My green cheek can't fly! Any ideas?

[Rorybirdie1018]

So I have a 2 something year old green cheek. I got him when he was just under a year old from another owner who did not seem to be very parrot knowledgable. He had gotten Rory (my baby) from a breeder (I think, possibly a pet store. I don't know much about his past), and his primaries had all been clipped down to the coverlet feathers, clearly before he learned to fly. It was also a very trauatic experience for him. For over a year after I adopted him he would screech like I was murdering him whenever I would touch his wings, even lightly, or towel him to clip his nails. To date, I have never clipped his wings again but he is unable to fly, managing at best a controlled fall. Any tips how I can encourage him to learn to fly?

 

[Flboy]

They learn by example! We need for you to get a tall ladder and..... Stupid joke, I know!

 

[BIRDIGIRL]

Place something very soft on the floor under where your working with him and set up two perches or even your hands and get him to start stepping from one hand to the other...once he is comfortable doing this then ever so slightly make the distance between the two hands or perches a tiny bit wider so that he has to flap his wings while stepping from one perch to the other...note this is not flying but will help him build up wing muscle which he needs to do before he starts to fly...if you ever watch a fledgling in the nest in your garden before they fledge you will see them perched on the rim of the nest flapping their wings exercising them in preparation for the moment when they are strong enough to fly. You have to find a way of replicating that wing flapping and wing muscle building for your parrot before your bird will be able to fly. Always have a soft quilt or duvet on the floor so that if he falls he does not hurt himself. It wont happen in a day or a week infact if he is flying in 5 to 6 weeks from now you are doing well but dont forget the padded floor underneath him for there will be many falls and crash landings before he learns to fly. It is harder to teach a bird to fly once it matures but with patience and encouragement it is possible. He must have got a very bad clip...I hate when I hear of birds being clipped at all but clipped like this is terrible...sounds like you are encouraging him well and he must be really happy he now has such a wonderful Parront. You seem to be doing a Great Job

 

[BeatriceC]

My Senegal doesn't fly well at all. I'm pretty sure his wings were clipped before he fully fledged, and his chest muscles aren't strong enough. Right now I have him where he can do a semi-controlled glide by doing something pretty close to what Birdgirl suggested. It's a long, slow process though. He still occasionally just drops like a rock when he tries to take off.

 

[Terry57]

Welcome to the forum!
There is some wonderful information in this link, and may work for an adult bird as well.
http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/53723-human-s-teaching-birds-fly-one-baby-step-time.html

Best of luck!

 

[MonicaMc]

Most birds are clipped while they are learning to fly. It doesn't have anything to do with being clipped prior to flight, really...

But if a bird doesn't use their flight muscles, those muscles can atrophy, resulting in a bird that can't fly. I know from first hand experience. Something I highly regret. I bought a flighted budgie from a pet store. An employee tried to steer me towards one of the clipped budgies, but I wanted a flighted one. Well, got him home, and he was so freaked out, he wasn't eating. I freaked and tried to put him with my other budgies, but he just flew away, so I clipped him. When he flew, he was an acrobat in the air! He was an excellent flyer! And I stupidly clipped him. Once his flights grew back out, he couldn't get more than a few inches off the ground.... I forced him to exercise, thus building his muscles, and after at least a couple weeks or longer, he was able to fly on his own, however he was never the acrobatic bird in the air that I had first saw.


If you catch your bird holding onto something and madly flapping their wings - reward, reward, reward!

If your bird is ok with it, you can try force flapping, too, by having the bird on your hand and moving your hand up and down, forcing the flap. If the bird doesn't enjoy it, don't do it!

You can also do a modified step up. Make sure the bird reliably steps up, then teach them to do a stretched step up. Then a step up using their beak (reaching straight out, not up!), then a step up with a hop. A step up with a hop and a flap. Hopefully, you'll be able to get to the point that you can call your bird and the bird flies to you.


Or, you can reverse this... have the bird on your hand and teach them to step off to their cage, a bed, or a chair. Same as above, just opposite direction.

 

[SilverSage]

I strongly disagree. There is a huge difference in the flight skill and mental/emotional development of a fully fledged bird vs. a bird clipped before the skill of flying is mastered. However the ideas listed here are good ones. My Cache suffered similarly, and took almost 2 years before beginning to fly. Be patient, be determined. Good luck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Piasa]

Take your bird outside in a travel cage as much as possible. Their eyes get practice seeing long distances this way, and helps their brain develop. This is very important for a young bird and will help immensely when they fly.

If Rory is bonded to you and will follow you, one thing you can do is have him on the floor and walk away from him. They can't walk as fast as we can and often try to fly to catch up. Being low will keep him from getting hurt from falling.

I used to play airplane with my GCC before he flew on his own. He'd ride on my finger and I'd make him "swoop" slowly at first and getting faster when he was more comfortable.

 

[Rorybirdie1018]

Place something very soft on the floor under where your working with him and set up two perches or even your hands and get him to start stepping from one hand to the other...once he is comfortable doing this then ever so slightly make the distance between the two hands or perches a tiny bit wider so that he has to flap his wings while stepping from one perch to the other...note this is not flying but will help him build up wing muscle which he needs to do before he starts to fly...if you ever watch a fledgling in the nest in your garden before they fledge you will see them perched on the rim of the nest flapping their wings exercising them in preparation for the moment when they are strong enough to fly. You have to find a way of replicating that wing flapping and wing muscle building for your parrot before your bird will be able to fly. Always have a soft quilt or duvet on the floor so that if he falls he does not hurt himself. It wont happen in a day or a week infact if he is flying in 5 to 6 weeks from now you are doing well but dont forget the padded floor underneath him for there will be many falls and crash landings before he learns to fly. It is harder to teach a bird to fly once it matures but with patience and encouragement it is possible. He must have got a very bad clip...I hate when I hear of birds being clipped at all but clipped like this is terrible...sounds like you are encouraging him well and he must be really happy he now has such a wonderful Parront. You seem to be doing a Great Job

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I really really love my baby and want him to have as much independence as possible. I also don't want him to sneak out of his cage sometime and be stuck feeling vulnerable on the floor because he can't fly if I'm not home. Lol. Tho he seems to do just fine launching himself at my fiance (who he really dislikes because he sees me as his mate and hates when my fiance hugs me or kisses me) lol. Maybe I should just have him chase him more often.

 

[snowflake311]

Flying is a lot of work. If a bird does not have the muscles for it the bird will not be good at it. My 2 parakeets came to me clipped and my male would flap and hop and flap so he could fly pretty quickly once his feathers came in. The female was lazy did not work on her wing muscles and took longer to fly she still is not good but at least she does not fall like a rock any more.

It's takes time. It's like expecting a person to run a mile after they have been a couch potato for years. With excersie and time that lazy out of shape couch potato can run again. Flying is like running kind of.

 

[Rorybirdie1018]

Flying is a lot of work. If a bird does not have the muscles for it the bird will not be good at it. My 2 parakeets came to me clipped and my male would flap and hop and flap so he could fly pretty quickly once his feathers came in. The female was lazy did not work on her wing muscles and took longer to fly she still is not good but at least she does not fall like a rock any more.

It's takes time. It's like expecting a person to run a mile after they have been a couch potato for years. With excersie and time that lazy out of shape couch potato can run again. Flying is like running kind of.

I've been working with him almost every day for the last few months. I don't think it's a strength issue. It's like he just has no idea how to flap his wings to actually gain lift.

 

[TheBirdBuds]

My green cheek does the exact same! Although he can fly now he never lets us touch his wings and screeches very loudly whenever we do. And his wings were absolutely slaughtered when we got him. He couldnt even lift himself off the cage so we clipped his wings again even though they were done so that they would grow properly then just gave him time to grow them out. His wings are now beautiful and he can fly as much as he likes before he gets tired. We are currently building his muscles so he can lift off by himself. But it seems like they are exactly the same??? Odd.

 

[Rorybirdie1018]

My green cheek does the exact same! Although he can fly now he never lets us touch his wings and screeches very loudly whenever we do. And his wings were absolutely slaughtered when we got him. He couldnt even lift himself off the cage so we clipped his wings again even though they were done so that they would grow properly then just gave him time to grow them out. His wings are now beautiful and he can fly as much as he likes before he gets tired. We are currently building his muscles so he can lift off by himself. But it seems like they are exactly the same??? Odd.

I think some people are just stupid enough to think that birds that are barely fledged need their wings clipped so severely that they can't fly at all. Idk. His flight skills are so bad I don't bother putting him in a flight harness to take him outside because even if he caught a breeze just right he wouldn't go more than a few feet even if I threw him high into the air (which I never would) glad to hear your baby is flying now. My Rory seems terrified to even try to fly because of how he was at first. He trusts me to touch his wings now but gets nippy whenever I try to inspect them for missing feathers. (Jokingly) but I want to chop off the fingers of whoever butchered my baby's wings then tell them, ok now do everything normally in life. It's not fair for my sweet, confident, inquisitive baby to be grounded. :'( it's also made him very clingy to me because he pretty much depends on me to get him around anywhere and while I love carrying him around on my shoulder (or his favorite the top of my head), it makes me sad that I can't just open his cage top and go about my business because he could hurt himself if he tried to jump off to follow me and landed on the hardwood floor.

 

[Aquila]

While not a conure, Sydney, one of my blue front amazons, had no idea how to fly, and really still don't have a grasp on it. He was cage bound for a good part of his life. You might laugh at this, but I used to run up and down my hallways and through the house with him on a perch. I'm sure a fan might have worked too, but it got him to open his wings a little. I also did drops to make him flap, which he seems to enjoy. Eventually I got a running start and tossed him towards my bed and he actually flapped and made it. It's been a huge work in progress, and taken a few years, though his was much more of an issue. Sometimes I regret it when he now dives off the cage at me if I'm holding another of my birds, but I know it's good for him! He can now make it the length of my living room, though he hasn't mastered the landing part either! Totally drops like a rock, but only a few inches from the ground.

 

[snowflake311]

Could this be caused by breeding done by us?. Green cheeks are being bred for color and things we humans want. They are raised by us not other birds. Maybe the flight part is becoming less inherent as we do more line breeding for colors and such.

I would say with time your bird will get it. But it will take work and time. My aunts 20+ year old green cheek can fly but no longer likes to. She is a bit older and just wants to be on the shoulder.

Just a thought.

 

[Rorybirdie1018]

Could this be caused by breeding done by us?. Green cheeks are being bred for color and things we humans want. They are raised by us not other birds. Maybe the flight part is becoming less inherent as we do more line breeding for colors and such.

I would say with time your bird will get it. But it will take work and time. My aunts 20+ year old green cheek can fly but no longer likes to. She is a bit older and just wants to be on the shoulder.

Just a thought.

As far as I know he was parent raised and is a normal color gcc.

 

[MonicaMc]

I strongly disagree. There is a huge difference in the flight skill and mental/emotional development of a fully fledged bird vs. a bird clipped before the skill of flying is mastered. However the ideas listed here are good ones. My Cache suffered similarly, and took almost 2 years before beginning to fly. Be patient, be determined. Good luck

I agree with this. I don't believe birds should be clipped prior to 6 months of age, 1+ year for the larger birds. (if they are going to be clipped at all)

It's such a shame though that many people think that once a bird learns to fly (as they are fledging), that they "know" how to fly, and clip the bird prior to them actually mastering flight.

Even then, they can "forget" how to fly if they've been clipped at a later stage in life if they don't keep up exercising their flight muscles.

Could this be caused by breeding done by us?. Green cheeks are being bred for color and things we humans want. They are raised by us not other birds. Maybe the flight part is becoming less inherent as we do more line breeding for colors and such.

Not at all! The instinct to fly is natural, but knowing how to fly is a learned behavior.

If it really was a genetic thing to not fly due to too much breeding, then we'd be seeing *plenty* of issues in budgies, lovebirds, cockatiels and other similarly small birds!

As far as I know he was parent raised and is a normal color gcc.

Chances are, your bird was *probably* hand raised, especially if he came from a pet store. Almost no one wants to buy a parent raised bird that will be difficult to work with, unless it's a small species like budgies, maybe cockatiels and lovebirds.


Maybe a vet check is in order to make sure nothings broken or strained or otherwise? Forgot to mention this in my last post, but wing trauma can result in the inability for flight, among other possibilities.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I wonder if it varies a tiny bit by species.

A heavy-bodied Amazon, for example, would put a lot of strain on their wings and breast muscles, whereas a Patagonian (a very light, lean bird with extremely long wings and long tail) might have an advantage? Just speculating.

My bird came to me clipped, and stayed that way (all my "experts" told me that was necessary) for a few years (we had no harnesses to my knowledge back then (middle 1980s) and I took him outside with me often (again, my experts told me clipped wings made that safe!).

After a number of years, it occurred to me that he flew pretty well, even clipped. I stopped clipping when he was about 5 (he's now 32). When we went out, he was either in a travel cage or happily stuffed in my shirt, head popping out of the neckline, with me holding his body from outside. Patagonians nest in caves in limestone cliffs, so he's fine with tunneling around in my shirts!

Ever since he got his wings, he has been able to fly... across the room... lands pretty safely wherever he's headed. He does do a lot of practice-flapping while gripping perches with his skinny little pink feet. He doesn't seem to want to fly much. He flies maybe once or twice a week when frustrated that he's not getting attention or transportation.

So sorry, to you folks whose birds are struggling...

 

[wrench13]

Having lost my first parrot, a 1 year old spectacled amazon, because his clipped wings grew out. He used to accompany me everywhere, stores, laundromat to the butcher , on my shoulder. No practice flying or practise wing flapping and then one day, outside and on my shoulder, a large truck hit his air brakes, startled him, and pow, Skylar took off like a rocket , over the tree tops and 3 story residential buildings and into the largest park in QUEENS ,NY, several Sq miles, never to be seen again by me, after weeks and weeks of posters ( this was pre-internet). The point is I never trained him to fly, but he just DID when he was startled or scared enough. Once you loose your bird like that, it changes your whole perspective on this topic. Whether to clip or not clip and allow flight. For the foreseeable future, Salty will remain clipped and only out in his travel cage, or his pack o bird. I just could not go through that again, it was so heart rendering and I still get misty even thinking about it.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Oh, Wrench. very sorry.
I would never trust clipped wings again. I can't believe the bullets I dodged, as I was figuring this out.
Thanks, Salty, for healing Mr. GoodWrench's heart a bit. The Rbird will NEVER go out again unless caged or... shirted. His flight is valuable, and worth any and every inconvenience to me. Patagonian hugs to you, Wrench. And Salty.