FINCHforum

As a relatively new member here, I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with a possible foot problem on mu European Goldfinch that I just got.

He is appearing to do just fine and is relatively active and not appearing to favor his feet or have any problem with them, but to me they look bad. He seems to act just fine though. He sings on occasion, is quite alert and regularly preens himself, and to me acts otherwise perfectly healthy.

They are relatively scaley and to me look a little enlarged, along with the obvious nails growing improperly and a single missing toe.

Here is a picture:


I tried to provide a detailed closeup, so the picture may be a little large. The toe on the very far right is the one that is missing. Upon recieving the bird I had to trim his nails, so the ends may look squared off, but they were growing in all directions, and one was growing completely straight. As you can see in the picture a couple are actually growing upwards instead of downwards as well.

Can anyone help offer some information on what may be causing this, or could it simply be that his feet were deformed from birth and that is just how they are?

Many thanks for any help.

Check out this link for crooked toes, it is possible to correct the problem if the bird is young enough.

http://www.avianweb.com/crookedtoes.html

The legs and feet look very scaley indeed so it might have mites so check out this link also:

http://www.avianweb.com/scaly.html

Hope this helps you.

It sucks that sometimes we get finches from people that truly do not take as good of care of their finches as some of us others do. I have a female star whos nails grow in every sort of direction. I just keep clipping them and I think she is getting better.

As far as the missing toe, it could be genetic or the finch could have gotten into some kind of fight. Sometimes finches fly onto parrots cages and they'll snag their toes.

Thats right Emily, I got the first Java from my neighbours sons who were trying to let it loose. The bird was in terrible condition, lumps under its skin and generally uncared for, looked a bit of a mess at first but ok now, I wish people would take a bit more time to find out about what a bird needs, I know it is hard work but if you love your birds enough then it shouldn't be a problem, anyway, everyone here seems to have a great love for their birds so I have come to the right place.

Anyway, I have learned so much in the past week in order to care better for my young Javas (their names are Riff & Raff), thanks to the people here and other bird lovers.

Cheers all.