How can I teach Mango to fly?

[kristy29]

So I don't think that Mango was ever allowed to come out of his cage in his old home, and now he doesn't know how to fly. When he is out if he wants to get off of where he is, he will try to fly and just ends up crashing to the floor. When he was at the vet he ended up getting hurt because he tried to fly off the doctor and crashed.

Is there any way that I can help him learn how to fly? He does seem a teeny bit better than when he first got here, is it just going to take time and practice? I am afraid that he will hurt himself before he learns though. And I don't think clipping his wings will help because he will still try to fly. When I got my budgies they couldn't fly so I clipped them and then they stayed on their cage and when their feathers started growing back they were able to learn slowly until they had all their feathers and then they were good at it by then. But Mango seems much more daring and I don't think he will be content to just stay.

[loyallyroyal]

It just takes practice, babies crash into things. Try having him fly to you for a treat, or let him see you place a treat on his playstand and let him fly to it.

[pippy]

Henry rarely used to fly in his own home, not because he was shut in or clipped, it just wasn't something he did.

When he came to me and saw Mojo and Shinda flying about like mad things he wanted to join in. At first he'd fly but not think about where he was going to land so used to just crash onto the floor.

Now here we are a few months later and he can confidently and skilfully not just from place to place in one room but from room to room!

[sailorkelly]

It takes time. Just let him try until her gets it. Abbey wasn't very good at it in the beginning. She can now do circles and fly from room to room. We are working on her landing at the pointed area. She is pretty good at it.

[LovelySydney]

I agree with the others, it will just take time. & a lot of times they will learn from their bird buddies in the home. Oliver flies and Emi is right behind him and vice versa. In the beginning she would just watch (she rarely came out of her cage in her old home) and I think once she realized she could also come out and fly around she just joined right in.


He will learn and he WILL have moments where he crashes but I think he'll get the hang out of pretty quickly.

[Jag]

He may need more strength in his chest muscles, etc. Ziva has all of her wing feathers, yet can't fly. She will flap her wings, but doesn't gain lift, etc. Rico and Rayne came to us unable to fly... they didn't seem to have a clue how to do it. I put them on my finger (in a carpeted room) and would lower my hand fast to get them to flap. They stayed on my finger for over a week doing this part. They got a lot of excited praise, so they really looked forward to it. Then they started taking off my finger and fluttering to the floor. By that time, though, they weren't 'crashing'. They kept going further and further... and then started zooming all through the upstairs.

Hope this helps... if he's flapping and still crashing, though... I wonder if he's just too weak and needs more time to build up muscle. This is what I'm still working on with Ziva. I'm hoping that at some point she'll be strong enough to get lift.. and learn to fly.

[kristy29]

I have been thinking about letting Meadow show him how but I have been afraid of letting them out together. I think I will try it tomorrow when DH and I are both home so we can separate them if need be.

I think he might need to build his muscles up. I do the holding him and then moving my hand down thing a lot in hopes that he will build more muscle. Hopefully one day all the things will click into place and he will be able to fly. I would love for him to be able to choose where he wants to be, because he has his cage, a play gym, and he also has a little set up on the ottoman, but I have to move him from place to place.

[Jag]

Sometimes I miss them not flying, LOL! Like when Rico and his OCD have to be removed from the top of my laptop 50 times in 5 minutes! If he didn't chew the snot out of it, it wouldn't be an issue.