Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 7/13/2008

Question
I have 3 birds, one myers and two lovebirds. My youngest lovebird keeps getting injuries on his feet. my lovebirds are boys but the myers is a girl. I know that my youngest does chew on his feet. Is my boy beinging attacked or what? What should I do?

Answer
Hi, Megan,

I picked up your question from the question pool.

You will need to carefully observe your birds, preferably with them not knowing you are observing them, in order to try and determine if the young one is being attached or not and/or what is going on with them.  I assume all 3 birds are in the same cage?  Are any of these bonded to each other?  How are you sure of the sex of the lovebirds, i.e., could one be a female?  Is their cage large enough?  

Have you held this bird and looked at the injuries on the bird's feet to try and determine if they are bites or cuts or rashes, etc.?  Are there any toys or other item(s) in the cage the bird could be getting hurt on?  What type of perches are you using in the cage?  

Sometimes a bird will chew on its feet if they hurt, are dirty, have a sore on them, etc.  

It's difficult for me to answer your question about whether this bird is being attacked because I can't see what's going on with the birds.  You'll need to make this determination yourself by observing what is going on inside the cage.  Since most parrots will behave differently when they know their human is watching, you need to find a way to watch them where they don't know you are watching them.  If you have a video camera, this would be ideal.  If not, perhaps you can observe them through a cracked door/window or something like this.    

If the situation doesn't get better, you can't figure out what's going on, and you are still concerned, consult a certified avian veterinarian.

Chrys