FINCHforum

hello everybody!

I have a RC cordon blue hen. she is active and healthy....but she sucks at flying! she will zoom from one end of the cage to another, but she seems really bad at landing. occasionally she will collide with the other finch (a star who is quite agile). oftentimes, she will fly down to the floor of the cage, hop, and then fly to the opposite end of the cage.

are cordon blue's simply not quite the flyers that other finches are?

I've read on here somewhere I think, that it is possible for finches to have cataracts. Maybe she just doesn't see very well? As long as she's finding her way around and eating OK she should be OK. But I'd watch to be sure she'd finding her food, etc. OK.

Might be a bit silly, but if it does appear to be her eyesight, maybe light colored perches would be better? Not dark manzanilla or bark covered perches? Not sure, about that, but just a thought that light and bright colored perches might be easier to see?

Or perhaps she is pretty young? Or she was in a smaller cage and isn't used to flying yet? If that's the case it should only take a couple of days for her to get oriented and fly like a pro. I hope that's all it is. Keep us posted.

Pictures would be nice too.

Sometimes if they have been kept in a very small cage for a long time, they really lose the muscle tone they need and can be quite clumsy, and it can take a while to get in shape again. I adopted a little finch that had been in a tiny, tiny cage for at least a year, and he couldn't fly at all at first, only hop. All his food and water had to be at floor level. He gradually got better, but never really good, and he only lasted about 3 months with me.

Sally wrote:... I adopted a little finch that had been in a tiny, tiny cage for at least a year, and he couldn't fly at all at first, only hop. All his food and water had to be at floor level. He gradually got better, but never really good, and he only lasted about 3 months with me.

Oh no! Does that mean he died? Or that you rehomed him? It goes to show how important it is to make sure you have a cage big enough and place perches in such a way that makes sure the little guys get lots of flying in. It's the only way to be sure they are exercising enough.

Hope your little CB gets better at flying Sean, given some time. Give her lots of protein to build up those muscles too!

No, I didn't rehome him. Of course, I have no way of knowing how old he was, but he just seemed to be struggling so to learn how to fly again, everything seemed to be quite hard for him.

Too bad, Sally. It's tough when you don't really know how old they are, to know if it's anything really wrong, or just old age. Hope that's not the case with your hen Sean. Any idea how old she is?

That's the thing I didn't like about getting my GBs at a pet store. No bands, and no way to know how old they are. Well they are with me for life now, how ever long that may be. But with my next birds I hope to be able to get them from a breeder. Now that I've got this forum, and have found a couple of local breeders thanks to some suggestions for searching, from folks on here...I hope I'll be able to find out the exact age of my next pair.

Let us know how your hen is doing in the next few days, weeks. Hopefully you'll be posting in a little while to tell us she's zipping around that flight, no problem!

i don't believe that its cataracts because the bird's eyes are clear and alert. They don't have the characteristic milky white opaqueness of cataracts.

as I bought her from Petsmart I have no idea of what the history of this bird is. All that I know is that for the duration of her time in store (at least 3 weeks) she was kept in a cage that was too small, had too many birds, and contained pushy or aggressive species (orange weavers or zebras).

so, at least on paper, it would make sense that her flying muscles might have atrophied and that she never developed the necessary coordination. Hopefully this will change, as health-wise, she appears at be doing quite well. i'll keep you all informed.

Sally wrote:Sometimes if they have been kept in a very small cage for a long time, they really lose the muscle tone they need and can be quite clumsy, and it can take a while to get in shape again. I adopted a little finch that had been in a tiny, tiny cage for at least a year, and he couldn't fly at all at first, only hop. All his food and water had to be at floor level. He gradually got better, but never really good, and he only lasted about 3 months with me.

That's good her eyes are clear. Sounds like Sally may be right. Glad she's got lots of flying room now!

I agree with Sally on this one. Sounds like she just did not have enough space to fly, and with practice and time to build her muscles she should get much better.

Sean

Yes, I had this same thing happen with a Canary male. He was in a small cage at his former home and I put him in an aviary after a while of being here. He did not fly well at all. I had to put dishes on the floor of the cage until he got better. Good luck!

add yet another point in sally's corner.

thanks everyone. i really appreciate your replies.