buddy ... my cockatiel

Question
thank you very much for your reply and it has a great help. its been about two weeks so far since we splinted it. he is started to walk on it proply and has started opening and closing his foot. how much longer do u suggest we leave the splint on for?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
hello! i have a baby cockatiel, his name is buddy.. hes about 5 months old and ive hand reared him since he was about 6 weeks old! hes so friendly and screams untill u let him out his cage, then he would happily sit on my shoulder for hours! a week and a half ago my friends puppy, got hold of him and he wasnt using his one of his legs, so i made my mum take him to the vets! the vet said his leg was broken and there was nothing i could do cos he so small. his break is above the knee bit in the upper part of his leg. u can feel it. we made a splint and taped his leg, and kept his foot warm and kept him in a box so there was no pressure on his foot. the whole time he has been eating and drinking normally. a week and a half later he is now flying and starting to put abit of weight on his leg. we decided to leave the splint on for another couple of days just in case. do u think my cockatiels leg will heal? and will he be able to use it again! also how do i tell what sex it is!
-----Answer-----
Hi, Chloe.  Thanks for posting.  I'm so sorry to hear about your little tiel.

You have to keep dogs and cats away from birds!  They are natural enemies and the bird will always lose.

Your tiel's leg might heal properly if, when you splinted it, you splinted it correctly.  Even if you didn't, I've seen many, many leg problems with birds in the many years I've kept birds, and most birds learn how to get along just fine with leg problems.  They learn to adapt to their disabilities.  If your tiel ends up with a permanent disability, you might have to make some cage adjustments so s/he can get along better.  I've had birds learn to adapt to no legs, partial legs, no toes, no feet...lots of different scenarios and they usually get along just fine.  

Was this an avian veterinarian or a cat/dog vet?  A good bird vet might be able to fix your tiel's leg once the bird gets older.  It might have to be rebroken and reset, but you might want to research this with a different avian vet.

If your tiel is getting better with time and use of it's leg, s/he might be just fine.

If your tiel is only 5/6 months old, it needs to molt once or twice before you can sex it visually.  However, this depends on what color mutation your bird is.  A bird will molt at about 6 months of age, then again at about 12 months of age.  Do you know if you have a normal gray tiel, a pied, cinnamon, lutino, etc.?  Give me some info about coloration, and I might be able to help.  However, colors can change with molts.

Chrys

Answer
Hi again, Chloe.

I recommend you remove the splint and see how the bird does without it.  Depending on what you see, you'll need to decide whether to resplint it or leave it off.  It depends on how much healing has occurred and whether you splinted it correctly to begin with.  If the bird is opening and closing it's foot, perhaps everything is well.  If blood circulation had been cut off, the bird wouldn't be able to move it's foot, which is a good sign.

Chrys