Will he ever fly?

[Nikomania]

I've never had a bird who hadn't been allowed to fledge before getting clipped. Dexter is my very first one.
Will it be possible for him to ever learn what wings are for once his flight feathers have grown back in? If so, how would I teach him?

 

[TikiMyn]

I think if is possible but it Will be hard! The BCC of my stephmother has never been allowed to fly(so knows near to zero about birds and I am not allowed to train him to fly properly) but now has all hus flight Feathers. He does fly, only when scared though, which is very sad, sometimes he is on the tabel and you see he wants to fly to get to you, but he doesn't do it. When he flies he doesn't know how to land. But I think that is teachable. You have to let him build a lot of confidence in himself though. I think this would work, it works with my new bird who has been Clipped before he came to me but could fly before. So I am not sure it Will work or Anything!

Get two t stands, or at least Something where he can perch. Train him to step from one perch to the other, and gradually, veeeery slowly, increases the distance between the two stands, so first he has to step, then jump, then jump a bit further and eventually fly.

I hope he Will become a skilled flier!

 

[Nikomania]

Thank you! Will have to wait until his next molt. Most of his flight feathers had been butchered by the bird shop. Not seeing any floofies at the bottom of the cage, so a molt is probably not in the near future.

All my birds fly, and seeing him just sit on a perch makes me sad.

 

[SeverelySweet]

I don't think Syd was ever allowed to fly, either. This makes me really sad, especially knowing he's in his "golden years".

He came to me clipped...and also, the little I *do* know of his background is that he was half of a breeding pair. So, I'm guessing that flight wasn't at the top of the breeder's list of "things I want my birds to do".

I recently let his wings grow in fully. He's only flown once, and it was only maybe 15 feet....and it was because he got scared (we were in the house). He spent the next hour sitting on his perch, with the most bewildered look on his face...lol...like "omg mama, what the hell just happened? Did you see that?"

Like TikiMyn's stepmother's bird, there are times when you can tell Syd just really wants to fly...like right now. He's on top of his cage, and I'm about 5 feet away. He wants to be with me, so he's doing his OCD pacing, lifting his wings, lowering his head...like he's readying for launch. I encourage him whenever he does this, and I've been trying to coax him into liftoff.

Eventually, it will happen. It's only been within the last week, maybe, that he's finally gotten some confidence, and has started climbing down from his cage and exploring the floor area immediately surrounding it. I make a big deal of this, and shower him with lots of praise...lots of "YAY sydney" and "huzzah, Bosun Syd!"

It's taken almost 2 years for him to get to this point.

Dexter will get there, eventually. But in wouldn't worry so much about that right now...working on building trust of his new family, and settling in, is first and formost. Everything after that, is gravy!

 

[Hankmacaw]

One thing that you will need to do is to strengthen his chest and wing muscles and improve his respiratory condition. Take a lot of strength and air for a parrot, especially a big bodied macaw, to fly. You can ideally start the conditioning right now while his feathers are still butchered. With smaller wing surface his wings won't be so hard to flap and he should be conditioned rather slowly anyway. When his flights come in he will be ready to flap the larger surface and might just take right off.

When it comes time for him to fly he will have the ability to successfully fly, even if he doesn't know how yet. He will learn.

 

[Nikomania]

@Hankmacaw what would you suggest? The only way I've known how to encourage wing flapping is by raising and dropping your arm. Some birds like that while others don't. Do you have any other recommendations?

 

[Hankmacaw]

That is almost always the way you have to start, because they don't have a clue that they even have wings. Once their wing muscles loosen up and they get a little muscle in their chest, they will flap on their own. It feels good in their respiratory system and, after all, that is what they were meant to do. Favorite flapping place is the cage door - sideways. Encourage him every time he flaps and make him flap every day.

 

[TikiMyn]

Thank you! Will have to wait until his next molt. Most of his flight feathers had been butchered by the bird shop. Not seeing any floofies at the bottom of the cage, so a molt is probably not in the near future.

All my birds fly, and seeing him just sit on a perch makes me sad.

I know the feeling Fëanor came to me Clipped and in the beginning my set up was not prepared for a non flighted bird so he would be stuck in one place, sometimes he tried to fly to another spot but would end uo confused on the floor, but he is doing a lot better now and quite happy! He can even fly a bit with Clipped wings!

 

[TurkeyBird]

One thing that you will need to do is to strengthen his chest and wing muscles and improve his respiratory condition. Take a lot of strength and air for a parrot, especially a big bodied macaw, to fly. You can ideally start the conditioning right now while his feathers are still butchered. With smaller wing surface his wings won't be so hard to flap and he should be conditioned rather slowly anyway. When his flights come in he will be ready to flap the larger surface and might just take right off.

When it comes time for him to fly he will have the ability to successfully fly, even if he doesn't know how yet. He will learn.

My GW never has flown, he's 16 and Im currently just flying him around the house on my hand. This started as a what the hell are we doing kind of thing to a very controlled assisted flight path. Once he figured he's supposed to flap the whole way, and once he knew which way was correct so we are both on the same page. At first I make sure I have a good grip on him so he knows he's not going any where (as do I), whereas now I barely hold onto one foot, and he's starting to get more confident and not murder gripping my hand during the whole process. His cardio has gotten TONS better, as for actual noticeable muscle mass gain lets just say were making slow progress. Unless we were moving forward its hard for me to get him to just flap his wings (besides when he's being a psycho).

 

[Hankmacaw]

Yes, that will work too - if you have a large enough house - I don't. Has your bird started flapping on his own yet? Have you tried getting a harness on him yet? Then he can go outside.

Neither of my birds could ever really fly. Jasper has heart disease and atherosclerosis and Hank had muscle damage in one wing and respiratory damage. But even if they can't really fly the exercise is worth the trouble.

 

[Nikomania]

I'm going to start encouraging the flapping beginning tomorrow. I'm also going to see if I can begin getting him used to the Avatar harness. It was an epic fail with my Miligold.

 

[SeverelySweet]

I'm going to start encouraging the flapping beginning tomorrow. I'm also going to see if I can begin getting him used to the Avatar harness. It was an epic fail with my Miligold.

Don't feel bad...Our Aviator Harness is basically a lamp decoration at this point. Something for Syd to attack whenever he sees it.

We will be working on it once we are settled in down in Florida.

 

[Hankmacaw]

Jasper makes no fuss when I put a harness on her. Just sits there giving me the evil eye then she proceeds to chew it into little pieces, pull it completely off and proceed with her preening to repair the damage. We don't even try any longer since I can't find a harness made from titanium.

 

[hotfoot jackson]

I read an article somewhere that suggested you hold your bird like a model plane and do sweeping motions (slowly then faster as it become sure it is safe), this will encourage wing flapping and build up all the muscles needed for flying. The next step is small low throws onto a bed, bird will flap and get the idea of a controlled glide....just not from a height...eventually bird should get the idea and begin doing short hops...but to really get into flying might need an aviary and long horizontal glide path

 

[Nikomania]

An aviary is in our very near future. It'll be 10x20. So he'll have plenty of opportunities to glide and fly once he figures out his wings.