Sam Farlap

hi we too have a parrot with severe disabilities. His right leg has been broken as a nestling and no one notied and its healed at 90 degrees to his body. So as long as he always has a cage side to hold onto (he has full grip in all toes) then hes fine. his good foot is not so good either, the leg is weak and he walks on his hock, and he has three toes pointing forward and one back so not good for grip! That said, he manages well and loves cage climbing rather than perch climbing. ive wrapped flat perches in vet wrap to make it softer on the parts of his leg that are in contact with the ground. ive put shelf perches instead of normal perches and removed the horrid grill from bottom of cage so he walks on the newspaper. this means 2 x a day cleaning out but thats no big deal. the BIGGEST problem ive had is finding a new cage with horizontal fronts. unbelievably all but two models have vertical bars and he cant cope with those atall. Finally got him a new jersey and hes having a blast. Ocassionally he slips and lands on the floor but he never seems phased. our saddest feeling is that we can never have the pleasure of him sitting on our hand or stepping up like out old bird used to, as he just doesnt have the confidence to try it because of his feet. its sad for us but im guessing he doesnt care too much lol

hi, well done for taking on such a bird that many would walk past. We too recently recued a disabled CAG and I came to this forum for help. We have discovered that ours manages better with shelves rather than normal perches, and have added several into his cage to help him. hope this helps and good luck x

this is a great thread and I wondered if there are images available of some of these birds? we have recently adopted an AG with two problem legs. One looks to have been badly broken ad a chick and is almost on backwards from the ankle down.....but his grip works OK, its just that hes walking on the ankle bone. The other leg is very crooked. his climbin is OK, he can perch for short whiles but walking on the bone rather than on the foot is my biggest longterm worry as I feel he may damage the skin doing this. ive now put in a rubberised perch to see if that helsp but hes not tried it yet. he sleeps on a shelf perch quite happily but again id like to soften the surface to give protection. I like the idea of branches with forks....Im off to find some now!