Hello,
So I adopted a female budgie with chicks. The nest was always cared for and it was cleaned almost every day until the female budgie suddenly decided to clean the nest herself and ever since then, I never had to worry about chick droppings inside the nest. There is one thing I did care of, which is to check everyday that bird poop isn't stuck on the chicks feet because it can cause splayed legs, which I was advised on some of my previous posts.
All 5 chicks are growing beautifully and are very active. The issue is that the oldest in age now has locked feet joints. His fingers are physically locked at a 90° angle (I'll post a picture of this later as I forgot to take them).
Now I want to point out that I used to check on the chicks individually by taking them out if the nest each week. The oldest chick 4.5 weeks old now. He was always the strongest one as well as the active one. He used to walk perfectly fine in my hand and his feet had strength as he would cling to my fingers as a perch. But lately I noticed him having less energy. And when I took him out, he couldn't grab onto my fingers, I tried to uncurl his feet and noticed they were locked. The left feet is severely locked whereas the right foot still moves but has very less strength.
What went wrong? I don't think that it's calcium deficiency as I have a calcium block with 24/7 access, and the parents are always nibbling at it's. They mainly eat a seed mix, lots of spinach, lots of cilantro and mint leaves every 2 or 3 days.
How are the rest of the chicks fine? And why did it only occur recently to just one bird?
If I remember correctly, I am positive that around the 3rd week mark, his feet were normal and had normal strength, he could grab and cling to my fingers perfectly fine. He used to roam around the nest but now he doesn't. So clearly something happened along the way. Maybe he has some health issue?
Also, I do not have any avian vet near me. I do know a vet for exotic animals but he said he had no idea and cannot give accurate diagnosis. I actually don't have any avian vet anywhere in my country, only vets for bigger animals like mammals.
I should mention this again, I will post pictures later on that accurately show what I meant by his left fingers locking at a 90° angle.
I also don't play with them. I only take the chicks out of the nest to make sure they're healty and have no weakness once a week, I didn't need to do this every day as the mother cleans the nest herself.
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So I adopted a female budgie with chicks. The nest was always cared for and it was cleaned almost every day until the female budgie suddenly decided to clean the nest herself and ever since then, I never had to worry about chick droppings inside the nest. There is one thing I did care of, which is to check everyday that bird poop isn't stuck on the chicks feet because it can cause splayed legs, which I was advised on some of my previous posts.
All 5 chicks are growing beautifully and are very active. The issue is that the oldest in age now has locked feet joints. His fingers are physically locked at a 90° angle (I'll post a picture of this later as I forgot to take them).
Now I want to point out that I used to check on the chicks individually by taking them out if the nest each week. The oldest chick 4.5 weeks old now. He was always the strongest one as well as the active one. He used to walk perfectly fine in my hand and his feet had strength as he would cling to my fingers as a perch. But lately I noticed him having less energy. And when I took him out, he couldn't grab onto my fingers, I tried to uncurl his feet and noticed they were locked. The left feet is severely locked whereas the right foot still moves but has very less strength.
What went wrong? I don't think that it's calcium deficiency as I have a calcium block with 24/7 access, and the parents are always nibbling at it's. They mainly eat a seed mix, lots of spinach, lots of cilantro and mint leaves every 2 or 3 days.
How are the rest of the chicks fine? And why did it only occur recently to just one bird?
If I remember correctly, I am positive that around the 3rd week mark, his feet were normal and had normal strength, he could grab and cling to my fingers perfectly fine. He used to roam around the nest but now he doesn't. So clearly something happened along the way. Maybe he has some health issue?
Also, I do not have any avian vet near me. I do know a vet for exotic animals but he said he had no idea and cannot give accurate diagnosis. I actually don't have any avian vet anywhere in my country, only vets for bigger animals like mammals.
I should mention this again, I will post pictures later on that accurately show what I meant by his left fingers locking at a 90° angle.
I also don't play with them. I only take the chicks out of the nest to make sure they're healty and have no weakness once a week, I didn't need to do this every day as the mother cleans the nest herself.
