Suddenly clumsy hen?

[Miss_sj]

Hi all,

My little hen Charlie, approx 1 year old, is quite a clumsy and rough lander. She flies hard and fast and has never been graceful when landing. However, over the past few weeks, her landings seem even clumsier and harder than usual. She has even completely missed where she was going and landed somewhere else a few times. She's aimed to land on my shoulder and collided with my face a few times- ouch. She seems otherwise healthy and normal and is a very happy bird. Is this something tk be concerned about? I do think she may be about to start a moult, not sure if that has an impact. At the moment with everything going on with the world, a vet visit is not out of the question but I'd rather only do it if necessary, which is why I thought I'd check in with AA first.

 

[Ripshod]

Is she moulting? Every flight feather dropped equals a different balance point. That could just be throwing her off.
Or she may have bumped one of her wings.

 

[Miss_sj]

I think she may be just starting a moult.

 

[Miss_sj]

She's always been clumsy and she is quite rough- when she plays she plays hard. She has a "go hard" personality. Its just been more extreme over the last couple of days

 

[Gribouille]

I was wondering if she has a good sight?

 

[Miss_sj]

I was wondering if she has a good sight?

This is a valid point. I hope her sight is ok. She's always been a bit awkward and clumsy but the last few days she's done a few crazy landings. Would a vet be able to confirm about her eye sight?

 

[Miss_sj]

My other little bird was like this when he was very young, but as he got his bearings he became very graceful with his flying and landing. Charlie stayed clumsy, I always chalked it up to one of her little quirks but maybe theres more to it

I just held up broccoli, which she loves and she made a beeline straight for me. So she can at least see, but her sight could be impaired to some degree?

 

[Gribouille]

This is a valid point. I hope her sight is ok. She's always been a bit awkward and clumsy but the last few days she's done a few crazy landings. Would a vet be able to confirm about her eye sight?

I don't know how a vet could evaluate her sight... But she sees/smells the broccoli at least. Could be she is short-sighted, doesn't have the details? That would be a good reason to be aggressive if she can't really determine what's in close proximity. But then, it could be something completely different too...

 

[Miss_sj]

I've been watching her closely, I'm not sure if thats the issue. She always copies my male budgie, and she was sitting on my shoulder when she noticed him climbing back into the cage from across the room and she flew there in a flash. She often flies to me from across the room too.

Charlie's not really aggressive- she's bossy with my other bird, and she has gone through aggressive times but I think that was hormonal. She's actually a very sweet and loving little bird!

 

[Gribouille]

I've been watching her closely, I'm not sure if thats the issue. She always copies my male budgie, and she was sitting on my shoulder when she noticed him climbing back into the cage from across the room and she flew there in a flash. She often flies to me from across the room too.

Charlie's not really aggressive- she's bossy with my other bird, and she has gone through aggressive times but I think that was hormonal. She's actually a very sweet and loving little bird!

bossing your other budgie around is perfectly normal, that's her job I've seen Nova catch and pull Merlin's tail, chase him away from food, especially apple. If he goes and helps himself with a fresh slice of apple that she's shown none interest in to begin with, she'll chase him from his spot and chew the apple in pieces until it's completely gone...
Toward me she is also more "aggressive" but that's because I've had Merlin for longer so he knows me, although none of them are tame. At the beginning he was also biting and struggling to free himself (like Nova does) when I had to hold him, now he is fairly relaxed, he knows he can trust me. Nova is a little better now than she was at first but still not happy to be handled or have me too near her. On the other hand she is a clever girl who knows what I expect from her when I tell her it's time to go to bed and she is happy to oblige (most of the time) so I have no reason to try and catch her except for health checks after the shower.

 

[Miss_sj]

Haha! Yep, she is the boss of the food. Both of my birds are bossy, but Charlie keeps Flynn in line.

Charlie has become so sweet and friendly over the past few months its been really nice to see the change as she was standoffish initially and as we have another bird, I wasn't expecting her to become interactive. She's learned to be super gentle and she even tries to preen my eye lashes

Her biggest conundrum at the moment is that she likes to sit on my shoulder while I'm doing chores around the house, but she also wants to be with Flynn. What she wants is for Flynn to also stay on my shoulder, but he sometimes chooses to go to his playgym. What should she do?! She is genuinely so torn when this happens!

I really hope everything is OK and the clumsiness isn't serious. I'm going to phone my AV and see what they say. I'd prefer not to go to the vet currently if I can avoid it, just until things are under control with the virus

 

[Gribouille]

Isn't Flynn a bit of a cliché?? Going to his playgym while the girls are doing chores!?

 

[Miss_sj]

Isn't Flynn a bit of a cliché?? Going to his playgym while the girls are doing chores!?

Haha! At least he is the cutest little cliche there ever was!