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Perching ideas for a conure with a toe problem?

Featheredfuffs

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I just got a cinnamon green cheek conure from a parrot rescue, and one of her toes bends upwards. The rescue got her that way, and it can never be fixed. She gets along fine, but she does have a much weaker grip in that foot, and it makes her very sensitive and nippier when you ask her to step up, or touch her feet.

Anyway, does anyone know of any perches that would really encourage her to use and exercise her foot? I've only had her three days, and she's already almost fallen off my finger once.
 

webchirp

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Amada has two upturned toes...one on each foot and a bit of splay legs. She has gotten so much stronger but still struggles a bit with things. I also have to keep those nails really short or they hook on the cage bars. Although she recently broke one off somehow even though it was small. Also, instead of stepping up on my finger, she steps into my cupped hand. She is just now getting to where she can land on boings and the outside swings. Wider perching has been better for her. It will just take time.

How old is your new baby? Wondering if perhaps a bit of arthritis?
 
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Featheredfuffs

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Amada has two upturned toes...one on each foot and a bit of splay legs. She has gotten so much stronger but still struggles a bit with things. I also have to keep those nails really short or they hook on the cage bars. Although she recently broke one off somehow even though it was small. Also, instead of stepping up on my finger, she steps into my cupped hand. She is just now getting to where she can land on boings and the outside swings. Wider perching has been better for her. It will just take time.

How old is your new baby? Wondering if perhaps a bit of arthritis?
She's 8.
The cupped hand idea is wonderful! She's very wary of stepping on my finger. I've been socializing her a lot, so now I just think it's a balance issue.


You can exercise her foot a little bit by manipulating/moving it around. Get ladders with natural branches and some platform perches. Something like this might be beneficial:
Prevue Naturals Wonder Walks|Ladders & Swings from DrsFosterSmith.com
That looks wonderful! I'm definitely going to get that! Thanks!!!

:D:cinnamongcc1:
 

Newbie GCC

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Get her varying wide sizes of perches and things to climb on and exercise her toes.
Do you know anything about her previous life? Rhoma and Ernie had confidence issues when I got them. Wondering if part of it may be the same issue? Rhoma learned to fly and her balance increased tremendously despite a missing toe. Ernie has healthy feet, but no flight feathers, and is very unsure of his footing. We are hoping he will get better with time, but in the meantime, we are trying to give him different textures to grip, put a grape vine "railing" around the top of his cage to keep him from falling off the top. He is a former feather butcher and was in a parakeet cage prior to me getting him in January. While he had out time, there was not much for him to climb on in or out of his cage.
 

Featheredfuffs

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Get her varying wide sizes of perches and things to climb on and exercise her toes.
Do you know anything about her previous life? Rhoma and Ernie had confidence issues when I got them. Wondering if part of it may be the same issue?

I do know that she was in a very large cage with few toys in her previous home, and that made her very skittish. I've been socializing her a lot though, and her love of head scratches and almonds helps a lot (I love almonds too, so I've been eating them in front of her to try and get her to want to come out and be with me)


It's definitely a possibility that she has confidence issues, oftentimes she puts one foot on my finger and then decides she doesn't want to step up.
 

Newbie GCC

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I do know that she was in a very large cage with few toys in her previous home, and that made her very skittish. I've been socializing her a lot though, and her love of head scratches and almonds helps a lot (I love almonds too, so I've been eating them in front of her to try and get her to want to come out and be with me)


It's definitely a possibility that she has confidence issues, oftentimes she puts one foot on my finger and then decides she doesn't want to step up.
Whatever the issue is, she is being cared for and will gain mobility with time and care. Thank you for caring for her!
 

webchirp

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^ Agree. Amada has gotten stronger just navigating the room to keep up with the other cheekies. You should have seen her when she first started flying around the room...if you were in the path (she didn't have much control), she would smack right into you.
 

Karija

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I have a GCC whose toes go the wrong way when she perches and she generally keeps her foot fisted when she walks around on flat surfaces. I have a wide variety of perches - natural branch type of varying sizes (she prefers larger ones as opposed to skinnier ones, easier to grip), platform perches, and corner perches (where there are several dowel perches at a diagonal).

She was very skittish about hands when I got her, so she learned to jump up on a balled up towel before we worked on jumping into my cupped hands. Then I flight trained her after her feathers grew back in, so she flies on command to her hang out spot and cage. She doesn't have a problem landing on flat surfaces or the side of her cage. Trying to land on perches is too difficult as she can't always get her foot open correctly to land. Flying helped her tremendously, her confidence shot up.

As for hands, when she first started flying again she crashed a lot, and she got in the habit of me plucking her up from behind, so she'll also let me pick her up that way (just back straight up into my open hand and grabs my finger under her with her good foot). She'll step up into a cupped hand ok now, too. If you want to stick with stepping up on a finger, I'd suggest using your other hand to kind of shelter her while you're moving, sort of like you'd put your hand around a candle flame to keep it from going out when you're moving. I had an older bird with arthritis and missing toes that had grip problems. She preferred stepping up (it was how she was trained before the toe issues or arthritis), but the protective hand was something that kept her steady so she wouldn't fall.
 
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