Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Suzanne H. is concerned about a Splayed leg 1-month-old parakeet.

 

My parakeets had 4 chicks. 3 are fine.

 

The youngest turned out to be a splayed leg.

 

Went to the vet with the baby.

 

He said there is just a 10% chance the baby could be fixed to be almost normal.

 

It didn’t work.

 

I need to know how I could take care of him for eating & water.

 

2 of the keets are out of the nest with dad.

 

Don’t know if Mom is feeding him.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Dear Suzanne

Sorry to hear you have a handicapped budgie.

 

 

Have you tried to correct the splay with no good results?

 

Handicapped Bird Videos Or What Our Birds Teach Us About Disabilities

 

The bird is still in the nest with the parents?

 

Are you doing any hand-feeding?

 

In nature, when a baby bird is born with problems or is injured, the parents usually abandon or push out the damaged baby and concentrate on their healthy brood and carry no guilt.

 

So they likely will or have already stopped feeding the chick. If you don’t intervene, nature will take its course.

 

 

If you wish you can take on the task of hand-feeding, weaning, housing, cleaning, and devising a special needs environment for the bird. It would likely always be dependent on you for special attention.

 

It may not be smart to release it back into the family cage or flight as others may pick on it.

 

You would have to wait until it is fully weaned, and shows that it has the ability to perch and the personality to put off an advancing budgie.

 

Finally, splayed leg problems usually occur because the nest box is too small and/or there is not enough fluffy bedding to help the babies not be pressed flat against the bottom or sides of the flat box by the parents.

 

Budgie nest boxes also tend to get really dirty due to the babies backing up against the walls when they poop.

 

 

Shooing out the parents from the nest boxes once for twice a week to remove the babies into a little bowl, then change the bedding and wipe out the boxes and replace the bedding, then the babies go back in and the box replaced back in the cage.

 

The parents will return to their babies with no problem and you will have had the chance to check on them and look for health issues.

 

I hope you are able to resolve this problem and please let us know if there is any improvement.

 

Regards,

Catherine