Blizzard slept on his back because it felt more comfortable at the beginning

Poor little Blizzard has had a rough first year of life! His mother started to pluck him when he was about 3 weeks old. She was doing some damage to his skin, so I removed him from the nest to be handfed. He took a long time to wean, and it took forever for his little feathers to come back in. His mother had truly plucked him bald!

His right leg had a little weakness when I removed him from the nest. I suspected the mother had sat too tightly on Blizzard, and if I hadn't removed him he would have developed splay legs. I felt I had caught it in time and the leg seemed to grow fine, although he occasionally seemed to favor it.

Many months after weaning, Blizz got out of his cage unattended. I came into the room to find him sitting on top of his cage with his left leg held out from his body. It looked bruised. I thought he might have landed on one of the lovebird's cages and gotten a little taste of lovebird territoriality, but the skin didn't appear to be broken, just a bit irritated. I put some Betadine on it and watched it for the next 24 hours.

The leg swelled a bit more and he was very upset when I tried to examine it. So off we went to our wonderful avian veterinarian. She told me the leg was broken.

What we surmise happened is that the mother did sit too tight on the baby and caused a slight greenstick fracture. It wasn't enough to cause any real problems at the time. However, when Blizzard got out of his cage, he must have caught the leg on something or somehow pulled on it in such a way that it completed the break.

The vet created a cast with surgical tape. She had to pluck the feathers from his leg so it would stick better. As you can imagine, Blizzard did not enjoy this!

For the first day after getting his "cast" Blizzard felt very frustrated and preferred lying on his back. I made him a cushy little bowl with unscented Kleenex and he promptly fell asleep in the bowl.

Blizz snoozes in his bowl after a traumatic day of getting the feathers plucked off his leg so his "cast" would stick better.

After the first day, Blizzard got used to the "cast" and figured out how to balance on the edge of it. I changed around his cage a bit so everything was on the floor so he wouldn't have to try to perch up high. He seemed happy with this. I also put paper towel on the floor so it is easier for him to eat without losing his food through the grating.

Of course by day 2 Blizzard started furiously working on removing the cast. He managed to get quite a bit done by day 4! Looks like I will have to add some more tape over the original cast