Hard Landings

[Nikki]

So many questions...but I'm so happy to get answers to them! I'm concerned about my timneh landing so hard. She is 5 months & has her wings trimmed. I try my best to prevent her from falling or taking a hard landing but sometimes she just takes off from the counter top in the kitchen or gets frightened by something & trys to fly. She seems to land rather hard & I feel bad for her when the surface is not soft. This seems to happen every other day or so. I'm not to worried about the carpet landings or should I be? I don't have her caged most of the day & she is usually fine. Should I have her in her cage more to prevent her from trying to fly down? I usually only cage her if I'm going out. Am I spoiling her by to much out of the cage time? I try to have her in the same room as I am much of the time.

[Talon]

Because her wings are clipped, she will fly downwards. She is young and because she is clipped, it appears she has yet to have the opportunity to learn how to properly fly and land. One of my greys has been clipped when I got her, and she has never had the opportunity to learn how to properly fly as well. Her landings are hard, and sometimes she crash lands, or skids. She is 3 years old, and I am letting her wings grow out, but because of her landings, she damages her flight feathers and they fall out....

[Dave007]

I don't think you're spoiling your bird by letting him stay out. Eventually a bird get used to a hard landing and those hard landings also teach a bird how to soften those hard landings. By doing that his muscles develop although the best way for muscles to strengthen is for it to happen before getting a bird clipped for the first time but that's past history concerning your bird and today is what you focus on. On the contrary, you shouldn't worry about carpet landings and if possible, enlarge the carpet area that you see him consistly land on. The stronger he gets and the more coordinated he gets, the farther he'll fly. I personally think that your bird has a great oppotunity to grow back wings because even without full feathers he's showing no fear of what he's doing. Basically, he's practicing. The best thing to do when he makes those landings is to casually pick him up and put him on top of the cage or playstand. I bet that your bird has a more surprised look on his face when he lands as opposed to a hurt or frightened look when he lands.

More than likely, you're the one who's more frightened which is normal.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/12/19 22:36

[Nikki]

LOL Maybe you are right! I read about them injuring their chest bone & I hate to think that could be happening. "Practicing" sounds so much nicer than crash landing. I'll have to check for that birdie expression next time!

[Luvparrots]

Nikki, I have a 4 1/2 month old baby that the breeder unfortunately clipped before I purchased her. That of course is "under the bridge" so to say. Ana Grey flaps her wings all the time and is always trying to fly. The first time it really scared me because all my floors are hardwood, and it scared her too. But that hasn't stopped her. Now, she is getting more confident and is always trying to fly. I am home all the time so Ana Grey is usually out of her cage except at night time. I can't wait until she is fully flighted and, of course, neither can she!!

[Dave007]

Believe me, he wouldn't be doing what he's doing if he suffered pain each time he did. If that were to happen, he wouldn't attempt it because of the pain and fear. Yesw, they can hurt their keel bone seriously but that happens when a bird has be terribly clipped and has no coordination. The bird tries to fly and immediately falls straight down onto the floor. The bird usually is no farther away from his cage than one 15 inches. That's when bones get hurt. Not only bones, but cracked tail feathers occur, beaks get hurt and legs get hurt. From what you said in your post, your bird takes off, goes a short distance and lands. That's different than a bird who falls straight down. The bird that falls straight down is the one who has to be watched carefully and also kept in a cage more.

[Colliz]

Mine haven't been clipped, and every now and again they take flight.

 

Unfortunately they haven't learned to apply the brakes when approaching walls etc, and it's sometimes quite frightening, especially when they have marks on their faces afterwards!

 

I'm figuring (rightly or wrongly) that they will learn to realise that walls etc are solid - neither of them had more than the occasional out of cage time before we got them so I suppose they wouldn't really know :ohmy: