Pressure Sores and How to Diminish Them
It is very common in captive birds to experience pressure sores on their feet, beyond just parrots. Working in rescues and with a falconer throughout my career, I have seen pressure sores on all sorts of birds. Pressure sores are red or pink areas on the bottom of your birds’ feet. There are a wide range of reasons as to why this happens and how to prevent it. Generally speaking, our birds are flighted creatures. In the wild, they spend most of their day flying; they never land on the same branch twice. Being in captivity, they have a cage, they have a few perches, a play stand, us and our furniture, but nothing like compared to the wild in regards to flying and perch availably. Their feet were not designed for captivity. So, pressure sores are inevitable. But there are some solutions to help prevent it and treat them if they have already arrived. As always, I am not an avian vet, and I recommend to talk to your avian vet when you notice pressure sores on your birds’ feet, and before doing any advice listed here.
One reason why your bird may be experiencing pressure sores is because they are overweight. This is very common in companion parrots because most are fed too much, fed an unhealthy diet like all seeds, as well as not being able to exercise appropriately. Your avian vet will be able to determine if your bird is overweight for the specific species and individual size of your bird. I always recommend starting here to see if it is your birds weight causing the issues because it is the easiest to resolve.
Another reason is perch variety and your bird utilizing the variety. To reiterate, birds rarely to never land on the same perch twice in the wild. But in captivity, birds will have their favorite perch, favorite place to sit, or only have 3-5 perches in their immediate cage environment. Sometimes caretakers only use the dowel perches that comes with the cages, which offers no diversity for the bird’s feet and increases the risk of pressure sores. You may have a lot of different perches in the cage, or change them frequently, but your bird only sits in one area. There are a few ways to combat this. First, make sure that you do not use dowel perches that are strait, the same width, and the same texture that goes from one side of the cage or another. These are the worst for your bird’s feet. Next, you can rotate the cage so your bird sits in a different area of the cage, and on different perches, to get the same views. Another solution is to change all the bird’s perches when you do your weekly deep clean of their cage. Rearrange the perch’s placement in the cage, and ideally put in perches that were not in there before, but you can easily reuse the same perches, just with a different design.
Furthermore, it could be a sign that your parrot is lazy. Lazy bird’s do not move around a lot in their cage. The easiest way to get your bird to utilize its cage more is through perch placement and enrichment. To start with perch placement, I would not recommend a perch that does from one side of the cage to another. This becomes a walkway to the entire cage, meaning they have no reason to explore the rest of their cage. Having many shorter, natural branch perches around the cage allows for the bird to have to climb on the bars, on rope swings, or other means to get to different areas of the cage. This means their feet move in different ways, and pressure is distributed differently so they do not develop sores. Enrichment is a very powerful tool to get your bird moving, especially when foraging is involved. If your bird enjoys a certain toy or toy texture, you can move the toy’s placement around the cage in front of different perches so your bird moves and follow it. Also, if you set up a foraging activity for your bird to complete, that can also help them move around. Increasing the enrichment complexity, making your bird hang onto the side of the cage bars, or even hang upside down from the top of the cage, can give their feet a break or distribute pressure differently. If your bird does not interact with enrichment, or you do not understand how to get into foraging or increasing enrichment complexity, feel free to check out our webinar here.
Platforms and untreated pine 2X4’s can also give your birds feet a break. Giving your bird access to be flatfooted in their cage can help relax their feet, though the cage should not be only platforms unless the bird’s special needs require it. There are many types of platforms, from metal barred ones, to flat woof ones, to even “hammocks” made out of a seagrass mat. Any of these are fine to use and will essentially do the same thing, just some birds like different textures, most feel more comfortable with the metal ones that resemble the metal bars of the cage. If you use a 2X4 piece of pine in the cage, you can drill in foraging holes so it becomes an activity perch.
Adding couching to the bird’s perches can also help with pressure sores. Wrapping your bird’s perches in vet tape, a self-adhesion medical tape safe for parrots, can help give comfort to the feet. They come in many colors. Some birds will react negatively to different colors, therefore try finding “skin tone” colored tape so it looks closer to the color of a wood perch. Be sure to keep the wrap clean. If there is leftover food, droppings, or general discoloration, the tape should be changed immediately, especially if your bird has active sores, to keep the area clean. Be sure to change all the vet tape at least once a week when you do your weekly deep clean. Vet tape is safe for your bird to put their beak on, lick, and walk on, but it should not be ingested. If you notice your bird is chewing the vet tape, it should be removed, and another idea should be implemented in its place.
Training can also be a huge help for getting your bird active and moving. Utilizing target training can encourage your bird to move around more. Target training is utilizing a stick-like object as the target and teaching your bird to touch a specific body part to the end of the stick to get a reward. Then, as your bird learns how to do this, you can guide them around the cage to move more, even onto new perches if they are fearful as you rearrange their environment or add vet tape. If you are unsure of this concept, or are unsure on how to complete it appropriately, you can contact us for an online or in-person behavior consultation where I give you a customized, detail written training plan outlining exactly how to do this, as well as a video or in person demonstration of the skills.
Finally, cage size can have an affect on your bird’s pressure sores. Having too small of a cage means the bird cannot move around a lot and there is less room for perch variability. The majority of cages I see parrots in are simply too small for the, even the ones sold by cage companies marketed to be for a specific species. The general rule I tell clients is the minimum size for cage for their parrot, is at least:
Length: Double the birds open wing span
Width: the birds entire open wing span
Height: Double the bird’s entire length, including tail
Of course, that is a generalized statement. Some species prefer to have more horizontal room than vertical, all need bigger than these recommendations. But this is a pretty easy idea of the minimum size for each bird. I always say meet the minimum requirements and then go as big as you can afford with the idea that you will always be looking to make it larger as time goes on.
To conclude, pressure sores can be easily managed and prevented when you keep your bird’s weight healthy and keep the environment adequate and constantly changing. If they are [resistant or seem to get worse, it is always in best practice to have a consultation with your vet to be sure it has not developed further into bumble foot, or to be sure you are trying all that you can to help your bird.