Harry the housebrick!

[Billie]

Hi All

I know there are several of you on here who have birds who are not the best flyers in the world and I wondered if you had any advice for me as to the best way to help out Harry.

I will post pictures of his latest adventure as soon as I've got them off the camera but in the mean time, here's the thing....
Harry is a BIG budgie, he was huge when we got him he is half as big again as the other budgies. He is healthy enough but chunky with it. Because they are in a big cage he gets a reasonable amount of exercise but the room isn't safe for a mass fly round.

To change his diet is difficult as there is only one kind of budgie seed available here. Also again because they are in a shared cage limiting what food goes out isn't possible. I don't want to seperate him as that would mean putting him in a small cage which wouldn't give him much room to move around.

I let him have a fly the other day and he can only fly 6" off the ground so he won't get into much trouble at that height. My question is how often would you let him out to exercise and would the others get agressive with him as it would only be him let out?

Hugs and pics soon

Billie

[Berserka]

The others wouldn't get aggro with him being out alone. Any possibility of letting 1 other out with him? He'd be likely to follow (or try to follow) the other. Maybe you might need to consider putting him in a smaller cage by himself and only giving him 1 teaspoon of seed a day along with his vegies. Get him out 2-3 times a day for a 10-15 minute fly session. If he won't get off your hand, move your hand up and down fairly quickly so he flaps his wings, it's not alot of exercise but it is some.
You might need to keep him separated for up to a month to get him to lose some of the extra weight.
Once he's lighter he will be happy to chase after another bird you let out for a fly.
Good luck with him Billie!

[Billie]

Hi Karen

The buddie budgie idea is working out well. Apart from the fact that they both play hard to get out of the cage...and tricky to get back in. Tiny is better as 'going back in' than Harry.

Bless em, so enjoying this extra time with my feathered buds

Billie

[Berserka]

Great to hear.
LOL Boris is a bugger to get back in the cage. She knows when it's cage time and I have to chase her which she thinks is great fun!