Splayed Legs and Feather Plucking

I have always thought that splayed legs is caused by lack of nesting materials so that the chicks are exposed directly to the wooden floor of the nestbox. I saw this article about splayed legs explaining that it is due to calcium deficiency. It is also mentioned somewhere else that simply giving cuttlebone is not sufficient but rather adding soluble calcium supplements to food or water is better. The calcium supplements is not only good for good egg formation in breeders but also for the chicks. In another article, calcium deficiency is also related to feather plucking. Below are the articles (these are really written by a bird supplement supplier so just disregard the product endorsed since it's not usually available locally but ask your regular supplier for a soluble form of calcium).

Health Articles / Splayed Legs

There are lots of old wives tales told about splayed legs in cage and aviary birds and rotating legs in larger birds like emus and ostriches. Whilst a few instances have medical or environmental causes the majority of cases have calcium at their root. This article is intended to explain how calcium is involved in and how proper calcium supplementation can prevent its occurrence. We are all aware of the role of calcium in bone formation. In the rapidly growing chick the bones are consuming large quantities of calcium. If the diet is deficient in calcium, or vitamin D3, there may not be enough calcium to go round the whole body. If the nerves and muscles go short of calcium they stop working properly. For nestlings this means that the leg muscles are unable to hold the legs together and support the chick's weight. For larger birds uneven muscle function tends to cause the leg to twist outwards at the hips until the toes point out sideways. Leg rotations are virtually impossible to treat. CalciBoost will stop the problem getting any worse but is unlikely to reverse the deformity. For splayed legs setting the legs into an appropriate splint and simultaneously treating with CalciBoost will normally return the legs to their normal condition if caught early enough. As usual prevention is better than cure. This is achieved by addressing the calcium levels of both hens and chicks. This simply involves a weekly dose of CalciBoost to all non-breeding birds and hens prior to breeding. For Eclectus and African Greys we recommend twice weekly administration. During egg-laying we increase the frequency to five days a week and continue this through the chicks' growth period. CalciBoost is designed for use in conjunction with Daily Essentials3 and other Birdcare Company breeding products. Do not give CalciBoost every day. Providing good quality calcium every day can actually have the reverse result to that you desire. If all the birds' maintenance calcium requirements are satisfied from the gut then the bones slowly lose the ability to quickly pump calcium back into the blood. Egg-binding can result from this over supplementation in hens. Because of the role of calcium in egg shell formation it is critical to hen health. Using giveCalciBoost routinely will increase clutch sizes, improve shell quality and hatchability and maintain much healthier hens. Feather picking, chewing, plucking and other forms of self mutilation Feather picking (and other similar forms of self mutilation) are major problems. Although most have nutritional problems as their origin there are some medical conditions that can be implicated so veterinary testing may be required. The most common cause of self mutilation appears to be calcium deficiency. As research tells us that 98% of pet birds are getting less than the recommended levels of calcium in their diet it is actually surprising that there aren't more cases of this distressing condition. Calcium is involved in both nerve and muscle function. Calcium deficient animals often show nervous behaviour such as fear, aggression and self mutilation. So the central part of our recommendation is to add CalciBoost to the diet. The important thing aboutCalciBoost is that the calcium it contains is very easily absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream. In actual fact the amount of calcium it supplies is quite low but its bio-availability makes up for that. Our normal recommendation for CalciBoost is to supply it five days a week for the first month and reduce that to twice a week after that. The reason for the high early dose is that calcium deficient birds have low reserves in their bones. Early supplies get sucked up by the bones so the nerves can still be denied adequate quantities. It is the movement of calcium in and out of blood, nerves, muscles and bones that leads to the variable severity of calcium related symptoms. Birds showing severe calcium related symptoms such as fits and seizures we would often recommend get three 'daily doses' directly into the beak two hours apart. Birds this distressed are normally easy to handle.