# Balance issues?



## elizaisling (Mar 28, 2012)

Back in August I got a 3 year old pied ringneck dove to be a companion for my other one. She was basically a rescue - her last owner had been keeping her in a dark, messy chicken coop with a bunch of other birds and she'd had hardly any human contact. The poor thing is still pretty terrified of people, although we're making some (very slow) progress in socializing her.

When we got her she was underweight, moulting heavily, had balance issues, and her toes/nails were in rough shape. She's much healthier now, although her toenails are still not quite right - two or three of them don't grow at all, one or two of them grow at a strange angle, and the others stay very short. I am thinking this is perhaps due to permanent damage.

At first I thought the balance issues were due to her not being used to being in a cage with perches, and only being used to the flat surfaces in that old chicken coop. However, the perches we have are all quite wide (the smallest is 3/4" diameter, the largest about 3" diameter) and she's now had plenty of time to get used to them, so I am wondering if her balance issues are due to her deformed toenails. I don't believe it is a neurological issue because she normally has no issues staying upright, etc, but she sometimes slips slightly or almost falls backwards when landing on a smooth or narrow surface.

Do any of you know much about dove and/or pigeon foot structure, balance, etc? If there is anything I can do to help her out in this regard, I'd love to know.

I'm including a picture of her feet/toenails for reference.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

I can't be sure from the picture, but it does appear that there is dried on poop on the toenails. I'd try soaking the feet in warm water and see if there isn't a "sheath" of poop that can be worked off the toenails. If this is the case, once the poop is gone perhaps the bird will be better in the balance category. You can also provide the birds with a piece or brick or concrete paver in their cage to help them keep their nails worn down.

Terry


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

That does look odd. I don't know how much of an influence the claws have on the perching ability. Nothing you can do to fix the ones that are growing upward, and a little poop shouldn't stop him from perching. Maybe along with the claw problem, maybe his feet are also weak and can't grab well enough. That could be a possibility. Maybe whatever is causing the claws to grow like that is also causing weakness in the toes.


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