Lorraine Hollingworth is not certain how her cockatoo, Mr. Ben, lost his leg. Hollingsworth runs Charlie’s Angels Parrot Rescue in Oxfordshire, England, where Mr. Ben was dropped off by his prior owner, who “could not deal with him anymore” (seems he had developed a harmful biting habit). Mr. Ben had basically been “purchased from a pet shop with his foot hanging off, where the prior owner took him to a vet where he had his foot amputated” and the long-healed injury was making him so irritable. His leg stump had a sore on it where it rubbed against his perch, and the situation got worse, Mr. Ben tumbled off his perch every single time he fell asleep.
Hollingworth reached out to avian expert Steve Smith of Wendover Heights Veterinary Centre, who in turn contacted 3DPrintUK, a London-based 3D printing service that was excited to help.
“We'd never had a request like it and were really excited by the challenge,” said Jason Pereira, head of web & marketing for 3DPrintUK. “Steve and Lorraine sent us moulds of Mr Ben’s legs so we could get the measurements right and then we had to come up with a design for the claw. We spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos of cockatoos to help us with our research.”
Below is a video, created by Simon Demaine, detailing Mr. Ben’s journey:
The unit created and printed a plastic claw, which was attached to Mr. Ben’s stump. (A parrot with a peg leg? Way to play into the pirate stereotypes, Mr. Ben.)
[Photo: Lorraine Harrison, via CAPR Facebook]
“It has been a bit of trial and error,” admitted Hollingworth. “…He is now using a second prototype but we know he will eventually chew that one too – so we are working on another to see if we can make it harder to get off.”“Hopefully we will get there in the end,” she added. “Mr Ben absolutely loved his new claw before he chewed it off. He was finally able to get a good night’s sleep and was a lot less cranky. He even stopped biting me.”
The second design, which is more strong, appears so far to be gratifying to Mr. Ben, who, according to Hollingworth, “likes to show off and dance.” He also loves to scream “Head scratch!” – one of the only English phrase he knows – and to scream piercingly, as cockatoos are wont to do.
While Charlie’s Angels regularly look to rehome the birds they save, Mr. Ben will stay with the shelter, since he will require continuous treatment. Cockatoos, if correctly cared for, can live to be around 80 years old, so Mr. Ben, who is now 8, should have a good long life ahead of him.
Charlie’s Angels is run only on donations; if you would like to sponsor Mr. Ben, you can do so here. The save also has an Amazon wishlist full of much-needed parrot supplies that can be purchased to send directly to the shelter, and keeps up to date with vet bills and rescue stories on their Facebook page as well as the accurate documentation of Mr. Ben’s story on their site.
Below, you can watch a clip of Mr. Ben as he adapts to his new foot. Discuss how this technology is affecting the world of animals in the 3D Printed Claw for Mr. Ben forum over at 3DPB.com.
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