Too fat to fly???

[nims]

Hi All,

 

I have a questions to all the owners who have extra large african greys. My Ice weighs in 555grams so he is a big boy. My concern is that he doesnt fly very well at all.

 

Now I am aware that this could be the fact that he was clipped when he was younger and possibly wasnt able to fledge. He does fly but he seems to struggle a lot. As I dont know his history and we are his 3rd owners I want to know what I can do to help the fella out.

 

All advice welcome!

[Sallas]

Uh Oh, you may have to get a little birdie tred mill. Just kidding...

 

I am actually going to have to deal with this myself. Our 9 Month old, I do not think was ever allowed to fledge before we got her. THe breeder clips their wings before you get them. She is just starting her moult now (PS. She looks kinda funny with her one full length flight feather that has grown in, but dont tell her she is kind of self conscious about it).

 

Anyway, I want to let all of her flights grow and and try to teach her to fly. I think I can see the difference between her and out 5 month old that did fledge.

[Talon]

I am dealing with the same problems with the grey I got this summer. She will be three soon, and I don't think she has ever had the opportunity to fledge either. It is such an effort for her to try and fly. But it's not her size, she is 400 grams.

[Sallas]

I am guess it is the strength on their wing/breast muscles. As they have never flown, those muscles are not in the condition they should be in. Well that is my guess anyway.

[Tycos_mom]

TYco is 5 yrs old and was never permited to fledge so now that she is fully flight she is haveing a very difficult time she weighs 583 grams and she is just starting to fly a little she is constantly flaping her wing on top of her cage trying as hard as she can to build up some muscle the vet said she has lots of muscle there but I gues its not developed enough for flying. She can fly about 10 feet now which is better than a month ago when she could only fly about 6 ft. so shhe's getting there Its just going to take a while longer because she didn't learn as a baby.

[BaxtersMom]

Same with Baxter. He was cage bound and didn't have a clue about flying and his wings weren't clipped. I asked here on the forum and got tons of great advice. After I realized he couldn't fly~ What I did with him was put him on my finger and tell him "fly Baxter fly":laugh: He knew what it meant;) . He would flap his wings and hold on to my finger. Sometimes I would put my finger over his toes so he didn't get too much wind and fly off and he was comfortable with that. We would "practice" flying a few times a day to get his wing strength up. He did tire pretty quick and started breathing fast but was told cuz he was out of shape which makes sense. He weighs 480 so he is pretty average and not overweight. Then I started giving him goals to fly to. The couch worked best for us. (Something soft like a sofa, pillows or even the bed) Then instead of letting him perch on my finger I would put him on my wrist (so he didn't have a good hold) and when he flapped he would lift off my arm and head to the sofa pillows. He actually enjoyed doing this too and looked forward to our daily sessions. I started him solo flying from my wrist to the couch and gradually went farther and farther away.

 

He still doesn't want to fly alot now though. If he gets spooked he will fly off his cage or where ever he is and he still doesn't gain much height but he can fly quite a ways and is landing pretty good now. He still can't make turns very well but think he has gotten more control over his wings than he had before. He really doesn't fly much though. I think cuz he just doesn't want to. Why fly when I will carry him everywhere.

 

I know he really enjoyed the flying practice with me. I think he was a little nervous in the beginning but began to look forward to it. I would ask him when he was on his cage "Do you want to fly" and he would come to the front of the cage to step up, then when I had him he would hold his wings out untill I said "fly Baxter fly" then his wings would start flapping like he was really ready to do it. :laugh: It was hilarious. I need to do that more with him.

 

 

Oh, I forgot to say that when I first started I would have him perched on my finger and kind of drop my hand down quickly so he would start flapping his wings. I didn't do it fast so I wouldn't scare him but enough for him to start flapping a little. He caught on quick.<br><br>Post edited by: BaxtersMom, at: 2008/12/03 05:16

[dblhelix]

As you probably are aware, flying is a learned skill. If Ice was never fledged and has not really had opportunity to fly for sure the muscles and motor skills have not been properly developed. I have read people have successfully fledged adult birds that never flew at over 20 yrs of age. Some will still go on to become very proficient fliers and some not so much. For sure you can influence them with a lot of encouragemet, reward etc if you work with them to fly. As BaxtersMom has indicated, start small. Get them to "hop" to your hand and gradually increase the distance so they have to flap and then fly. Kip was not fully fledged as a baby. We got her around 6 months and was clipped. As her first molt took place and flights grew in we worked with her each day. She is still learning but is now a rather proficient flier at around 30 months old (2.5 years). She can hover, bank, fly up, fly down and land exactly where she wants to. Each bird is different and some will naturally be more determined fliers than others. If you work with them it will come along but could easily take 2 or more years. I have definitely noticed Kip is more balanced, confident and I think happier as a flier. Now she says "C'mon Kip, fly!" Before taking off and often yells out "Fly, Fly!" in the air. Keep working on it. B)<br><br>Post edited by: dblhelix, at: 2008/12/03 07:27

[nims]

Thanks for the great advice all. Even though he is a bit on the heavy side I didnt expect him to struggle. I will encourage him to fly more. I know that he can do it but like I said she does struggle an awful lot and has no control over his landing.

 

Thanks all!

 

[BaxtersMom]

The landing is the main reason I wanted Baxter to learn to fly. He got spooked a couple times and would attempt to fly but the landings were horrific and it scared me terribly:ohmy: He landed into walls and would fall with a good thump and I was afraid he was going to break some bones. If he ever was in danger I wanted him to be able to atleast fly somewhere to safety without crashing into something. That is where the pillows came in (or something soft) to land on. At first he didn't land very good even on the pillows but atleast I knew he wasn't getting hurt. Eventually, he started putting his feet down for the landing and now has even learned how to slow down for the landing with his wings.

 

I used to do this with him all the time but we haven't done in much lately:( He still has a long way to go and I really should keep up on it better than I have. Although every now and then I will tell him "fly Baxter fly" when he is on my hand and he just sits there. I guess he is a lazy old fart and the new wore off of the flying game. He does not know how to make turns or hover. But he can fly for about 20 feet when he gets spooked and make a good landing.

 

In the beginning I just let him be on my finger and flap his wings without letting him go anywhere. He got so tired so fast and he got out of breath so fast that we really couldn't do much in the beginning untill he got stronger and got used to it.

 

Keep us posted on it.

[danmcq]

As all the others, have so well stated, learning to fly short hops and flying is a challenge to those poor birds that were not allowed to fledge properly and left the breeders clipped.

 

The first step is encouraging the action of flapping those wings and building the pectoral muscles, cardio and respiratory system. This is done by moving your hand with them perched on it up and down fast enough to start the natural action of flapping when they feel the falling sensation. If you become excited and encourage them, they will respond and get excited and happy too.

 

Once you have them flapping good and without huffing and puffing from a 30 second session, try letting them hop/flap to a near by cage, couch, chair etc. only a foot or two away. Make a BIG DEAL out of it with lots of excitement in your voice, hand clapping etc. or what ever they respond to with like enthusiasm, maybe even a treat.

 

Once they can fly a few feet and land fairly well, move the distance out a little, 3, 5, 8 feet etc. To get the farther distances, play a game like Peek-A-Boo. I did this with my Grey to encourage longer flights as a game with me or my wife as the target.

 

Hide 3 or 4 feet away behind something like a refrigerator. Bow down out of sight, then excitedly pop your head up and say "Peek-A-Boo", then go down again. You'll start seeing them anticipate when your coming up again and then they will reach a point where they just can't stand it any longer and they will fly over to look down upon you. :-)

 

It will reach the point that you can do this from most any distance you know they can fly and they will start playing the "Peek-A-Boo" game with you. They will eventually, as their skills increase start flying around corners to reach you, as you duck behind them. Dayo still loves this game and will always start flapping and saying "Peek-A-Boo!!!" and expect then game to begin with me or my wife running behind something or down the hall and around a corner and yelling peek-a-boo and he comes flying like hell to find us. :-)

 

The bottom line is make anything you want your bird to do fun and exciting with some type of reward, whether just attention or treat treat and they will enjoy it immensely and look forward to the challenge.

 

You will find a much more confident, coordinated and acrobatic bird emerge, that continually starts challenging himself on his own in new ways of having fun in flying.

 

Dayo will now hang from a chain about 2 feet long suspended from a wine rack, bat and scream at it for a while then fly like hell while still holding onto the chain which draws tight and makes a perfect arc as he fly's until it returns him to the wine rack where he eloquently lands on it and releases the chain. Then back down for another round. :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2008/12/03 15:49

[darth_mint]

I'm so glad this topic came up. Nicky is one of those big, heavy birds and he's spent almost all his life in a cage, even though he wasn't clipped until he came to me. His flight feathers are just starting to grow out now, and he's already learned to jump off high places flapping for a safer landing. I've been trying to think of ways to help him pick it up faster, landings are the big headache like Erika said! Especially since, living in a third-floor apartment in the tropics, where it's simply not practical to keep the windows closed - I'm worried that one day Nicky will spook, shoot out of the window and drop like a stone!

 

I'll have to try the methods brought up and hope he doesn't decide to hang onto me with beak and two feet instead of flapping. Experience tells me that having a little budgie dangling from one's finger by a solidly-dug-in beak is already bad, I can scarcely imagine what Nicky's 0.5 kg would do to my hand...