My sister's Tiel Jax :)

[GreenCheek]

It just came to me that I've never shared any pictures of my sister's cockatiel. His name is Jax, and we found him in our backyard. We tried to find his owners (as he was clearly a tamed, family pet), but no one ever came forward. He's now settled in, even though he doesn't like my sister and I very much. He'll still step up out of his cage for us, but when he's out, he's usually pretty moody, lol. Here are some pictures I took tonight. Sorry if they're not the best, but when it's dark my camera takes lousy pictures.

Saying "hi" to Cody, who wasn't really happy about another bird getting so close to his cage. I honestly don't think I'd ever trust them together, but I just had to get a picture with both of them in it!

I also had a question. We got him clipped for the first time since we found him about 4 weeks ago. He was almost fully flighted when we found him back in May, with him only having one flight feather still clipped on each side. However, in our room he kept flying onto my chinchilla cages (I was worried they'd bite his feet), and before he took him downstairs after his quarantine, we didn't want him to hurt himself so we made the decision to clip him. It's been a month, and he still tries to fly! Every time we have him out, he's always making it down to the floor and you'd think he'd learn? Sometimes he hits the tile so hard it seems like he could hurt himself. It just doesn't seem to be clicking that he can't fly, is this common?

Hope you enjoyed the pics, I'll have to try to get some better ones though.

 

[Aussie Ben]

Aw what a pretty boy

I guess with the flying thing, depends on how often you get him out. If he is falling like that many times a day then yes I would say he is a little slow at understanding that he can't fly lol - But if its only happening once a day, he probably forgets what happened the day before and tries to fly again. Consistency is the key to teaching any behaviour, including understanding that he can't fly. So maybe thats the problem? Just a guess. He's probably no stranger to being clipped seeing as you found him with clipped feathers, so it is a little odd. I share your concern though. You want to try and stop the behaviour before he breaks something like his keel bone or his foot.

 

[Mel]

I love teils rosey "cheeks"

 

[Spiritbird]

He is so handsome!! Love the long tail.

 

[madparrotwoman]

He sure is a cute little fella.

 

[HRH Di]

He is a handsome guy.

As for him "realizing" that he's clipped...Max used to do the same thing, until one day, lo and behold, he flew! I suspected with him that he wanted to fly so much, he just kept trying almost every day. I think the muscle exercise is a good thing for when he can eventually fly again - if you're going to let him. Maybe since he's only been clipped a short time, it may take a while for it to sink in.

 

[GreenCheek]

Thanks everyone! Yeah, I'm worried about him hurting himself, although it never really seems to phase him. And yeah, he'll do it like 5-6 times every time he's out! He's very determined, lol. It was sorta funny (and sad too) last night, as he flew enough to make it onto the couch and he let out a loud whistle as soon as he landed like, "Yes, finally made it somewhere!" The little bugger just refuses to give up. Here is a picture of him in flight before we got him clipped:

Even though all of his flight feathers weren't back in, he was such a beautiful flyer and I can't help but wonder if it's because he never got into the mindset that he couldn't? It's breaking my heart watching him clipped, but it is just so he gets used to the downstairs and he didn't get spooked and hurt himself on anything if he's unfamiliar with the surroundings. He's definitely being grown back out! Oh yeah, and he does this all the time too:

He'll just sit there with his wings open, flapping them periodically. Told ya, it's breaking my heart. Cody was never like this when he was clipped. If there was ever a bird that was a candidate to never be clipped, I think this would be the bird!

 

[HRH Di]

I understand about the bittersweet of this situation. Max was so severely clipped when we got him - every feather on the edge of his wings and so short I'm surprised he didn't bleed to death. But he was soooo determined to fly that his first flight was when he has just 1 primary flight feather on each wing. He puts his whole heart into it.

 

[Bobby34231]

Never fear, the feathers will grow back before you know it,usually when you least expect it...lol, looks someones now a senior member, congrats

 

[Beilana]

So cute As for the flying Hiroshi does this too. He will "fly" from his cage to the couch, except he usually misses the couch and ends up on the floor

The girl I adopted him from got him from a pet store so I'm sure he has been clipped most of his life, just not willing to accept it I guess. I'll feel a lot better when he has his flight feathers back. Breaks my heart to see him fall to the floor when he trys to fly to me

 

[parrotqueen]

What a cute little bird! I love the picture where he's investigating Cody's cage.