they way conures stand

Is it normal for my sun conure to stand on one foot most of the time? He stands on his left leg most of the time, even when he eats he holds the right foot up alot of the times.

MP

I have seen many conures stand on one foot, as well as many other birds. It seems normal.

Have you looked at the foot to see if anything looks abnormal? Many birds stand on one foot to keep it warm or just relief from the perch, but not most of the time as you write. If you are concerned, which you must be, I would take bird to the vet to have a professional check it out.

SB,

I just took him to the vet last week for toenail and wing trim the vet didn't see anything. But I don't have a aviarie vet close by so I took him to a vet that does take care of birds and such for this area.

MP

Hi MP, most birds will stand on one foot while resting or sleeping (how they balance while sleeping still amazes me) it really wouldn't be normal if its most of the time, as SB mentioned, birds will do this sometimes to keep warm, you might want to check and see if any AC vents might be blowing a little to close to popsicle

It is true that birds do hold one foot up and tuck it inside their belly feathers but they don't usually do this while eating so, if I were you, I would sit down at a table with a good lamp and look at his foot (look under it and check for whitish or pink spots, look closely at his toes and between them, check his nails to see if one of them is cracked or cut so short that the quick is exposed -you mentioned you had him groomed recently and they might have cut one of his nails too short) and, if you find anything out of the ordinary, take him to the vet.

Do you use dowels as perches or do you use natural tree branches? Because dowels can give them foot sores and, if you only have dowels and, say, a sand or concrete perch, his poor feet might hurt a bit.

Hi Bob,

how close would be to close?

MP

Auggie will stand on one foot while eating - but only when he's using the other one to hold the food!

Many parrots will do this - and while there is much variation being left-footed is more common in parrots than right (ie holding food or other objects in the left foot).

mompopsicle said:

Hi Bob,

how close would be to close?

MP

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Wow thats a great question, I guess the easiest way to tell would be to take a strip of newspaper, a couple inches wide by about a foot long, hold the paper in the direction from which the vent is ponted in relation to the cage, front, side ect, while holding it a few inches away from the cage, start at the top and then moving to the middle of the cage note if there is steady movement to the paper, if so, its to close, if this is the case, most vents have louvers and you can try and re-direct the air flow or shut that vent off all together, if neither is possible then a re-location of the cage would be best, sorry for the kind of crazy answer but the health hazard of cold drafts to birds is probably one of the easy things to fix, that and turning off ceiling fans when the fids are out and things like that, things we may not realize and take for granted, hope this crazy bird brained post helped....lol

Its perfectly normal, both my conures do it when there sleeping, eating, or some times just chilling. but they also do it if you cut a nail to short.

Well I think the cage is ok where it is, I did as bob told me to and the paper don't really move. And Popsicle did this before I had his nails cut but at the same time the vet had to put some stuff on the tonail because it had just a tiny about of blood on it. So maybe that was more so then normal.

But now he's back to not wanting anything to do with me at all, he won't come out of the cage now. When I reach my hand in the cage he runs from me now where he was playing with my hand. He is eatting fine but today he decided its gonna be fun to keep turnning the water over. SO I'm not sure what has gotten into him.

MP

mompopsicle said:

I have dowls, Im still not sure of what kind of tree I can use for him. I've thought about going out and cutting a couple perchs from the limbs of my trees but I have Mulberry and Walnut and i'm not sure if those would be safe for him.

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Hey MP, heres a list of safe and toxic wood

Bird; Birds: Safe, Toxic Trees, Woods. Safe Tree Wood. Parrots. Parrot cages.

i can only speak for my sun conure but he will some times stay with me and then some times he'll want to be on top of the curtains out of reach. I mean yeah it dose bother me a little because my green cheek always wants to be with me. I think that when they get a little older they will grow more attached.

I too have a conure that is always standing on one foot. I just took him to the avian vet yesterday and the vet said he was fine and perfecty healthy. He does seem to not be able to grasp things as well with his left foot, but that's the one that hes always standing on! is between 65 and 70 degrees too cold? cuz that's the temp of the room hes in.