Too much cage time...help!

We have 2, 4 month old Sun conures that we got this month. We got them from a mom and pop Pet Shop. Come to find out, the pet shop cut their wings ALL THE WAY BACK. Our bird groomer says it will take probably a year for them to grow out right. I don't think they ever learned to fly. With that said, when we first got the birds we had them out all the time but, every time we were standing while holding them they would try to fly off. The times that we were unable to catch them before they hit anything they would hit the floor or land on a table or hit a wall.Luckily they haven't hurt themselves yet. They don't try to fly off when we are holding them sitting down but, we want them to be able to hang out with us where ever we go (like our 4 yr old sun, Cooper).We want them to be out all the time with us, but we are very afraid that they will hurt themselves. We get them out of their cage several times a day on a soft blanket on the floor, but we can only do that when we are right there with them. Their cage is very tall and both birds really want to hang out on the top, but the few times that we have let them they try to fly off. The cage is about my height (5'5"), so it's a long way down. We can't keep them in the cage like this. We have to do something, problem is, we don't know what. Does anyone have any suggestions?

They will flutter when you move around, it's just gonna take you time to get them to step doing so. Do you have carpeting or rugs? Cause those are the best places to train for this problem. But in order for them to stop doing so you must have them out. Do the step up command if they haven't already learn to step up good with you. It should only take them a few days to get adjusted and not flutter off when your walking around. I know cause that's how long it takes me to train my babies.

Unfortunately no, we have tiled floors. I worked with them the first few days and taught them step up. Now they constantly want to step up. I have rugs, but they don't offer much cushion. I know they learn by doing but, I'm trying to figure out a safe way to do that. I wish I had a padded room to walk around in. Lol. Or a lot of bubble wrap. I'm a little scared of just walking around with them and hoping that a horrible accident doesn't happen, but I can't think of another way. I think they are just trying to learn how to fly but can't because of their poor wings, maybe? Cooper's wings are clipped for now, but she knows how to fly and glide. The babies kind of crash and burn. They don't glide down, they just drop and flap.

3_little_birds said:

The cage is about my height (5'5"), so it's a long way down. We can't keep them in the cage like this. We have to do something, problem is, we don't know what. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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My Lily's daytime cage is about the same height as yours. Except, Lily has always been a flighted bird. But I still worry that she can get scared and hurt herself in such large cage. If she sees a shadow of a large bird flying by outside, she gets scare. I try to discourage her from flying when she is in the large cage. She has plenty of chew toys inside her cage. I have 2 small ropes, about 1/8" in diameter hanging from the top to the bottom of the cage. She uses the ropes to get around from perch to perch. She uses her feet and beak to climb. But she only uses her feet to slide down like a fireman sliding down a pole. She does it head first. She knows how much pressure to apply to the rope to control her decending rate. I trained my Lily to fly when I got her at 4 months old. She can fly around the house at very high speed. I am not worry about her bumping into the walls or windows, but I am more worry she can bump into people. She flies pretty close to us some times. I don't have many doors in my house. I keep all doors fully open at all time and instructed everyone never to close any door as Lily flies after us some times. But for some reasons, she can fly through doors that opened only about 4" to 5". I watch her flies closely ... when she reaches the small opening, she colapses both wings, let the momentum launch her body through the opening, and then flies again. When she flies downstairs, she flies over to the stair well, colapses both wings, let her body drops to lower floor, and then flies again. She flies upstairs through the opening over the livingroom. When she flies, she always scream, thank God, that's how we know to stand still so she won't bump into us.

I forgot to mention that the ropes inside the cage need to be tauted. I tied them from top to bottom leaving no slag. Loose small rope can be a disater on playfull parrot. My Lily doesn't chew rope, only balsa plywood, so damage rope cannot entangle her toes.

When they're first clipped, even after learning how to fly. They will still flop regardless. If they're babies, they should be going through their first major molt soon when they're around 7 months old. Those clipped feathers will molt out eventually. When you get up, do it slowly. Same thing when your sitting down. Once they adjusted they would hold on better.

teaching a "stable step up", where you place your thumb over their feet- so you can secure them from falling until they have gained their balance may help. Also, while sitting move your hand in a bobbing motion and other moving motions so they can get use to balancing while moving while being close to the ground.

teaching them early on to "stay" may help with the falling from the cage, start with a ground perch, so if they do come down, its not a far fall.

My Gus, a peach fronted, is 6 years old (I have had him a little over a month). The only flying I have ever seen him do is panic back to a perch or cage (when we are right next to them) if he gets scared and its not a straight shot to either of them, it's a very scary time. Just this past week we have been working on his flight, and I have seen significant improvement. Don't worry yourself too much, because they will learn to fly. At this point, Gus would prefer to chase the dogs off, and then walk to me across the room, but soon I think he'll be flying

I hate it when people clip wings wrong! Maybe surround the cage with folded blankets so they have something to land on? I was going to say pillows but blankets will be easier to wash

When I got Bug she was 8 weeks old and they had clipped her wings just a few days earlier.....it is now 2 months later and her wings have already started growing back in.....she is actually starting to fly pretty well for short distances

Plus it just looks like a hack job when they get cut like that.....Heres what she looked like when I got her. Shes a parrotlet so not the same bird as yours but just maybe it wont really take a year......Bug's wings are coming back