sudden problem with flying/landing

[gjtysoe]

Hi everyone

It's been a while since I posted on here so I hope all members and birds are doing well.

I wondered if anyone can offer any help/advise on the following.

I have recently noticed that my (18 month old) bird seems to be having problems flying.
As a rule his cage is left open and he is used to having free access to a large open plan kitchen/dining room or my bedroom where he has stayed most of the winter due to the extreme cold weather.
Both spaces are safe and he is very familiar with the layout of both rooms. He tends to fly between and perch on his preferred spots if not in his cage. He normally perches quite high taking frequent long sweeping flights between doors/windows/light shade etc and his co-ordination in flight/and on landing is normally spot on.
He generally has no problem pinpointing and landing on the open door of his cage and it is usually difficult to get through a door and close it quickly behind me before he has spotted an exit, calculated the gap and swooped down through the smallest crack as it closes).

Yesterday I noticed that he was flying low to the ground and taking shorter flights than normal (quite like a fledging) between pieces of furniture he normally avoids. After observing him for a while I noticed that he seems to be struggling to land on target- either missing completely or choosing to land close by as if lacking confidence- even over relatively short distances.
On a couple of occasions he has lost balance and fell from the perch in his cage.

He is a bit quieter than normal but he is beginning to lose some small feathers and I have noticed the odd pin feather coming through on his head. Other than signs of a possible moult (which he seems to have quite regularly) he seems to be ok.

His eating and stools seem normal.

Could he have hurt himself (ie a wing) when I wasn't there or is it more likely that his clumsiness and disorientation are a symptom of something else

[nat]

Its very hard to say, but if its something thats come on suddenly rather than gradually and poops and eating are ok then that might well indicate an injury.
I would keep him in for a week or longer and perhaps try and get hold of a good vitamin supplement to go in the water and feed some eggfood to help him through the moult.
I'm sure you will notice if his wings or limbs don't appear straight, but still a small hairline fracture or muscle strain may happen if hes been loose in the room and show no visable signs but will heal all the more quickly if hes kept in for a bit.
The moult shouldn't affect his flying unless hes dropped alot of flight all at once.
Or has he got a little bit over weight? They don't need to put on much extra weight to make flying quite difficult.
The other thing I can think of is a fit or minor stroke which is very common, but he is quite young for this to happen.
If you have any toys or fittings that are metal and not stainless steel then remove them too as zinc poisoning from galvanised metals can cause these symptoms as well.
I'm afraid this is all I can think of atm other than to try and get him to an avian vet.
Keep us posted on how he does :-)

[Hezz]

How are his flight feathers? Have you noticed a number of these lying about? With moulting taking a lot of his energy, and he may have lost flight feathers too - these are moulted out just like the rest of the feathers - this could be making it difficult for him to fly. It can upset their usual landing pattern too, as they don't have the control they are used to.

Eggfood or hard-boiled egg is a good source of protein for moulting birds.