why my sister severe macaw does not fly?

[daki7878]

hi all

my sister got her severe macaw last month and we all love him so much!
only thing we are concerned - he does not fly!
the wings are not clipped and he looks very healty!
but when he try to fly he fall down after 4 feets!
our local breeder said he is still too young (8 months) and he also didnt fly at his home .
should my sister start to train him to fly or it will come with time...?
thanx

[Monica]

Can you show us pictures with his wings spread out?

It may be that he never learned to fly, and thus doesn't have the muscles built to fly... or it could be some sort of birth defect or injury that is preventing the bird from flying, thus a vet visit would be needed in order to determine if something is wrong.

Birds should be flying BEFORE they are weaned... so he's NOT too young if he's only 8 months old.

[Amie]

My bird is 12, and she just started flying gracefully. She wasn't fledged correctly (wasn't allowed to fly when she was naturally starting to learn and then her wings were clipped) so after a month or so of having her flight feathers grown out, we'd have to clip them to keep her from flying into walls and things. . . .but after some SERIOUS trust issues and allowing herself to fall and slide (we're finally living in a house with an open floorplan where she has enough space to fly a little chaotically) she's getting the hang of it.

If there are no birth defects, he can still learn. but it will be a slow process.

[Monica]

I don't necessarily think fledging has anything to do with the ability to fly... (specifically) I bought a budgie who was an EXCELLENT flyer, moved gracefully, and was like an acrobat in the air, he was so smooth! Then I clipped him... he wasn't a very young budgie but he probably wasn't over a year old, either... so he had to be at least 4-6 months old. Needless to say, he lost his ability to fly.... even when he did grow in his flights... he couldn't get more than 4 inches off the ground, seriously. I had to do flying exercises with him before he could fly on his own, and fly from the ground up to his cage or to the ceiling.

I think fledging has more to do with learning HOW to fly (but not flying specifically, if that makes any sense), and to maneuver in the air... birds aren't born knowing how to fly, so they must learn. If they don't get the ability to learn how to correctly fly then they'll be clumsy as adults, probably flying into things and such... and by clipping them we may be regressing this learning stage...

[ROYJOY]

try perching him on your arm or finger and hold him high, then bring your arm down, slowly at first. if he does not flap. try bringing your arm down faster, til it causes him to flap, he will soon learn that, when you hold him high, that means flap, then he will flap with out you droping your arm. do this exersise a couple times a day and he will flap longer and longer, he will get winded easily at first but he will build up his chest muscles, and crave flaping hence flying.