Help needed with my two 4 month old peas....

[Leon2902]

Hello, I'm after some help, I have searched the web high and low and I have had little success. I have the following problem with our recent additions and my wife and I are stuck with what to do.....

We recently bought a peacock and a peahen (Indian blue siblings) from a reputable poultry farm in Barton Grange, Lancashire. I paid quite a lot, they were a birthday present for my wife to go on our recently bought small holding. She loves them, but after a couple of days and getting a little closer to them we noticed that one of them had wonky toes. The pea hens toes have folded under completely, one of which is bent completely under the foot. My wife now tells me the Peacock is doing the same. Now I don't know if this was something that they did before I bought them (I certainly didn't notice it, but I didn't check either!) or something that may have happened in transportation or during the first couple of days with us. They don't appear to be in any pain and if you pull the toes out the birds seem fine and the toes straighten but as soon as you let go they curl back under.

Any ideas? Any help would be great. They are about 5 months old, are chick shoes of some kind too late?

Pleeeeeease help.

 

[Trefoil]

How long have you had them & what are you feeding them. I would try shoes as long as it doesn't cause them pain. I would also look into their nutrition.

 

[Leon2902]

We have had them two weeks now. They are still on the food the supplier advised us to give them, mainly a pheasant mix, with some peanuts and mealworms. Does this sound ok? What would you advise?

 

[Trefoil]

The only 2 things I can think of that would cause this is 1. nutrition or 2. injury. Without knowing anything about the "pheasant feed", their diet sounds okay. I personally also feed vionate and add calf manna.
Your description sounds like they have slipped tendon, but you haven't mentioned that they are lame, and I don't think the curled feet happen until they've had slipped tendon for a while. And it would only occur on the foot of the leg with the slipped tendon. How big is the pen they are in? Can you rule out injury? Like I said before I would try the shoes and, not because I think its bad feed, but because you want to cover all your options, I would change their feed and give them supplements. Simply because you may have gotten a bad batch. If you can, an avain vet would be your best option. If you are housing them on wire, get them off it.

 

[KsKingBee]

First thing I would do is contact the breeder.

What kind and size of roost have you provided? Sometimes toes are bent in odd ways from the hatching and are normally corrected right away but they don't normally tend to curl under but sideways. Nutrition and injury may be the problem or it could be something else, but first thing to do is talk to the breeder.

 

[Dany12]

A diet too rich is very bad! They must grow slowly! ... sometimes mealworms .... only sometimes!

See where they live ... in INDIA !

 

[Midnightman14]

I agree it could be an injury or poor management/breeding on the part of your source. If he sold you a brother and sister as a pair I'd question whether or not his over all flocks health might not be great due to inbreeding. Rich diet is a very subjective term and there's nothing wrong with giving birds treats such as mealworms anytime at all. Just have to make sure they are getting the rest of their nutrients that they need.