Partial paralysis attacks on lovebird

[Nefertyna]

Hi,

My female lovebird laid eggs last summer and ever since she had partial paralysis attacks on the leg. She never had an episode before that. She is 6 years old. I have read that her calcium levels must be low so I gave her extra calcium, minerals and bought a full spectrum lamp. Nothing seems to bring her back to health. Sometimes she can go for weeks without an attack and then, have a few within a short period of time. Anyone experienced this with their bird?

Thank you.

[Pajarita]

Well, I don't really know if what she has is actually low calcium [which could bring in seizures that manifest themselves as the 'partial paralysis' you mention] or if what she is having are mini-strokes from a diet too high in fat [do you free-feed seeds by any chance?] or if it's an accumulation of ascites from liver malfunction [again, free-feeding seeds]... But if she lays too many eggs [human light schedule instead of solar by any chance?], it could be a calcium deficiency. Now, you say that you have given her calcium and minerals but in what form? Because if it's just the minerals without vit D3, she would still be hypocalcemic - and you need to be careful about supplying extra vitamins and minerals if you feed pellets as too much is as bad as too little. You mention full spectrum lights but they don't do it [we use them for vision and other hormones but not for D3] so you can give all the calcium in the world to the bird but it will end up going right through it if it doesn't have enough vit D3 to absorb it.

[Nefertyna]

She is on a pellet diet and given a small amount of seeds everyday. I mostly give her egg shells for calcium. She eats plenty of fruits and vegetables. She follows solar schedule for laying eggs. I am north in Canada and is it quite dark 6 months of the year. She never lays eggs in wintertime. I actually stopped using the full spectrum light as it seems to provoke her "strokes".

[Pajarita]

Well, for one thing, I never recommend giving them eggshells [too sharp and too full of crap as the chemicals that the poor layers eat all end up in there and no vitamin D3!]. Pellets 'should' provide enough D3 and calcium but I've know birds that got eggbound on them so I don't really know if the bio-availabilty of calcium and D3 in them is high enough for laying hens. As to a solar schedule in a climate that has 6 months of way too short days... well, I don't know if that is actually healthy for a bird that comes from a subtropical climate but there is little you can do about it except maybe try to 'balance' things out a bit with a 'fake' dawn and dusk. It's hard work changing the schedule every two weeks and it never works the same as a real solar schedule but it might be worth trying.

When was the last time she had complete bloodwork and was it normal? Because if she is not eating too much protein or fat, she is not a chronic layer and she is getting enough D3 and calcium, she needs to have bloodwork and a full body XRay to see what is going on there.