English Budgie With a Splayed Leg That Chews on His Wing - Conundrum

Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Hi, I have a 7-month-old English budgie that was born with 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 kickstand 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 elves.

Thanks for your help. Michelle

ME-> 6/9/2016 12:24:38 AM

Yikes!

FYI ~ Video

Chances are this bird is too old to fix the leg so before we resort to extreme measures I’m going to advocate the introduction of at the very least one flat perch so your budgies good foot isn’t getting overworked.

I would like to know how often he gets bathed?

Perhaps with the introduction of more moisture into the feathers praying could be reduced.

This is where I would start – please send feedback so we can try to fix this together

MitchR

Follow up

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 an angle where he looks like a kickstand.

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 for 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 every day.

Thanks for your reply and I do 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. Many prayer thoughts for you and Popcorn. RIP.

Dear Michelle

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

kudos on your persistence

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MitchR

Hi Mitch, We are looking for a travel cage big enough to hold a Sun Conure and Umbrella Cockatoo.

They are bonded and need to travel together if need be.

Also what size is appropriate for 2-3 Conures.

Thank you! Customer

The #603 would work well for the Sun Conure and Cockatoo together. If that is too large then the #602 would work fine.

Find All Travel Carriers Here

The #601 or #602 should be fine for the 3 conures. The Prevue #1305 carrier is about the same size as the #601 and comes with a perch and 2 dishes.

Thank you – Catherine

from: Mary Jo H.

I have an active and a little too smart African grey.

She is a hand-fed baby.

My problem is bird toys.

She prefers toys with knots, rings, etc.

But she can untangle knots, I have used crochet, knit, paracord and different styles of braiding.

She unravels them in a day or less no matter how long I make it.

She can remove things from keyrings and open any kind of snap or clip.

She does little damage to them. I am at a loss on how to secure toys in her cage.

Mary Jo,

Knots? Get some leather strips, tie knots in the strips – soak the knotted leather in water for a few hours, let dry overnight and see if your bird can untie them now.

MitchR

Our Daughters’ cats have fleas that she let get out of control.

I didn’t notice them until they moved out of the cat’s area.

I have always taken care to avoid getting fleas in the house. So I don’t know if birds can get fleas.

I do know about mites.

We go to the vet for beaks, nails, and such. He gives her a check for mites twice a year.

I live in central Texas. So we never really have a flea or mosquito-free time.

We want to build an outside aviary for our macaw.

I would like to have a secure structure, safe from predators.

Our location will be Clarksville, TN.

I’m looking at ideas online but thought perhaps asking an authority on the subject would be the best way to start researching.

What materials do we avoid?

If the area was spacious enough, can we use 12′ galvanized dog pen sections?

Our birds live in separate cages.

We have two male Timneh African grey parrots (19 and 26) and a male B&G (13).

Could they safely be housed together in a spacious aviary, or will they fight?

They have never had physical interactions with each other, although they are in the same room and in close proximity to each other.

I know I have more questions but I can’t think of everything right now.

Lil

Hi Lil

I love the question and I don’t know if you read our blog. I can get long-winded so it’s going to take a while to answer.

I will give you two short answers and you’ll read about everything else right here

Galvanization, or galvanization, (or galvanizing as it is most commonly called in that industry), is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting.

The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which parts are submerged in a bath of molten zinc.

Zinc is highly toxic to birds thus galvanized wire is less than ideal.

You’ll see it used for housing smaller birds like finches and budgies but because your macaw will be climbing on the wire he or she will be licking zinc

This question has come up before and the answer is still opaque so I invested $27 on your behalf to buy this e-book – you can copy and paste the link into your browser to read the book.

How to Build an Aviary

Personally, I think it’s a bit of a rip-off (there are supposed to be five books) that understates the value – I’m going to wrestle with the author because there are pictures of macaws on his website but no mention of how to build an aviary for a macaw.

btw – 10 gauge is suited for macaws 12 gauge is more suited for African grays in Amazon’s – more to follow

MitchR

your zygodactyl footnote

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