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Old 01-22-2003, 04:01 PM   #2
carol
Re: Egg Binding, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention

I think egg binding is mainly caused by females being bred to young, lack of exercise, and lack of calcium. I think all the climbing, searching for food and constricting really helps even younger corns to be able to handle a clutch of eggs. I am really starting to lean towards providing a little more vertical space for my up and coming females. And in my own findings I think power feeding them does them a diservice because they are never hungery enough to search for food and become fat.

I haven't heard of a whole lot of entire clutches being bound. Usually there are just one or a few left after the other eggs are deposited. These eggs will be felt or seen quite easily. Eggs should be layed with in two weeks of the "pre-lay shed" and if not, I would be concerned.

In my limited experience, it has never payed to sit back and wait, even if the female continues to feed. I have learned to take action if all the eggs have not been layed with in 36-48 hours of the first one. If the egg is near the cloaca, usually breeders will try and manipulate it out. If it is not, then aspiration with a syringe could be tried but this has to be done very soon or the contents of the egg will solidify making it impossible. And let me take this time to say none of these procedures are recommended for a beginner who hasn't been shown how to do this. Oxytocin can be givin by a vet, but sometimes if a egg is truly "stuck" this won't help. It usually just helps when a female has "given up" on trying to lay the eggs.

Each case is different and has to be analyzed carefully before deciding on a treatment. Perhaps some bigger breeders will have some more to add.