My budgies:-

Question
Hi, i have 2 budgies a male and female and they're ready to breed i think. I have attached a nest box on the outside of their cage. They both go in there and sit in there for hours. I have little peeps into the nest box to see  what they r doin and all she does is just sit in the concave and the male sits next to her. I came home from school last week thursday and found an egg in their cage. It wasn't laid in the next box but instead it was on the floor of their cage, when i picked the egg up and touched it was soft..... it didn't have a shell. It just had a think membrane around it. I have provided her with lots of calcium including and iodine bell, calcium bell, cuttlefish and a seperate bowl of shellgrit, She devours these things. I was studying her yesterday and noticed a lump next to her bum area. I'm hoping it's an egg. Please tell me what i'm doing wrong or is everything fine.

Answer
Hi, Frank,

If your bird is laying soft eggs, it has a calcium deficiency problem.  Watch this bird VERY CLOSELY.  She might become egg bound if she's laying soft eggs.  Soft eggs are difficult to impossible for a bird to pass and they usually get stuck at the vent.  If your bird becomes egg bound, it's an emergency situation, and you would need to get the bird to a certified avian vet/animal hospital immediately or the bird will die.  This lump you see might be another egg...watch to ensure she can pass it.  An egg bound bird will usually sit on the cage bottom, the bird will pant, it will look really sick, and you might see a partial egg sticking out of her vent.  If this happens, rush the bird to your bird vet (not a cat/dog vet, but a bird vet) or animal hospital.  

If you have any substrate in the nesting box, take it out.  This might be why she laid the egg in the cage instead of the nesting box.  Budgies don't like anything in the bottom of their nesting boxes.  Also, if this bird is laying soft eggs, I'd recommend removing the nesting box and not allowing her to lay right now.  She obviously has a calcium deficiency and her calcium levels need to be built up before she lays any more eggs.  Remove the shell grit.  Parrots don't need/shouldn't eat grit.  The calcium bell, cuttlebone are fine.  However, if you are feeding corn, corn binds with calcium in the body and doesn't allow the calcium to be absorbed.  This bird may actually need a calcium injection and/or liquid calcium in her drinking water (ask the pharmacist for liquid calcium).  If she's on a poor diet (all seed), you need to improve her diet before allowing her to produce offspring.

Chrys