Egg binding in birds is definitely confined to species kept in aviaries.

I rarely see the problem in my aviaries which have a flight length of 40ft or more and I find this problem mostly confined to my aviaries with a flight of less than 12ft. Like most other aviculturists, I resorted to such things as Cod Liver Oil, but always came to the conclusions that it did more harm than good. Yes, it often cured the immediate problem of egg binding but often led to kidney failure and soft shelled eggs.

So I found out what Cod Liver Oil contains that worked for egg binding. It is rich in vitamins D3 and A. Sunshine could provide Vitamin D3 and plenty of green food would provide Vitamin A. This helped greatly but it did not eradicate the problem altogether. I found that three drops of "Fishaphos" to one litre of water worked as well as the cod liver oil.

Why only three drops? I found that by adding more than three only reduced the daily intake of water by the birds. I do not think that any one thing will prevent egg binding; I have also found lettuce as a green food is very helpful in preventing egg binding, especially in cabinet breeding. Lettuce mainly tones the blood and reduces uric acid build-up in vital parts of the body; but lettuce can be more of a problem than egg binding.

Firstly it needs to be organically grown and eaten by the bird while it is still fresh and given only enough so that the bird will eat it all in five minutes, so there will not be any left to go stale and the birds should be given other greens as well.

Treatment of Egg Binding - Most cases of egg binding will respond to treatment if found soon enough; the hospital cage supplied by most Societies is ideal for this purpose. I have found that one bulb is sufficient for the treatment - no more than 25 watts.

Remove the perch and allow the bird to sit on the floor; supply bird with a small dish of water to which has been added sulphaD (eight drops to forty mls of water). With a small eye dropper, give bird one or two drops of this mixture every half to one hour depending on the state of the bird.

Do this without holding the bird in the hand so as to reduce the amount of stress on the bird. The method is to hold the eye dropper above and behind the bird's head and gently drop a drop of liquid on to the bird's beak which often will tilt its head up instinctively and more liquid can then be given. This becomes easy with practice.