Timid budgie who cannot fly

[sonatina]

Hi !

I have a male budgie, Cucucci. I've had him for over 10 months, and am a bit worried about his development. When I had him he was a little baby, and was very very scared and timid.

I have been working hard to create a bond with him. I did my best to respect his boundaries and go very slowly as he is very nervous. It was very long before he accepted to eat in my hand. Now he will always eat in my hand, even put one foot on my finger but never both.

There are some treats he really loves, but if it is out of reach he will just watch it. I watched many tutorials on how to get birds to hop on your fingers, tried many things but nothing worked. He either runs away or puts is body very hard when I press a bit on his belly. Aside from that, he seems now comfortable in my presence, he evens enjoys that I scratch his head, he sings a lot, plays with his toys, so I guess he is not depressed. I wonder if I should continue to try to get him to hop on my finger, or if it is possible he will never do it.

I always leave his cage open, but he very rarely goes out. When he does, he goes on the floor and enjoys hanging around. But when he tried to fly, he  flies a few feet in the air and than falls, very often on his head, and this terrifies me. I'm very scared for his safety, he is very very bad at flying. I had a professional watch him, it seems he never got his wings clipped, and he does not have any malformation in the wings.

As he doesnt seem depressed, I wonder if I should just leave things as they are, or if I can do more for him. I can't help but think he would be happier if he could get out more of his cage, and of course I would like to have a better bond with him but I try to respect his personallity too. If you have any tips, let me know !
Thank you!

[blue48]

I'm a novice budgie mum, but you sound like you've done exactly the right things. My BertieB doesn't really like my hands, but if I hold out his favourite toy he will step on that, then let me bring him close to my face, then he sits up very straight and pays attention when I talk or sing to him. Sometimes he will climb from the toy onto my hand. He does love sitting on my chest and playing with the strings of my hoodie.

It's sad Cucucci cannot fly, maybe that's why he feels safer in his cage. As you say, if he seems happy perhaps it's just his personalty.

There are lots of very experience budgie people here who will give you better advice.

[clt80]

It maybe that he just has never learned, budgies are always a bit wobbly at first when learning to fly. They don't know which direction to go, then they don't know what to land on etc. It's a guess but I'd say it's that rather than something physically wrong.

[Hezz]

Does he ever flap his wings madly when he is inside his cage? If he can do this I couldn't see any reason why he might not fly. It is a good way to build up and keep up good muscle tone to be able to fly. If this doesn't happen at all and he makes no other effort to use his wings I'd guess that he has never strengthened the muscles enough to keep him in the air. Will he step up onto a spare perch? If so, you might be able to help him attain some muscle by moving him gently up and down on the perch - enough so that he will feel he will lose balance and therefore flap his wings to stay stable. If he doesn't do this my guess would be that there is a physical reason for him not to be able to flap/fly.

[sonatina]

Thank you all for your answers.
Hezz, yes, he does flap his wings madly sometimes. A few months ago he did it a lot, now less. Maybe he just needs more practice !
I tried a few time to make him step onto a spare perch and he did not want to.

[Hezz]

What a shame he doesn't want to step onto a perch. Perhaps you can persist with getting him to do this and then start on his exercise program. I don't know how you can encourage him to strengthen his muscles without a degree of cooperation from him. He needs a safety net under him so that he doesn't hurt himself if he does launch off - can you try getting him to fly over a bed or something similar so that he has a soft landing. Not being able to fly may have impacted on his confidence to do anything and to stay safe; it might be the reason he is reluctant to trust your hand completely.

[sonatina]

I will for sure try to persist with the perch.
I had already tought about making him try to fly on a matress, but it is a bit complicated as he walks around everywhere when he is on the floor. But as I have a lot of time on my hands at home now, I will have some time to figure out a setup where he would have to stay on the mat.

Thank you a lot for the imputs! I also think his confidence is affected by him not being able to fly. I will do my best to help him with that.