hot feet in bird like human sweating??

[jenphilly]

Okay, goofy question, can't find a real answer anywhere as to the why... found plenty of resources that its normal, but not why or what!

Ivory has become quite the flying chicken, she buzzes around alot, even buzzed by Folger today a couple times when I was talking to him too much and paying too much attention to trying to get bald boy to dance (no not the chicken dance, but that just gave me another idea)...

Back to question! When she is flying around a bit her feet get hot. I know its normal and happens when they are active, happy or excited, but anybody know the why? Is this just parrots way of sweating or disbursing body heat? Nothing else on her feels hot, but her feet. One of those silly inquiring minds wanna know...

 

[Terry57]

Now I am also curious about that...hopefully someone knows

 

[crimson]

hmmmm, I'm interested as well.
I do know warm feet means they are relaxed and content.

....hot feet I'm not sure of.

 

[Dinosrawr]

I do know that birds use their feet as a way to regulate their temperature. They have a pretty cool vascular system in their feet and it works in a pretty awesome way. Because they don't have any specialized glands for sweating, their feet are the main way to regulate. That's why some birds are kinda weird and poop on their feet to stay cool... such odd behaviour, haha!

If you find her feet are constantly warm even when she isn't being incredibly active I'd be concerned. And overall I couldn't say it's completely normal for parrots because I only learned about North American birds. I'd definitely call an avian vet just to be sure

 

[jenphilly]

I know its normal and only when she's flying around like a wild chicken on the loose, but was wondering if it was a body temperature regulation method.

I had not heard about the bird pooping on their feet before... thankfully she does not do that!!

 

[Dinosrawr]

Oh. My bad! Sorry for being redundant there. Reading half asleep in the morning is a terrible idea, hahaha. But yeah, the system is called "rete mirabile", or "miracle network". It's mainly in birds with webbed feet as their feet as exposed to cold water or ice and needs ways to prevent their feet from freezing. In the tibiotarsal region of the foot is where this network is found, and during cold stress out flowing blood is brought into close proximity with the colder venous blood returning from the lower leg:

This network is also pretty important in regulating brain temperature, too, and is another way for birds to deal with over heating when panting and the evaporative respiratory membranes in the mouth and corneas aren't getting the job done (hence panting). So to remove heat from the brain, it goes elsewhere

 

[jenphilly]

Oh. My bad! Sorry for being redundant there. Reading half asleep in the morning is a terrible idea, hahaha. But yeah, the system is called "rete mirabile", or "miracle network". It's mainly in birds with webbed feet as their feet as exposed to cold water or ice and needs ways to prevent their feet from freezing. In the tibiotarsal region of the foot is where this network is found, and during cold stress out flowing blood is brought into close proximity with the colder venous blood returning from the lower leg:


View attachment 10839

This network is also pretty important in regulating brain temperature, too, and is another way for birds to deal with over heating when panting and the evaporative respiratory membranes in the mouth and corneas aren't getting the job done (hence panting). So to remove heat from the brain, it goes elsewhere

Well that is exactly the kind of specific answer I was looking for thanks for sharing and educating all of us a bit!!!!