My female is a terrible flyer

[bronwenste]

Hello everyone
New to the forum and a relatively new budgie owner.
A bit of background. I live above a very active bike shop, one day passing I heard the noise of parrots. I stopped (being a super animal lover) and I saw 2 little beings in a cage SO SMALL I lost my mind. The 2 guys that run the shop, I know quite well, but I told them that it was unacceptable especially in a shop where they smoke and spray oil on chains etc. They didn't seem too bothered. Which annoyed me more soooo, I went and got the cage and I brought them home.
They now are free flying with 2 new large cages, and a new human slave at their service.
This is all 4 months ago,
The male is very good at flying. He is also a few months older than her. (The bike shop guys said there was another female with him but unfortunately died, so she was the new female) they have a great relationship.
The female is definitely going through a moult as she is scruffy and I can see new feathers poking through.

However my curiosity is
1. Her tail is Very much shorter than his. Is this normal? Is it just a genetic thing!? Like us humans!?
2. She is terrible at flying. Makes it very very short distances but with very little elegance and seems a lot of hard work.
Is this due to the moult!?

I have attached 2 photos, 1 with their beautiful little faces and another where u can clearly see her shorter tail and scruffy feather situ!

Any help or advice would be great!
Thank you in advance
Bon

 

[Zara]

Welcome to the Avenue, Thanks for stepping in and helping these little guys out!

She is terrible at flying. Makes it very very short distances but with very little elegance and seems a lot of hard work.
Is this due to the moult!?

She´s missing many of her flight feathers, I´m sure it is very difficult to fly if able to at all.

Have you taken these birds to a vet?

@Ripshod is 4 months enough time to regrow? Or could they still be on the way in the near future?

 

[bronwenste]

Welcome to the Avenue, Thanks for stepping in and helping these little guys out!


She´s missing many of her flight feathers, I´m sure it is very difficult to fly if able to at all.

Have you taken these birds to a vet?

@Ripshod is 4 months enough time to regrow? Or could they still be on the way in the near future?

Hi Zara thank you for the response.
I did take them to the vet in the first month, where she was still very young and hadn't started her moult yet.
Vet said they were healthy and sent me home.
I would say the bad flying started maybe 6weeks ago.
But this last week I've been saving her from all sorts of peculiar landing places.
I feel bad for her, because he is flying all over the show and she obviously wants to be where he is.

 

[Pat H]

WELCOME to the Avenue!!!

SO THANKFUL you were able to rescue your beautiful birds... I once came across a parrot in a beauty shop... WITH ALL THOSE CHEMICALS!! Lady refused to give her up...

 

[bronwenste]

WELCOME to the Avenue!!!

SO THANKFUL you were able to rescue your beautiful birds... I once came across a parrot in a beauty shop... WITH ALL THOSE CHEMICALS!! Lady refused to give her up...

I'm pretty sure I stole them and could be arrested but the thing that broke my heart was they just couldn't care less.
Now I need to work out if the little lady will be flying again soon

 

[Ripshod]

Thank you for taking these two in. This will make such a difference to their lives.
Flight and tail feathers should be fully grown 6-8 weeks from moult. Given the conditions they were kept in then likely they ate nothing but seed.
So we're looking at malnutrition.
Feathers are made from protein so anything high in protein should be added to their diet ASAP. Things like boiled egg, or even boiled chicken breast..
For everything else concentrate on getting them to eat pellets and veggies. You could try some vitamin drops, but only use them for a couple of weeks max.

Disclaimer: All the above is based on the vet's findings.

 

[bronwenste]

Thank you for taking these two in. This will make such a difference to their lives.
Flight and tail feathers should be fully grown 6-8 weeks from moult. Given the conditions they were kept in then likely they ate nothing but seed.
So we're looking at malnutrition.
Feathers are made from protein so anything high in protein should be added to their diet ASAP. Things like boiled egg, or even boiled chicken breast..
For everything else concentrate on getting them to eat pellets and veggies. You could try some vitamin drops, but only use them for a couple of weeks max.

Disclaimer: All the above is based on the vet's findings.

Thank you so much this is really useful. I got them to eat veggies by mixing seed with chopped veggies, and now they happily eat leafy green, broccoli and chopped veggies, i didn't know about feeding them egg!
And if he eats egg even though he isn't moulting won't hurt him!?

Thank you!

I really hope they grow back...she was a good flyer before.. breaks my heart to see her struggle and for her safety having to keep them in the cage.

 

[Ripshod]

The lack of feather growth shows she either has a health problem (ruled out by the vet) or is lacking protein. Plenty of that in the egg white. In fact the whole egg contains everything needed to grow a whole chick including vitamins and essential oils so it would do no harm to either right now as a dietary booster.

 

[bronwenste]

The lack of feather growth shows she either has a health problem (ruled out by the vet) or is lacking protein. Plenty of that in the egg white. In fact the whole egg contains everything needed to grow a whole chick including vitamins and essential oils so it would do no harm to either right now as a dietary booster.

I really really hugely appreciate the response and the help. Thank you so much.
I'm on my way now to buy eggs!
High protein breakfast shall be served!
Thank you so much!

 

[bronwenste]

Hello everyone
Im sure you all lost loads of sleep thinking about whether the egg breakfast would be a success this morning.
I can report that eggs were liked!
Thank you all again for the kind responses.
Fingers crossed she grows beautifully long flowy feathers!

 

[Shezbug]

Hello everyone
Im sure you all lost loads of sleep thinking about whether the egg breakfast would be a success this morning.
I can report that eggs were liked!
Thank you all again for the kind responses.
Fingers crossed she grows beautifully long flowy feathers!

Best update ever