# cockatiel unable to fly.



## luther349 (Apr 5, 2010)

hello i have 2 cockatiels one female one male. the 10 year old male today when i took him out of his cage to fly around my room. he tried to fly and only met the ground he tryed a few times with the same result. the female flew around fine. it has been a long time sense i let them out of there cage. 

i have check for any injury's and his wings and feathers seem good a bit ruffled but good. him and the female do fight but i never seen them relly hurt one another. i have looked to see if he was eating and he is eating like he always has. hes still active and playful as well.

has my bird forgotten how to fly or is he hurt and i just cant spot it. these are old birds 10 years of age. as i said thers no changes on how he acts or eats. if its just do to lack of flight ill teach him again but i wanna make shure.. it really wasn't pretty to see him drop like a stone into the ground.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I'm not sure if "oldness" has anything to do with it, but the lack of out time I think wouldn't help either, they've been in a cage and haven't been able to stretch their wings. His wings aren't clipped are they? how big is the cage they're in? is it big enough for them to be able stretch their wings in with plenty of room to do?


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## luther349 (Apr 5, 2010)

yes its a large cage for them. used to be a parrot cage. they have plenty of room to Rome around. well if you say lack of time i well retrain him. just means he needs some time to get his muscles to fly back. the lack of time out is due to owning a dog that thinks there food. im always having to get after her for bothering them. they used to be able to fly alot. and no there wings have never been cliped.

he has always been a rather crappy flyer. why he got named crash. even after months of always flying he would run into stuff or simply land poorly. the other bird flys like a champ.


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## luther349 (Apr 5, 2010)

update i have been working with him and hes starting to fly again.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

When birds don't get out of the cage for a long time their flapping muscles get weak. They'll get strong again with exercise. Just don't push him too hard right now - an out of shape bird may have a heart attack if it's suddenly forced to do a lot of flying. My cousin lost a budgie that way many long years ago.


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## luther349 (Apr 5, 2010)

yea i know how birds are. i only had him out for abought 10 minutes. and being my birds old even more so. so after 4 o r 5 flights he got to go back inside. all from low drops so he didnt hurt himself. by the 3rd time he was landing. tomorrow ill try getting him to go to his cage.

well as i said i worked with him more. hes making the short flight all the way to the top of his cage. abought a 3 foot flight. so im glad he wasent hurt or sick. just out of shape. just 3 days of work and hes gone from droping like a rock to short flying. but he cought on to why im letting him out lol. hes not to happy abought it lol lazy old bird.


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