FINCHforum

HI All,
I just wanted to alert people to the fact that finches can get their feet caught up in artificial plants.

I've just got home to discover my stunning blue boy (purple breast, camel head) flapping upside down in the flight cage with one foot wrapped tightly with fibres from a leaf from the artificial plant in his flight cage.

His wings are bleeding from flapping against the cage bars and parts of the 'plant'. I'm hoping his leg is ok but for now he is seperated in his own cage with heating, a wee bit of food and a shallow dish of water (not sure if he can stand on a perch to drink from a normal water container). I've covered him with a cloth so hopefully he will be back to normal tomorrow.

I've got everything crossed.

I noticed my birds tearing at the silk plants I used to decorate my aviary with, needless to say I removed them ASAP.
Fingers and toes crossed, hoping for a speedy recovery

simon, I'm sorry to hear about your bird, hopefully he will be just fine. nice save. you said his wings were bleeding, did you use anything,ointment on the wings? - Tammy

oh dear. hope he will be alright.

I had my male gouldian poked by the fake plants last year and was bleeding under his chin.

I now attach the fake plants to the outside of the cages, this saves the chance of them getting caught, and allows them to have some privacy too

Oh Dear! Thank Goodness you found him! Please keep us updated.

Hope he'll recover well. I, too, use the articificial plants on the OUTSIDE of my cages

Hi Simon, sorry to hear this. I had something similar happen a while back, but with a piece of material that I had put on the outside of one of my cages to provide the birds with some privacy. I came home and one of my societies was hanging upside down by one foot, with a tiny piece of plastic that was interwoven into the cloth wrapped around his toe. He ended up losing that toe because I think he had been hanging for a while before I found him

I hope that your gould will be ok

Hi guys
Thanks for the feedback and the idea of putting the artificial plants on the outside of the cage. I'm torn with this as the other Goulds love playing in them and a couple of them sleep in them. They have been chewing them for a while with no problems and usually the male doesn't go near them.

He has recovered fairly well and I have put him back in the main cage as he wasnt drinking in the hospital cage. He went straight to the drinker and drank loads of water (to which I add vitamins and minerals). He is asleep now so hopefully all is well.

I didn't use anything on his wings as I'm sure they will be ok without my intervention however I am monitoring this and will use something if need be (not sure yet what it will be).

glad to hear he is doing better

Amen to the warning. I have a viewing checklist of my birds and was missing a gorgeous female gouldian when I returned from a business trip. "Jane" was missing from the aviary and being that my wife had a finch escape once when she entered the aviary, I was sure that this is what happened as well. As it turned out, I found Jane hanging by her metal band that got stuck on a plastic plant stem