Foot redness

[merlin]

Hi,

I will ask around about what is the best recommendation for the foot. My Merlin has had that. I wrap soft ace bandages around a few of her perches to cushion her feet.

If you have any cement perches in the cage, you may want to replace them for a while. That can irritate the sore feet.

Blessings,
Maggie-

[Lisa A. Bono]

Many birds will have this if they favor a perch or if the perch is rough like a cement or sand perch. As Maggie said, you can wrap or replace for a while.

[merlin]

I've done a little checking around. Besides the ace bandage wrap, soft polyester fleece is a soft material you could wrap the perch in. But be sure to vigilantly check the wrapping daily to make sure there aren't any loose threads or holes on the materials that your Grey's toes could get caught in.

You may want to check out aloe products and meadowsweet lotions that are animal friendly.

Hoping this helps.
Blessings,
Maggie-

PS: The KEY here is to change/improve the perches.

[merlin]

Again, this is a frequent problem for pet birds. The most important issue is to check out the perches. Again, if there are cement or sand perches in the cage, please either remove or wrap them in the bandages or fleece. Also, check out sizes of perches. Try to have different sized perches in the cage. Redness can especially happen on the smaller, rounder perches; therefore, if your bird perches mostly on small, round perches, try to get ones that are larger in diameter. One to one and one half inches diameter is the best general size for a Grey. If the perch is much skinnier than that, please investigate other sizes.

It also would help to thoroughly wash the perches often... especially the perches where your bird roosts. This will help control potential bacteria.

Hoping this helps,
Maggie-

[merlin]

One more post! Hope you don't mind, but I keep getting input from all of these wonderful pet humans and I want to pass it along:

Leanne Burton says: My avian vet suggests to change the main perch every few weeks to one with a different thickness. I use a lot of natural branches & he said sometimes just rotating those so that the bird stands on a different side will work. I mentioned about the fleece to him since I've been using that, but he insisted that it's not about hardness/softness and that without changing up the perching surface to change up the weight bearing spots on the foot the fleece wouldn't be enough. It's true that my grey had red spots from sleeping on the same perch in the same position even though it was wrapped with fleece. Now I rotate the perch AND wrap the fleece thicker or thinner in different areas to really change things up!

I cut the fleece in long strips about 2-2.5 inches wide. Leave a couple inches of fleece loose, start wrapping at one end going all the way down the perch & back again, then tie the ends together. Try to keep the knots on the bottom side of the perch. When the bird chews through the fleece you can tie shorter strips together, but the knots get chewed more than the rest of the fleece with my birds. Keep several strips on hand & throw them in the washer to clean.

If your bird won't cooperate with the application of foot salves or EOs or oils on the bottom of the feet, you can put it on your finger or hand before asking your bird to step up. This has always worked for me, but my mom's grey now inspects her hand before stepping up. Too smart for their own good sometimes!

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