I wonder if you good people can help me this is Frank my daughters budgie who has just stayed with me and my flock for a week while my daughter was on holiday, she knows nothing about budgies and while he was with me I noticed that his little feet did not look right , I then remembered that she had told me that on the day she got him when she took him out of his box that the breeder had put him in she informed me that there was blood in the box and on his foot I thought that perhaps it had just been caught and told her how to stop the bleeding .

The breeder who lives near her and he gave the bird to her for free and I am begining to think that he did the damage to the bird whilst putting the ring on his leg..his other foot does not look right either in fact frank does not look normal he has a twist to his body and his eyes are just little slits..I wish I could have got a better picture of him but he kept running away so they were all blurred but I managed to get a good shot of the foot..I know it's to late to take him to the vet as it looks like the damage has been done and is here to stay,unless someone knows different but what I want to ask is there a greater risk to his future health by having this problem ie Arthritis setting in and if so what can be done to prevent it ie perches etc.

Hope someone can help as he is a lovely little chap with a gentle nature..Linda

 

http://66.45.231.122/~snails2d/frankfeet.jpg

Edited March 27, 200619 yr by pheonixx

That toenail does look really odd. I wonder why it's like that..

Can he move that toe? Seems like it was injured whilst very young, but that doesn't explain the other things you mention. Could he be the result of inbreeding? Poor diet for Mum and bubs? Too many clutches for Mum?

 

Definately use different size perches to exercise those feet. Find some way to encourage him to go from perch to perch a couple of times a day. And check if any perches might be tooo small for him to get a good grip on.

boy that looks painful. But you state he had been like that for a while now and I think like you said it's here to stay. So we do what we can to make it comfortable for him. He looks as if he is balancing correctly. He doens't fall often? I would replace the straight dowel sticks with nature or fruit tree branches. That way more exceris etot he feet when ever he moved as they are twisty and different sides, this will help work the feet and stop (or at least halt) Arthritis.

 

The twist to be body might just be him equaling ou the problem with the foot. Has he ever been taken to the vets? It might be an idea to suggest that to your daughter so he can get checked out from head to crooked toe

Thanks for the answers and yes I do suspect inbreeding and the damage was done on the day she got him from the ring.. I think thats why he gave Frank away free.

The twist to the body could well be due to the foot as it is to that side,balence seems fine and he does fall at times he also has realy short cut wings..done by the breeder and they have not grown back yet.

I feel that there are genetic problems and I cant realy explain why..I will have to speak to my daughter now he is back home as I noticed his cage looks far to small even for one bird and she has those short plastic perches that dont even go right across the cage and he seems to prefare sitting on the left hand side of the cage and he didnt move much I gave her a piece of apple tree branch to put in his cage and I am going to hers this weekend and I will replace them all if I can without interfering to much (Laughing out loud)..I noticed he does not use the cuttlefish at all so I wonder if it would be a idea to use liquid calcium in his water..and I dont think she knows what veg is (Laughing out loud)..thanks for all your help I will get her to get him checked over but I think the foot is there for life..I wish I had seen this before now poor Frank my birds are missing him too..Linda

Why don't you get her to join up here? By the time she's read a few posts she should understand why you want to change things for the bird

Wish she could Lin but she does not have a computer so it looks like I have myself another grandson Frank (Laughing out loud)..I will visit this weekend see how he is and replace the gross plastic perches and get some pics of him..well I am saying him he may be a her..my budgie Major got very fond of Frank and would spend hours face to face and I saw him place a foot on Franks back...hmm do boy birds normally do this with boys..I know Major at times has a bit of a kiss and head bobbing session with Jack but I have never seen him do the foot on the back...Linda

I have my fingers crossed that you can do what you can.

 

Yes the males will bob and sing to other males. I think it's a learning for hte young ones and staying in practise for the older ones

 

The foot thing can be a dominace act or a breeding act.

What colour is his cere? Also I was thinking this guy was an older bird, how long as she had him?

A independent bird food supplier (who also sold budgies) asked me a few years ago to take an English Budgie whose feet were all goofed up and nobody else wanted him. He was just the loveliest bird and I called him "Lucky". There was an avian vet in training at the Wildlife Shelter so I took Lucky by to see if anything could be done. He felt that there was either malpositioning in the egg or most likely nutritional deficiencies that made Lucky look this way. Sadly, Lucky passed away within 2 months of me adopting him, I always felt there was some congenital thing going on as he was a young budgie. One of my aunts had a toe deformity such as yours and Tippy was just fine, hope your guy is as well.