conures feather pointing wrong way

[djdancer]

Hello All. I posted this question about a week ago and didn't get any responses so came back to look for my post but cannot find it. If there's a way to find things I've posted please let me know??

I've been trying to teach my sun conure how to fly. However, when he flaps his wings we've notices for a long time now that one of his feathers underneath the wing point out to the front instead of with the rest. This only happens when he flaps his wings either to stretch them or what not. Has this happened to any of your birds? It does bother him when it points to the front. I think it scares him because he's already a nervous bird to begin with. He still isn't flying. My other 2 conures do fly.

 

[weco]

If you go to your profile page, under statistics, you'll be able to go to all your posts and/or all the threads you started...I just click on my blue highlighted ID link to get there.....

Birds will remove their own feather, if it bothers them or you could take a pair of needle nosed pliers and yank it out on your own.....it will grow back in a few weeks & your bird probably won't notice you do it, just make sure it is a white/clear feather shaft & no longer a blood feather.....if the new feather comes back askew, you'll probably need to find an avian vet to discuss it with, because the follicle may need to be cauterized.....I wouldn't suggest cutting the feather because most birds will worry with an unnaturally feeling feather and could lead to plucking.....

 

[djdancer]

Thank you weco for responding!! How long after their wings were last clipped to they learn to fly? It's been about 1 1/2 years since last clipping.
Thank you!

 

[weco]

Since you're trying to teach the bird to fly, I'm assuming it's never flown before. How big of a room/area are we using for this training? I've seen birds in a small, 2 room student like apartment, with a Murphy bed, pretty much refuse to fly because there was no room, but would fly when the girl took the bird to her parents house.

Not sure about your last question, but if you're asking how long after clipped feathers have molted out and grown back in, the few times I have clipped a bird, I've never gauged the time, but birds are always flapping their wings, whether to just shake them out or to test if they can use them to fly, but if your bird has molted since it was last clipped, and the bird has fledged and been flighted, I might be inclined to think its gotten lazy.....what happens if you are holding it and just open your hands and drop it? Does it drop like a rock or control itself with its wings?

What happens when you leave it some place and just walk out of the room? Does it try to follow you or just sit & scream?

 

[djdancer]

weco thank you for responding. The room is very large, 30ft ceilings and about 30ft long. I tried what you said and the bird just flies down and not up. He really is lazy. If we leave the room he will mostly just screech. He does crawl down and run after us on occasion but not fly. lol