FINCHforum

I've noticed my Red Billed Fire Finch (female) seems to either not have a fully developed left foot. Or could there be something else that has caused this? She does sometimes have a struggle grabbing perches and landing.

really hard to tell from the picture... can you restrain her as shown and get a good picture of the side and underside of the foot... checking for sores, redness.

she looks like she might be missing the very end of the middle toe but should grasp just fine if she has the back toe intact. You may want to try a more round piece of doweling opposed to square, different diameters of round perches help to exercise the foot.... round is better for gripping

Would still check the sole of the foot to rule out sores or swelling... vet wrap can soften the grip a bit for her. Natural branches might help as well but be sure to bleach soak them for about 30 minutes, scrub, rinse and sun dry to be sure not pathogens are passed to the birds from outside...immune system is different from wild birds and wild birds carry all sorts of nasty viruses, pathogens.

just a word of caution....if breeding avoid using strings, cotton and hair in the nests strings, fibers can wrap around toes of adults and young, constrict blood flow causing the end of the toe to turn black and fall off.

I deleted the duplicate thread.

Dbearden

Try smaller branches and perches that she can grasp her whole foot around. Hope that helps