I am pleased to report that Bertie's cere growth has fallen off. She looks like a normal bird now, I will try and post a photo in the next few days.
She is eating boiled rice,cracked wheat,quinoa and vegies every day and enjoying it along with her greens and fruit.
I got some Calcivet from the vets,and some Aloe juice. With luck it might not grow back in the next 12 months. She is moulting quite heavily at the moment. I had never connected the moulting with the cere growth before, but it might be so.
Thank you Beatriz for all the advice on herbs, I will get some from the health food shop.
I have another question to ask, for myself and a friend.
Are there any mating /courting rituals or behaviors comon to parrots ?
If they dont have a mate, would they try and cross breed ? I know IRN's and Alexandrines can cross breed. My friend has a clucky female quaker and her Alex is paying undue attention to her from inside his cage. Is there anything she should do?
My Alex ,Winston ,is still doing his dance, swaying and bowing on his perch first thing in the mornings. I was told this is common to both sexes , is that right ? I caught him doing it on top of Berties cage this week.
Thank you for all the help with Bertie.
Christine
Chrstine

If the birds belong to subspecies of the same or to species that are closely related genetically, they can cross breed (like two different kinds of macaws or congo grays with timnehs or canaries with certain finches, etc). Alexandrines can breed with IRNs because they are all Psitaccula and all came from the same ancestor bird that originated all the different species due to the separate geographical areas where they are found. And because this happened not that long ago, they all have similar DNA (like wolves and dogs that were split 15,000 years ago).

As to mating displays, captive birds would do them even to people so yes, they can do them to other birds. When a social bird is raised in an unnatural environment (namely, captivity) and without companions of their own species, they display behaviors that are not present in the wild. Some of these behaviors are extreme like plucking or self-mutilation but most of them are breeding related. There are countless cases of birds of different species and/or of the same gender that have bonded simply because that other bird was the only one available to them. Lone birds bond with their humans and would even try to mate with them, the poor things. It is more common for birds that have similar looks (size, color, body profile) to bond but there have been cases of birds that don't look anything alike that also did.
As to breeding behaviors common to all parrots, some are, some aren't. They are all photoperiodic, all nest in cavities of some sort, high protein and vitamin E brings all of them into breeding condition, they all feed and preen each other, etc. But displays are different, some use a specific call (like tiels), some dances (senegals), in some the female is dominant (ekkies) while in other it's the male (amazons) so it varies from species to species.

But, in most cases of cross-species bonding, although the reason for the bonding is sexually related, there is no attempt at copulation... they seem to know that they would not be able to produce offspring.

I thought that this thread was very interesting. I've heard of this kind of thing before but have never seen it for myself. Poor Budgie - all hormonal - quite the drag.

It is good to hear different points of view & learn of different products. Even in Canada we sometimes can't get the American brands. It seems that Sunlight or Full Spectrum lighting would be helpful. We try both around here.
At this time ~ We don't give our birds supplements. I have to rethink our birds' diet again. It is easy to get complacent.

Regarding the soft egg - i do know that in chickens it is often the first or last egg that has unusual properties - either a soft shell or larger or smaller than the rest.

Thank you Beatriz and Homebird
The information on Cross breeding was most helpful.
I was thinking of looking into full spectrum lighting. It does not seem to be a common thing in NZ, we are supposed to have too much Sun !! The birds do go outside a lot in summertime, or warm winter days.
The budgie seems to have a lot more energy and was even wing flapping today.I am sure the growth was an obstruction to her breathing.
Chrissy

Yes, please do install full spectrum lighting but make sure it is a good full spectrum because, nowadays, everybody and his dog are selling bulbs or tubes that are called 'full spectrum' but they are actually very low in quality. The term 'full spectrum' is just a marketing one, it is not a scientific one (meaning there are no standards to go by and any old light can be called full spectrum or daylight or whatever). None of the ones you get in regular hardware stores or supermarkets are any good, you need to go online.

It makes a huge difference in birds because they don't only see better than us in terms of accuracy, they also see colors we don't and are highly visually stimulated (their endocrine system is photosensitive).

Thank you Beatriz,
I am not sure if I can get one sent to NZ in the post from US, but will investigate further. Does anyone out there from NZ know where we can get full spectrum lighting ??