have full spectrum lighting? it helps birds get adequate vitamin D3, it's the next best source aside from the natural sun

we have full spectrum in all of our normal light fixtures. one, munch is a layer so she needs the vitamin D3 and calcium as well, and two, as an added bonus, it is supposed to help with depression as well... so that's a bonus for me

 

[Echo]

I found out that vitamin D3 helps absorb the calcium.

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

Great article! I like to add eggs in my daily mash, however, I do not do that in the summer as it spoils so quickly! Thank you for reminding me to get back to it!!!

And boy, am I glad the egg did not break in her!!!!! WOW!

I've been doing that for the past 3 weeks, along with the egg food, but without that vit.D it just won't absorb.

According to the article, birds need vit.D (D3) in their system in order to absorb calcium.
They get vit.D through:

-eggs, insects, cod liver oil ( not good/gets rancid after 15mn)

-a least 1 hour of direct sunlight per day

-powdered vit. D3

So the author gives his breeders Powdered vitD3, egg mix and direct sunlight added to their diet.

 

[crimson]

Great article! I like to add eggs in my daily mash, however, I do not do that in the summer as it spoils so quickly! Thank you for reminding me to get back to it!!!

And boy, am I glad the egg did not break in her!!!!! WOW!

I've been doing that for the past 3 weeks, along with the egg food, but without that vit.D it just won't absorb.

According to the article, birds need vit.D (D3) in their system in order to absorb calcium.
They get vit.D through:

-eggs, insects, cod liver oil ( not good/gets rancid after 15mn)

-a least 1 hour of direct sunlight per day

-powdered vit. D3

So the author gives his breeders Powdered vitD3, egg mix and direct sunlight added to their diet.

yes, would't you know it I just placed an order with them last week.
I'm going to check if vit d3 is in any of it.

 

[Kalidasa]

I can't stop looking at it

would you like me to ship it to you?,LOL

No thanks! I don't use paperweights anymore!

 

[MikeyTN]

do you have full spectrum lighting? it helps birds get adequate vitamin D3, it's the next best source aside from the natural sun

we have full spectrum in all of our normal light fixtures. one, munch is a layer so she needs the vitamin D3 and calcium as well, and two, as an added bonus, it is supposed to help with depression as well... so that's a bonus for me

Those are not powerful enough to act like sunlight so they don't really do a thing for the birds. But by using it makes them happier to keep them under lighting.

 

[ShellyBorg]

In the chicken world this is not uncommon with new layers. Sometimes there system needs to "make" a egg or two to get it right.