Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Hi I have a 7 month old handicapped english budgie

that was born with a one splayed leg that sticks straight out. His wings were over clipped when I got him at 2 months of age.

I have waited un-patiently for his wings to grow out as my other parakeets are flighted.

I see from the way he perches like a kick stand mostly on a ladder. That he has close access to his one wing with a bad leg and over preens and chews on just this one which makes him flutter lopsided.

He doesn’t seem to know he can start flying, but gets around quite well. Do you have any advice on how to stop this chewing of the one wing. I would love to see him fly with his friends.

They have free time out on top of four cages with tons of perches and toys.

They have never figured out in seven years they could go around the corner down the hall, which is a great plus for me.

They are my little babies, I refer to them affectionately as keebler elfs. Thanks for your help. Michelle

Yikes!

For those of you unfamiliar with splayed leg – it’s a leg that gets stuck in the wrong position of a very young hatchling usually due to being sat on by the parent in a nest box without enough nesting material for cushioning and basically becomes a permanent deformity although we have seen corrections as viewed in this video.

Chances are your 8 week old bird is too old to fix so before we resort to extreme measures I’m going to advocate the introduction of at the very least one flat perch, either a flat manzanita perch or a corner perch so your budgies good foot isn’t getting overworked and he can rest.

I would like to know how often he gets bathed. Perhaps with the introduction of more moisture into the feathers by spraying with Natra Feather and Skin Conditioner spray the chewing could be reduced. We can also look at products Like No Pick from Natra if it is extreme.

Also consider Natra VitaBird Dietary Supplement for helpful nutrition while he grows out his wings.

Once his wings grow in fully, the chewing may stop and he will be a happier bird in the group.

And no, he may not think of himself as handicapped.

This is where I would start.

best

mitchr

editors note: the following is a response to my comments above

Hi Mitch, I wrote to you a while back about my handicapped english budgie Kenny a while back.

He has one splayed leg that sticks straight out and up. He likes to perch at a angle where he looks like a kick stand.

I thought he was chewing his wing feathers on one side, but he now seems to have almost finished a long molt cycle. He has started to fly with my other parakeets, although wobbly he can now do 90 degree angles.

It has been the longest six months waiting Kennys feathers to grow back. He was only 8 weeks old when I rescued him, and if you remembered his wings were over trimmed.

My 4 other parakeets are all flighted and out most of the day as I am home. Kenny had an extra cage set on the floor next to the table (with one of 3 large cages I have in a cluster) with a long ladder up to side of cage on the table,with many wooden clothes pins clipped to side of table cage he used as a ladder (as this side had vertical bars).

Being on the top of this cage is the favorite Cool Spot for all the birds. I believe many, many times Kenny fluttered to the floor over the six months and then the long climb up three flights actually made his leg and foot stronger.

The Lord works small miracles everyday. Thanks for your reply and I go have three shelf perches that he sometimes used but doesn’t favor them now that he is King of the Hill. Thanks for your blogs.

Michelle W

Hi Michelle –

As you are discovering, animals don’t know they have sustained an injury – all they can do is work around pain in order to – at least attempt to achieve “normal”

kudos on your persistence and thank you for engaging with our content

mitchr

[email protected] replied

hi i think i made a mistake regarding the pellets i fed my parakeets. I “think” i wrote Higgins, but it was Harrisons.

hi! i am currently feeding my parakeets dr harvey’s but they seem to waste a lot of it. what is the best parakeet seed? there are so many, i’m confused. they don’t like fresh veggies or fruit, so I would like a good overall food. i tried harrison’s pellets and they refuse to i eat it. thanks! Toni

Hi Toni

Unfortunately all seed diet are messy. because of the hulls so you have the same problem regardless of the food brand.

Dr harvey’s is one of the best

Two simple things I would advocate.

Budgies are ground eaters in the wild (we have for we know budgies)

we keep our food dishes on the floor of the cage – we do not use a grate – we make sure the dishes are not under any poop trajectories. This way much of the mess is contained within the floor of the cage

millet is another issue and I deal with vacuuming seven days a week.

You may also try to use a seed skirt around the cage which you can find here

W have also recently added these clear hooded cups we use for our 4 bdgies

This is our budgie cage set up fyi

best

mitchr

On Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 3:31 PM UTC, Peggie <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi, Love your website ! Thank you for that. I’m hoping you can help me with training and integrating my birds.

I made the mistake of getting 4 budgies at the same time. Doh ! They are 18 mo old now. 3 boys and 1 probably girl. (thought they’d all be males, oops) I’ve tried and tried and tried to finger train them.

They don’t want me, they want each other.Buddy and Sami are together and won’t play, ever. Sami sulks and pouts and sits. Buddy is ambitious and active and irritates Sami 24/7, so I’m planning on getting Sami his own cage.

I’m hoping I can get more response from them being separate. I’m assuming they’ll have to be in separate rooms from each other ?

The other two seem to have fallen deeply in love/bonded and are joyously flying in the “bird room”, feeding each other, playing.

Auzzie (male) will get on my finger to come out of the cage, but is ‘wild’ after that. Sunny (yellow female) zooms right past me and won’t come to me. I tried to have them all together and Buddy and Sunny (yellow female) just fight to the floor, so that’s a no-go. I’m so frustrated !

I feel I’ve made a huge mistake and will never have a happy flock that will sit on my hand and let me pet them. I’ve looked at all the bird training sites and they’re always about parrots who will sit there and let you click and feed.

Crazy parakeets just will NOT do that. They’re too skittish. What in the world can I do or try ? It’s been a year and a half and I’m nothing more than a budgie maid. Not what I was hoping for with these sweet babies. Hope you can help.

Thank you ! peggie

Yes Peggie, you may have made a mistake in getting 4 parakeets at once if you wanted to have them as tame pets.

Birds of a feather flock together and you have no feathers.

I recommend you get them a nice big cage and let them enjoy life without being handled.

We did not intend to have 4 parakeets either. However it started when a customer came into my store with a keet he just caught outside on a cold day and gave it to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDmD9aM1yZA

Mitch was enchanted and had the little guy (Bacon) on his hand right away. We thought he was tame. Well, after a week of good food and housing he regained his strength and was no longer going to have anything to do with us..

We realized he was a feral parakeet and we would not be able to tame him. He was extremely skittish and we decided to get him a buddy as parakeets do not do well alone if they don’t enjoy a human’s company instead.

So along came Eggs who was a hand fed baby but housed with Bacon made Eggs jumpy too. We decided to locate another couple keets to make them all more comfortable. We were given an adult pair by a local breeder and introduced them (Toast and Jam) to the cage and tossed in some millet spray and low and behold, they are doing just fine. It appears to be going well. We love to watch them.

For yourself, consider a new bird, one all for yourself.

We wish you the best.

Catherine Tobsing

A question and 3 answers from Quora about budgies chiping

How can I get parakeets to stop chirping?

Skye Walters, Was once owned by an Amazon Parrot.

You probably won’t, unless you kill them.

Don’t take home an animal if you cannot stand the things it does when it is happy – if you got a cat and didn’t want it to purr, you’d likely be seen as crazy and unreasonable. The same is true for budgies.

Budgies are social animals, like most other bird species. They will communicate, which to you can be annoying.

Either get used to it, invest in earplugs or headphones, or give them to a shelter or new family where someone is actually educated about their new pet.

Caitlin G, Dog and Cat Trainer/Behaviourist (2016-present)

They are probably chirping because they want something.

When my love bird chirps too much – I check the water dish, is it clean?, check the food, is it full?, provide the fresh veggies, a water bath or a mist, some new toys, or take the bird out for some socializing/play time.

There is usually something the bird wants/needs. If you cannot figure it out, the bird probably just wants attention and love!

Benjamin Thiel

Make them unhappy. Seriously though, if you place a towel or light blanket over the cage, your parakeets will probably quiet down as it appears dark (sleepy time) to them. However, parakeets are very sociable and need to communicate.

In conclusion

Birds are noisy – but there are degrees. Is mentioned above we have for budget. When their bird Kate light comes on in the morning at 7:20 the chatter begins.

I find it enchanting. Much better than having flowers which don’t do much else then die after a few days.

The cage with four budgies is a living breathing community and I have found a clearly have their routines.

I used to give them a full millet spray every other day the captain pointed out to me that they didn’t understand the every other day concept.

So now after I warm up Peaches our Senegal parrot’s vegetables for her breakfast (frozen corn and peas in a bag) I drop have a millet spray into the communal millet holder for the budgies breakfast.

If I don’t get there within an hour of them waking up I usually find the holder on the floor of the cage is a direct statement framing my negligence.

When a flock of birds is making noise, they are happy and feel safe. If a flock of birds is quiet you can bet that danger is imminent

written by mitch rezman
approved by catherine tobsing

your zygodactyl footnote

4 budgies on 4 toy horses