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How To Care For A Cockatiel With A Broken Foot!

Keeping cockatiels as pets has been skyrocketing in popularity in recent years with cockatiels now being the second most commonly kept species of bird in North America and Europe behind the budgie.

With the cockatiel being such a popular pet with many people keeping a cockatiel, we have noticed a correlating spike with the number of people asking questions about caring for their bird.

One important question that we have seen people asking about is how to care for a cockatiel with a broken foot so we wanted to publish this article to help our readers.

A cockatiel with a broken foot will almost always need some sort of assistance from its owner or a veterinarian to help its foot heal correctly without any long-term problems.

This can range from a mini cast to a splint and in some rare cases, simply setting the bone to allow it to heal correctly but a broken cockatiel foot should never be left to “heal” itself as the chances of long term problems are extremely high.

In our opinion, the majority of our readers who have a pet cockatiel with a broken foot should be booking a video call with a veterinarian to have them check your cockatiel over via the camera on your smartphone to get the best possible advice for moving forward.

Video calls can work out considerably cheaper than a trip to your local veterinarian’s surgery while offering you the same advice on how to move forward with treating your cockatiel’s broken foot as quickly as possible.

Will A Cockatiels Broken Foot Heal On Its Own?

A cockatiel’s broken foot can technically heal on its own but the chances of your bird’s broken foot healing on its own without any long-term problems are extremely small.

If your cockatiel does have a broken foot then you should be seeking professional help from a veterinarian as soon as possible to have them recommend the best course of action moving forward to help your cockatiel heal its foot.

Depending on the severity of the break on your cockatiel’s broken foot, the vet may recommend that you don’t take any action due to the break actually just being a fracture and the problem being able to heal over time.

If it is an obvious break, especially with protruding bone then the vet may have to do a minor operation to help your pet cockatiel or they may have to split or cast the foot until it heals.

The vast majority of our readers do not have the experience required to correctly diagnose when a cockatiel’s broken foot can simply be left to heal on its own and when it needs to be set and supported while healing though.

Although there are some posts on social media offering advice on the various situations, we would never recommend that you take any advice on Facebook about heal problems with your cockatiel seriously unless you know for a fact that it has been shared by a qualified veterinarian.

Can A Cockatiel Survive With A Broken Foot?

In some situations, a cockatiel can survive with a broken foot with the foot causing minimal pain once it has had a few days to heal.

This is realistically a fracture of the foot rather than an actual break but there have been plenty of cases where this type of injury has been left to heal by itself and the cockatiel has survived without having any long-term issues.

As we mentioned above though, even though many cockatiels with fractures or breaks to their feet can often be left to allow the injury to heal by itself does not mean that you should blindly take this path.

If you do seek assistance from a veterinarian and they recommend that you leave your cockatiels foot to heal naturally then you can so as advised but in some situations, actual treatment will be required.

You also have to remember that your cockatiel or other cockatiels in the injured cockatiel’s cage may peck or bump the injured foot and potentially make the wound worse.

This is why your veterinarian may say that it is fine for you to leave your cockatiel to heal by itself provided it is put in its own cage away from other birds.

They may recommend some form of cast to prevent your cockatiel from pecking at its own foot in some situations too.

How To Care For A Cockatiel With A Broken Foot!

It is generally easy to care for a cockatiel with a broken foot as once the break has been set and splinted or cast it is usually just a waiting game.

Cockatiel tend to heal quickly provided they are fed a suitable diet that is nutritionally complete too so after two to three weeks, the care levels of your cockatiel can be reduced to normal as the rest of the healing time does not require any special care.

It can be difficult to tell the difference between an actual break in your cockatiel’s food at a simple fracture too and although a fracture of the bone usually doesn’t need any specific treatment, some people will still splint the part of the food with the injury.

This has its advantages and disadvantages though as it will affect your cockatiel’s ability to sit on its perch or climb around its cage with the advantage being that is drastically reduces the chance of the fracture getting worse and potentially ending up as a break.

Some people do worry about the pain levels in their cockatiel due to their bird not wanting to put much weight on the foot with the injury but this is totally normal for the first couple of days after your cockatiel breaks its foot.

Within the first week these signs of pain should fade without any pain medication as the break starts to heal. If your cockatiel is still showing obvious signs of pain after the first week of the break then you should seek assistance from a veterinarian as something is wrong as the break may not be healing.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over how to care for a cockatiel with a broken foot to an end. Although a simple break in your cockatiel’s foot may sound like it should be simple to fix, it can be challenging and may require splints or casts to some extent depending on exactly where the break is as well as how bad the break actually is.