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I think my budgie has deformed toes

BasilBird

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Hi, my one budgie has strange toes. We think he might have deformed feet. We got him like this from the pet shop, but didn't notice it for a while. Both his feet have three toes in front, one toe at the back. This makes it hard for him to balance, so he often falls of his perches. When he is on the floor, he tries to balance on his knees. It looks really uncomfortable. Sorry, it was hard to take photos
 

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Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue

Hard to see clearly in the pics... But looks like there´s a problem with the leg too, on the first pic the leg bends all the way back up.
As for the feet, looks similar to my girl but mine has all four toes going forward. I tried to help her but it wasn´t meant to be.

What has your vet said about your birds feet? We taped my birds foot, and the vet showed me some exercises to do with her.

That doesn't look comfortable at all :(
You would be surprised how well birds adapt to something like this. And if us as caregivers do enough to provide an adequate environment and medical (professional ie a vet) attention when needed, there´s no reason they can´t live full happy lives. My girly has a boyfriend AND lives in a flight cage!! I didn´t think I´d see that day, but it happened :)
 

Ripshod

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As always get a vet's advice.
You would be surprised how well birds adapt to something like this.
So true. The last budgie I had with similar problems the vet told me to just treat her as a normal budgie - and I did. She did really well, if you didn't know about her problem she would appear completely normal (if there is a 'normal' with budgies).

Zara has mentioned about the physio but I'll bring up one of her threads about the adaptations she made for her girl
 
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Wenzer

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This is an old picture but looks relatively the same as current day. Chloe has deformities in her feet as well, although her left functions a lot better than her right most of the time. Her 4th toe (which should naturally sit behind the foot for grip, instead of forwards) goes forward like you described for your bird. On the same foot but opposite toe (so the innermost toe on her right foot) is pretty limp most of the time and will sit either forwards or backwards depending on the surface she's sitting on.

FB_IMG_1625185336126.jpg

Her right foot tends to sit kind of "upright" similarly to how your birds foot sits, and how he seems to rest weight on the hocks (or possibly higher up on the leg?). I'm only comparing the visual to how Chloe's appear, but I know Chloe has had more difficulties with her right foot because of the very unnatural sitting position on her hocks. It has caused a bit of arthritic swelling and soreness. I would agree with everything that has already been advised, and I'd even suggest adding a flat perching area if you don't have one already :)

Aside from any potential modifications to his cage/play area I'd say just continue to monitor as you are doing! I agree with the others-- these babies can adapt so well to their differences, we just have to provide a little extra backup support sometimes :)

Edit to add- I'll try to get some better, new pictures of her feet tomorrow. The animals are all sleeping for now lol.
 

BasilBird

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Thanks a lot for all of your advice! Even with his deformed feet, he has the friendliest personality I've ever seen in a budgie! I do try to treat him normally, and you guys helped me a lot
 

Zara

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We have a Special Needs Crossing forum, I´d love to read more about your birds set-up and adaptions you´ve made for him over there. I´m always looking for new ideas to try for my girl :)
 
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