# Cockatiel that can't fly? and feather issues.



## Ezzie (Jan 19, 2010)

When we first bought Penny 5 months ago he was a tiny little thing, slightly underweight with the worst wing clip i have ever seen, the poor thing couldnt even get air to take off, or even attempt too. The person has cut what looked like a "v" shape out of his secondary feathers, as well as his flights!!

5 Months later, that horrible wing clip is still causing issues. He still cannot fly! He has been through his first moult, but none of his wing feathers grew out.. dispite all the others falling out naturally.

Now that hes more confident, hes started taking off, but instead of being able to stop himself falling so fast or control himself even the slightest, he just plumets right into the carpet, sometimes so hard i can hear the wind knocked out his lungs!

He can't even slow himself down in any way! 

My question is, is that an issue from his wing clip, OR is it that he never learnt how to correctly fly? 
Would he ever be able.. ? 
Do you think his wings feathers will eventually grow out.. ?

My second issue with Penny is because of the lack of being able to control himself to the ground more gently, he falls onto his tail 95% of the time, this results in ALOT of broken tail feathers!!!

Right now he only has 3 tail feathers, all the rest have been knocked and broken (and thus had to be pulled) or they have snapped in half.

Now im worried that he has developing feather problems due to damaged follicles, his last two tail feathers i have found have looked very odd, one of them looked like there was 3 different feathers coming out of the same shaft and the second was a horribly off colour :wacko:

Any ideas or suggestions??


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## Orion (Jul 24, 2011)

I am having a similar issue. Orion had a bad clip from her previous owner and it taking forever to molt them. She is constantly trying to pull them out. I bought this grit supplement from petco for molting and conditioning and a few weeks ago they started to come out. Only a few but at least she can fly now so you might want to give it a shot.


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## morla (Aug 15, 2011)

Aw! Poor birdy!


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## sunnysmom (Sep 23, 2011)

Poor little guy. I hope someone here can give you advice. If that's him in your profile pic, he's a cutie.


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## jessnry (Mar 26, 2011)

Aw, poor little guy!  Mine also had a terrible wing clip when I got them, and it took more than 7 months for their wings to grow out nicely. Penny might need a little more time for his feathers to completey grow back. I don't think flight feathers don't follow the usual moulting schedule.

His wings may have been clipped before he fledged... I hear that can cause flying problems, but I also heard that cockatiels are such good fliers that in time they work their flight skills out. Do you have hard floors? Laying down blankets can help prevent injury to his tail and breast bone while he works out his flying skills.


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## Ezzie (Jan 19, 2010)

Our floors are carpeted thankfully, and sometimes he falls onto my bed so it is less of a fall for him.

I feel so bad for him because he watches all the other birds fly around and even attempts to fly with them but he just cant  its very heartbreaking...


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

It is possible to pull the clipped wing feathers so new ones can grow in. This is painful for the bird though so you might want to get a trained person (like a vet) to do it for you. You wouldn't have to pull all the clipped feathers, just taking some that are relatively close to the body would give him enough lift that he doesn't fall like a rock. 

A vet visit is a good idea anyway to talk about the malformed tail feathers. If Penny is prone to follicle problems then pulling some of the flights might not be such a good idea. 

It's possible to have the wing feathers "imped" which is basically a feather graft. But this is very expensive and not normally done with pet birds, although it is done sometimes with hunting falcons.


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