- Joined
- 3/7/19
- Messages
- 624
...how much will an injury slow down your bird?
Yesterday my quaker, Gus, injured his toe near the base of the nail. We took him to the vet and he came home with his entire foot encased in a bulky bandage (They made it extra thick so that even if he chews at it a lot, he'll have difficulty reaching the wound underneath).
I've always enjoyed watching him zip around the house, but never have I been so very, very glad he's flighted. Even with one foot out of action, he can still fly without difficulty, and he's already mastered one-legged landings. He can choose to hang out on his cage, or on my head, or the couch, or any of his usual spots.
Verticle climbing, however, is extremely difficult for him right now. If he were unflighted (like my TAG, who spent years clipped/confined to a cage, is still working to build up atrophied muscles, and hasn't yet worked out what wings are for), he'd basically be stranded on the floor of his cage, waiting for us to carry him from place to place.
Instead, while Gus is clearly annoyed by the bandage, it's barely even slowed him down. Better yet, the more time and energy he spends flying around the house, the less he'll obsess over chewing at his foot and possibly making things worse.
As I was typing this, Gus decided to fly over and see what I was doing, so I snapped a photo. Here's my little adventurer showing off his booboo.
Yesterday my quaker, Gus, injured his toe near the base of the nail. We took him to the vet and he came home with his entire foot encased in a bulky bandage (They made it extra thick so that even if he chews at it a lot, he'll have difficulty reaching the wound underneath).
I've always enjoyed watching him zip around the house, but never have I been so very, very glad he's flighted. Even with one foot out of action, he can still fly without difficulty, and he's already mastered one-legged landings. He can choose to hang out on his cage, or on my head, or the couch, or any of his usual spots.
Verticle climbing, however, is extremely difficult for him right now. If he were unflighted (like my TAG, who spent years clipped/confined to a cage, is still working to build up atrophied muscles, and hasn't yet worked out what wings are for), he'd basically be stranded on the floor of his cage, waiting for us to carry him from place to place.
Instead, while Gus is clearly annoyed by the bandage, it's barely even slowed him down. Better yet, the more time and energy he spends flying around the house, the less he'll obsess over chewing at his foot and possibly making things worse.
As I was typing this, Gus decided to fly over and see what I was doing, so I snapped a photo. Here's my little adventurer showing off his booboo.
