Help! My 4 month old cockatiel is trying to fly!?

Question

She's going crazy after discovering that she could fly just a couple of days ago. She has her wings clipped, but she can still glide a little. She tried to fly in her cage once, but got her wing stuck in between the bars. She's okay, but i'm afraid she's really going to hurt herself! What should I do?

Answer 1

Let her build her muscles and learn to fly again!  Why in the world would you want to cripple a flighted animal in the name of keeping it tame or whatever reason you keep her grounded?  You wouldn't chop your dogs feet off so he can't walk away from you and is forced to depend on you so why do the equivalent to your bird?

You'll have a much more confident and caring pet if you allow her to do what she was designed by nature to do and that's fly, even if it's short distances.  You just have to be responsible and attentive enough to watch out for her safety, but believe me you're harming her more by keeping her grounded than allowing her to regain that skill.

Answer 2

You need to contact your local pet store and schedule an appointment too get wings clipped again. This is one thing they fail to inform customers is they need to be reclipped every 4 to 6 months.

Answer 3

its normal i have a cockatiel she's one now thts usual she most likley trying to fly or just excited its ok theres a lot of things but nothings wrong with her/him  

Answer 4

aww she is just trying what she is meant to do it is okay just let her try to fly, she will figure out that it is not going to work soon

Answer 5

Good, as long as your bird can gracefully land, then it sounds like he/she has fledged (learned to fly). Cockatiel fledge around 3-4 weeks of age. http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww65e.h...

If they are clipped too early and not allowed to fledge, then cockatiels will be very clumsy and hurt themselves by falling, crashing and landing on their keel bone when trying to land. The bird will likely have many broken feathers, bruises, and (worst case) that their keel bone will splinter, from poor landings. But if your bird knows how to fly, you will not have these problems (even when clipped). I think this is what "jc elopre" was trying to.......kindly point out.

How big is her cage? Cockatiels have this funny habit of exercising by flapping their wings. They all do it. Her cage has to be at least 2x's as big as her wing span. This size is ideal: http://lh6.ggpht.com/callisto3/Rw19PyzVS...

As for the entire feather clipping controversy pointed out by Mamabird: It depends on alot of things as to whether a bird SHOULD be flighted. Yes, it would be wonderful if they all could be fluttering around our houses/yards coming back to us like lassie. But, I believe you should consider these aspects before having a flighted bird;

Is the house secure/safe? Do people come in and out all day? would another pet attack your bird? This would not be a suitable place for a flying bird.

Do you know the basics of clicker and recall training? If there is no training involved then the bird will do whatever it pleases and become less tame. Chances are, It won't like stepping up and would rather fly away from you (unless you have something it wants, scratches/treats).

Who else lives in the house? Is everyone okay with the idea of a bird zooming in an out of rooms, leaving random droppings?

And if you want to know about MY bird's wings, some are clipped, some are flighted. My cockatiel can hardly see, she can only fly backwards, so she is not clipped. My 10yr old arthritic budgie is fully flighted and recall trained, but she would rather not use her wings. My new 9 month old budgie is clipped, way too severely. When you have a father (whose last budgie died from fluttering into a keyboard, making it fall on the bird.) who is paranoid about birds flying and killing themselves, you get a budgie with butchered wings. I have no control over what HE does.

Answer 6

why did u clip her wings if she still CAN"T FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why did u do that!!!

u should clip the wings AFTER they have known and found out and tried that they could fly!!!

how dare u!!!

ur goind to clip the wngs again!!!

or she will DIE because of hurting herself!