Reptile & Amphibian Forums

About a month ago, our not so sweet, really pretty, really dumb, yellow parakeet apparently hurt herself. We have no idea how she could have done this, but she did and since she's so dumb, I guess it's not so surprising! We realized one day that she was not getting up off the bottom of the cage. I thought she was a gonner. But, we put a seed tree on the floor of the cage for her, and put the water bowl down close to her. It was after she was struggling to get up to the water that we realized that she couldn't use either leg, they were both broken and that one of her wings was broken also. The wing is broken near the top of it. This is a bird that just amazed us before with her lack of flying ability, probably was wing clipped wrong as a young bird But, as she got older and was put with a bird who loves to fly, she realized that she could learn and enjoy it. Problem was she still couldn't find her way back to the cage, or actually anywhere in particular. So, the other bird started calling to her to coach her back to the cage. When she couldn't get out, she would sit on a limb and just flap her wings to excersize them and get rid of her loose feathers. Well, that is coming in handy now. Her wing is bent crooked now but she sits and flaps it somehow. Even tho she only has one toe on one foot that she can hang on with! I love your ideas here on how to adjust the cage for the birds. I was thinking about getting her a roost of some sort. My mom actually has her now. We share custody because the birds travel back and forth with us so much that I don't like to separate them anymore. Mom has turned the bottom of the cage upside down and padded it with newspaper for her to rest on when needed. But Little One as I call her, her name is Dale, has figured out how to sit on her food dish on her belly and use her beak to move around. She kinda hops from place to place. i will think about a ramp, a shelf etc. I might have to get her a new cage, a handicap accesible one! hehe!

Good luck! I know it can seem costly especially for such a small bird that usually has a low price tag to begin with, but if there is anyway to get her to an avian vet please do. I have seen many birds with broken wings and legs that could have been helped or fixed if they had just seen a vet. It sounds like you really care for your bird though in taking to time on checking for ideas on caging so I do wish you good luck and hope your bird has a happy life with your care.