My Grey only has 1 toenail

[FloridaCanuck]

Good afternoon, I am a new Grey owner. I am his 3rd owner, that we know of. Long story short of how I got Boo is my sister in law passed away in August, and my husband and I inherited Boo. He/she/it (lol) was a very distressed bird when we first got him. Almost competely naked from plucking and malnutrition, we have got him on the road to recovery now, but the most distressing thing about him is that he does not have any nails, only one on his right back toe. Its so sad. He gets around the cage just fine, and frequently is out and ontop of his cage playing, and even flying sometimes, but we are pretty sure he will NEVER be able to sit on our fingers, or shoulders, because he can not balance when off his perch.

 

My big question is, with better nutrition, and the fact that he is now "happy", will his nails ever grow back possibly? And what could have caused this to happen to him?

 

I will try to post a pic of his feet as soon as I can, but because we are still getting used to one another, he doesn't let me to close, especially with a camera. Thank you all for any information you can give me.

 

Jodie

[Luvparrots]

Hi Jodie, I commend you for wanting to take good care of sweet Boo. If I was in your place I would take Boo to an avian vet to get the proper answers to your questions. Only an avian vet can really lead you to the proper route to take the correct steps to help Boo recover more quickly.

[Dave007]

I'm sorry that you're in an odd situation but unfortunately, the claws won't grow back. He's managed to do as much as he can but he may be able to overcome the main problem you're worried about. How it happened ? No one can say. It could have been an injury, an attack by the parents when he was a chick ( some parents kill their chicks) or congenical.

What you can do is take your bird into a quiet area where he and you won't be disturbed and put the bird on the floor and start practicing with him with the steppinfg up process. do it once a day for about 2 weeks then 2x a day for about 2weeks then 3 times for about 3 weeks etc. It'll take a while but but constant practice will help him gain confidence. Do all of these things on the floor. As time goes on and his grip is much stronger, you can lift him off the floor and as time goes on, you can go higher.

[FloridaCanuck]

Thank you both for that information, and I will definitley try that out Dave. Boo has been getting more confident as of late. He now will put one foot on your finger when you ask him to. I think he really wants to try to get up, but is fearful. The floor is a great idea that I didn't even think of. I have been trying to coax him up from his perch, or when he is on top of his cage playing. I will give the floor a try. Guess taking him to a vet would be a good idea too, duh on me for that one. LOL

[judygram]

Hello Jodie, congrats on giving Boo a forever home and how sad he/she only has one talon, like Dave said it could have happened in the nest or been congenital but the important thing is now he/she can be given the chance to learn how best to make use of what he/she has.

The first thing I would do is take him/her to an avian vet for a workup to see if any deficiencies exist and how healthy he/she is, the vet will make recommendations on the results of the tests and tell you what to do and feed him/her to get him/her back to full health.

If he/she has only had that one talon since just a chick then he/she will learn to adapt to it and get around and perch, Dave has given you some excellent advice on doing just that.