New conure issues

[LinKH71191]

Hi all, Today I am a new owner of a sun conure and I am worried that he may not be as developed as he is supposed to be at his age. The owner tells me he is a 9 week old but I doubt it because he has a good amount of yellow feathers on his back.

At what point do conures start using their feet to eat because mine absolutely wont, I have to hold the food for him or else it drops out of his mouth. When I give him pellets it just seems like he crushes it with his mouth instead of actually ingesting it. I'm very worried he might not eat his fill. Even bird seeds he seems to crush and spit. Also one of the back toe seems to be "nonfunctioning". It juts out horizontally very awkwardly instead of wrapping around the perch. He still climbs around but a little clumsily but doesn't squawk when I touch it so I don't think it bothers him.

 

[weco]

Welcome to the forums.....

The way you wrote your post, I'm going to assume that the defective toe is an outside back toe! These two toes originally were forward facing when the bird hatched and within a couple days of hatching they move rearward and it looks like your one toe didn't complete the move and that is something that really needs to be looked at and diagnosed by an avian veterinarian.....

Since this condition could be an injury or possible genetic defect, you might want to return the bird to the seller/breeder as it is possible that the condition cannot be corrected.....

Both an injury or a genetic defect could account for the bird's inability to balance and hold food....seeds are normally split by the beak so that the kernel can be extracted & eaten, conures shell their food to eat it and the pellet crushing sounds about right, birds do not chew their food like we humans do.....

Good luck.....

 

[LinKH71191]

Hi thank you for the answer. It is actually the inside back toe. It doesn't go forward completely. It kind of just stays horizontally. Do you think it will affect my birds quality of life or in your experience find that the bird re-adapts and does 100% fine

 

[JamesC]

A toe that does not work well would be a minor inconvenience for a bird. They will easily adapt. My blue crown Tootsie has a couple of toes that don't bend right and another that is missing a claw. She gets around just fine. I knew a bird that was missing an entire foot and he had a good quality of life with a nice soft platform in his cage so he could rest the other foot. He is a happy and loving bird.

I would echo what weco said about finding a good avian vet to take a look at him. A good health check is endlessly reassuring if the bird is healthy and essential if there is something not right. The sooner the better.

Good luck!