Splay legged/Spraddle Legged Birds

[Jtbirds]

Platform perches made form 1x6 untreated pine would be great for him, as well try to make the cage bars all horizontal instead of vertical, you can buy cages like this. Add ladders from one thing to the next like platforms or to the food dishes etc give him larger food dishes so he can get in them to eat if he can't even stand at all... These are just a few I'm sure more people will add more.

 

[weco]

I agree with JT, except 1x6's may be too wide for his cage, you might want to go with 1x4s instead.....

You might want to make several sets of sleeves to slip over the ramps to give the bird some purchase...but you'll probably want to want to keep it's nails clipped or filed so it can get around without always catching its nails.....probably an old sheet would be good as terry cloth might be a little more difficult, but then you could try a wash cloth or hand towel...I'd use push pins on the bottom side of the ramps/platforms to hold the cloth in place.....

Covering the ramps/platforms with cloth will save removing them from having to be removed for scrubbing...with the cloth in place, I doubt if any urates would be liquid enough to affect the wood, however, to insure non-absorption of the wood, you could use a clear urethane to seal it.....

 

[Zoey]

I'm not sure if anyone is following this thread anymore, but I'm working on a actual Scooters Story and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in hearing it.

 

[Mayden]

I would!

 

[Zoey]

I'll post it as soon as its done

 

[Zoey]

I'm so glad that I fell on this post. Thank you for sharing Scooter's story.

I'm adopting a pacific parrotlet who, like Zoey is completely splayed. She's still a baby, but apparently it's already too late to have her little legs braced. I'm looking for "cage set up" tips. Any advice you could give me would be most welcomed.

We've had another splayed leg parrot in the past; a Bronze Wing Pionus Parrot named Baby who lived to be 20, but his legs were only half splayed. He got around just fine and lived life his life to the fullest.

Looking forward to hearing back from you

I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to this response, I must have missed it! If you still need/want some advice please feel free to message me!

 

[tommienc]

I am happy to see this! I am a former bird breeder and I heard of this but never had any on my babies! I am working with a pet store feeding baby birds now and they got in a pair sibling before I was there and they been in store for least 6 months. I going to bring them home to be my own pets. so I love to know your cage setup. I want to provide lots of places to sit and rest at different levels of the cage! thanks

 

[ChristaNL]

What I understand there is (apart from unsuitable nest-situations) also an inbreeding factor as well.
There was some issue with it with the birds at my mothers workplace (agricultural school/ not sure how you would call it): all the budgies had identical nestboxes and only the inbred/ breeding too close in the familyline ones ever had those issues.
(No it was not a deliberate experiment- but the final years had been slack with seperating the youngsters in time-- teacher was *not* amused!)

 

[Tsu]

Hello, I'm from Brazil and I have 3 birds with this problem, they were born at home and I noticed that the legs were apart, I thought it was normal because they were all like that, I must say that I never heard about this problem, so I had no idea what could turn out to be, my birds are turning 1 month old, yes, unfortunately I found out a little late to do the treatment, I have no problems with the aesthetics, so I want them to have a happy and as normal life as possible, my fear is that they become very dependent on my care, as I don't have the whole day available for that, I was also very upset with the lack of information we have about this problem, just a method of treatment, nothing more than that, fortunately after searching enough I found this forum with the information I wanted "if it could not be treated in time, can the bird have a happy life in the adult stage?" thank you for sharing your reports here guys, it reassured me about many doubts (which could be easier to find, because as I read in several places it is a COMMON problem)

 

[HeatherG]

I don’t know if you can gently splint their legs at one month. I might put them in a doughnut or torus shaped nest to try and get the legs less spraddled. (So the body weight would be on the doughnut and not on the little legs.). Is there any online lovebird breeder that you can ask about how to splint these legs?

These birds can have a good life but they may need some adaptive perches as their legs aren’t going to be angled right to grip an ordinary perch. I would go for a flat perch or a big parrot perch so they can lay down on their tummies on it.

With birds with leg problems you may have trouble with falling through the cage grate. In that case you can wrap the grate with paper or cloth or use hardware cloth—mesh—on the bottom of the cage so your birds can walk around.

My birds leg was worse in the last four years of her life. She would get a dirty bottom. I just held her under the faucet and washed droppings off, or wiped them off with tissue.

You may end up with some very cuddly and accommodating lovebirds due to this problem. They may get very comfortable being handled. My bird loved being held in my hand, laying on her back. So inelegant! But she didn’t care if she looked like a lady.