Feathers causing partial blindness?

[solenya]

Hey all.

This is my first post here. I am a first time Budgie person. Though I have lots of parrots……

I decided to get a couple of exhibition budgies a few weeks ago. This is BB (my blue boy) , the female is GG and if she ever sits still I’ll get a pic one day.

GG is great. Flew great as soon as she got home and likes to flock with the ringnecks. My problem is with BB. He is a terrible flier and reminds me of a bumble bee. He has a vague idea of where he wants to go but gets confused and panics.

I think the problem is the feathers around his eyes. I believe they are blocking virtually all forward above and side vision. I have tested this by moving my hand towards him from different angles and from his reactions he can detect movement mostly coming from  behind or below.

Is this a common problem with exhibs? What would be the fix? I’ve discussed this with other parrot friends and we all conclude that his “eye” feathers should be very carefully trimmed. Have we hit on the solution? I’ve never trimmed feathers so I dont know if there are any issues with doing such a thing. Obviously the bird will be happier and healthier as a result of being able to see to get about etc, but I am concerned this might cause other problems.

any advice appreciated.

[blueelephant]

This is an interesting question. I have fluffy exhibition budgies and my brother has some even fluffier ones, and we've often wondered if at times they can see properly but it's not really affected their flying. Fitness and weight seems to be a bigger factor. What is the birds history? Has it has chance to fly much before or is it simply having a tough time as it's not been out or in a flight cage before? Has it just not had time to practice? New time budgies being let out the cage for the first few times can be pretty ropey at landing etc.

I've not tried trimming eye feathers so afraid I can't help to advise on if it's a good idea or not.

[Hezz]

I’ve not heard of exhibition budgies not flying because of the lack of sight through excess facial feathers, but there have been many times on this forum alone where the owners of exhibition budgies have expressed concerns over their budgies’ lack of flying ability. They are bred to look big and goofy, not for their agility and one thing that this over-sized breeding has managed to achieve is a bird that isn’t very good at being a flying bird.

blueelephant has also mentioned that previous lack of flying time and muscle building makes it all the harder for these guys to fly well. It might also be that this one has his own sight problem over and above the feathers getting in the way. Any trim of the feathers would have to be light, I feel, so he didn’t just end up a prickly mess which would bring about its own set of problems.

[ladybird]

This is Charlie and as you can see , very fluffy around his eyes. It has never effected his flying though. One thing to watch out for are any feathers actually poking into the eye. I noticed Charlie squinting badly and as he was seeing the vet that day she had a look. She got her tweezers and pulled it out ( not something I could attempt myself)….

[solenya]

Thanks peeps.

I’m inclined to agree with Hezz. It would seem that as a lot if not most exhibs have big fluffy faces, this would affect more budgies than it seems to. Therefore he must have sight issues which are probably exacerbated by the fluff.

Both budgies came from my local parrot shop. Which is very reputable. Both are ringed and as I understand sourced from a local breeder. She was the last female but there were dozens of males left. I didnt ask how old they were assuming that they were babies. Chances are they are not directly related.

Flying wise they are like chalk and cheese. The female flits about like she was born to flying. The boy flies when he has to and generally in little circles until he spots something close to land on. They've both been free in the house since coming home apart from a few initial days of supervision,so have had weeks to build up their flight muscles and practice.

Sounds to me like he might be permanent special needs. On the plus side he knows no different and is a very cheerful chap. Always singing, and calls for GG when he wants her and she dutifully goes to sit with him for a while. I’m reluctant to trim the offending feathers. I’ll give it a bit longer and hope he improves.

Thanks for your lovely replies x

[vevve]

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