Aussie Finch Forum

A few days ago I found a male Gouldian on the floor of my aviary with an extreme leg injury. Something had taken his leg off more or less from the hip, very close to the body. There is no visible leg left, just a bloody wound against his body. What kind of creature could have done this?

The largest gap in the aviary for entry is 10mmx10mm square. The only trace of blood I could find was on the roof, of all places - a good smear above the roosting area. I could not spot any blood on the wire.

Three days later the bird is still alive, and warm indoors, but struggling. He sits on a lean, has very little balance, and relies on a wing being outstretched. He does manage to perch a bit sometimes.

Poor guy. I feel so bad for him. It's the second mysterious injury I've had in the past month. The other was a male Gouldian with a very small, neat, single spot of blood on his head - this one was fatal. Prior to these two, I have never had any physical injuries to birds in this aviary.

Any nearby parrots? Either sharing the aviary or in an adjoining cage?

Like Shane said, or a Butcher bird can take a leg off through 10mm has happened here. Ditto mice or rats.
LML

Same injuries i have here,butcher bird for sure,garyh

Right. We've had Butcher Birds here for years but I guess I've been lucky until now. I got the impression that they just couldn't get their beaks through the wire, so would always eventually give up and leave. Maybe not this one.

And no, no nearby parrots.

I've also been suspecting two cats who've moved in next door, but couldn't see how they could create that kind of injury - a whole leg bitten off.

Finchy wrote:Right. We've had Butcher Birds here for years but I guess I've been lucky until now. I got the impression that they just couldn't get their beaks through the wire, so would always eventually give up and leave. Maybe not this one.

I've also been suspecting two cats who've moved in next door, but couldn't see how they could create that kind of injury - a whole leg bitten off.

time to get a high pressure hose

Butcherbirds are very good at just taking a whole leg, or wing, or head, or just ripping a big hole in the torso.
I remember coming home from town one day years ago to find all of the above along a whole row of aviaries all in the space of about 2 hours. 2-3 dead &/or badly injured birds in each aviary. That was the start of world war BB at our place or few years.
These days I build aviaries which are physically impossible for butcherbirds to reach the inhabitants & I happily live with my local butcherbirds.

Did these injuries occur during the day or night?
I have seen several of these injuries in the last month- amazon parrots, cockatiels, slaty headed parrots and canaries. They all occurred overnight.
Cats, rats, foxes, owls and even antechinus have all been implicated.
I agree butcher birds are the major problem during the day.

A few years ago I even had a red-tailed black cockatoo lose its entire left leg and half its right leg from an unknown predator.
Pretty Horrific.

On the plus side each of these victims survived except for the black cockatoo which was euthanised.

WOW Myzo. That's going to give me nightmares.

I don't know if it was during the night or some time in the morning. I found the recent one a few hours into the day, on the ground. Even though the night had been very cold, the bird was nice and warm. I suspect it was a morning attack, only because such a severe injury during a cold night would probably have taken the bird out completely.

I'm fascinated by this happening to your parrots though. That's a big bite to be taking right there.

I lost another one the same way today. It's an extremely neat injury - leg nipped off close to the body. It's another healthy young male, found in the exact same spot on the floor of the aviary as the last one. This time he appears to have died from shock.

It definitely happened in the early morning. Rigour mortis set in around mid-morning.

I'm depressed! I've lost too many Gouldians this year to quirky accident and injuries, and they have barely bred, unlike the last few prolific years. I may actually need to buy supplementary stock later this year!