I have a Cordon Bleu (F) in my aviary who has not been flying. She is possibly around 2 years old, she is a bird from my job as an aviary care technician.
She doesn’t seem to have anything wrong with her wings, in terms of injury or defect. She swings most of the day and jumps around everywhere. She also eats/drinks just fine, with not slowing or gaps. I figured, at first, she was possibly depressed, but even with time and moving her to a different aviary, she absolutely refuses to fly.
I will pick her up and toss her to elicit a flight response and she barely flaps or simply falls to the ground. If another bird jumps on the swing that she's using and it happens to push her, she will also just fall to the ground. I will go as far to even leave the cage door open or even being her out of the cage and let her have an open space. But she will literally walk or fly back into the cage everytime, even when I'm not in the room. She will stare, move around, look from different angles and gauge how to jump up on stands and swings before she jumps, as well. And this can take a while sometimes, I've had to modify my aviary so she can easily jump from one place to another.
It breaks my heart because she's such a little sweetie and she's clearly got something going on, but nothing has helped. I've been afraid she's had a vitamin d deficiency in the past and possibly her bones have lost density or become soft. That or even that her muscles have become increasingly weak over time. Another idea has been that her joints are aging, but none of the other birds (even ones older than her) have shown anything like this.
She doesn’t seem to have anything wrong with her wings, in terms of injury or defect. She swings most of the day and jumps around everywhere. She also eats/drinks just fine, with not slowing or gaps. I figured, at first, she was possibly depressed, but even with time and moving her to a different aviary, she absolutely refuses to fly.
I will pick her up and toss her to elicit a flight response and she barely flaps or simply falls to the ground. If another bird jumps on the swing that she's using and it happens to push her, she will also just fall to the ground. I will go as far to even leave the cage door open or even being her out of the cage and let her have an open space. But she will literally walk or fly back into the cage everytime, even when I'm not in the room. She will stare, move around, look from different angles and gauge how to jump up on stands and swings before she jumps, as well. And this can take a while sometimes, I've had to modify my aviary so she can easily jump from one place to another.
It breaks my heart because she's such a little sweetie and she's clearly got something going on, but nothing has helped. I've been afraid she's had a vitamin d deficiency in the past and possibly her bones have lost density or become soft. That or even that her muscles have become increasingly weak over time. Another idea has been that her joints are aging, but none of the other birds (even ones older than her) have shown anything like this.