My Parakeet has a Deformed Foot

User Question
I'm new at this and purchased 2 before I found your site; first one and then another 'buddy'. I've had them about a month and they seem happy. However, I have noticed that one has deformed feet. On one foot she has no claws and on the other one of her back feet is so short it's almost not there. She doesn't "seem" to be in any pain and can move around just fine. I'm sure this is not normal but it's too late to exchange her and I'm wondering if this will become a problem in the future.

Should I take her to a vet or wait till she shows signs of pain/difficulty or not roaming the cage? Also, recently Buddy seems to want to play and chases her around the cage nipping at her tail. IS this play or is it because he's showing dominance or because she's deformed?

I'm very grateful for your website, it's GREAT!

Lisa's Answer
Are you sure she has NO claws?? That seems very odd. Maybe the claws are just the same color as her feet? I have pictures of parakeet claws here -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/articles/bird_claw.html

The claws in the photo are a bit on the long side, they can certainly be shorter than that. But there should be SOME claws. The claws are the part that cling onto the perch or cage sidse, so if she really had no claws on one foot, I'm not sure how she would hold on to anything.

Birds can learn to live with all sorts of injuries and situations, including loss of an entire foot. So if your parakeet really is missing her claws and she's able to get around, I think she's just fine. Parakeets don't really use their feet to eat food, like parrots do. They do all their eating with their beak. So as long as she can get to the food and water dishes, that's all that really matters.

Maybe after a while her claws will grow in again, if they were unnaturally pulled out by the previous owner for some reason? And of course taking her to a vet might be good in any case, I always take a new bird to the vet at least once for a general health checkover.

Parakeets often chase each other around for fun, just like kids will. There's also some "I'm the boss" going on too, just like with kids :) It's fine unless Buddy starts yanking her feathers out or something like that!

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