Conure doesn't like to fly?

[Taytortots]

Mags, my green cheeked conure doesn't fly.
When I brought her home, I had some of the feathers clipped on one of her wings for safety reasons and just to make sure. She was able to have a good chunk of her flight ability, yet never showed an interest. Now, when her wing is nearly completely filled out and she has the ability to fly fairly far (I wouldn't know how far) she still doesn't.
She flies sometimes, only when she is startled and once when she really wanted to get to me, but that's it. I did one time wake up with her cuddling my face, but her cage is right next to my bed so I can't say if she flew.
Is this normal? She seems to be in good health and is fed a good diet.

[friend2parrots]

just wanted to comment on the following:

I did one time wake up with her cuddling my face, but her cage is right next to my bed so I can't say if she flew.

there can only be a few reasons why this happened: you left the cage door open when you slept, or your bird let itself out. even if you left the door open, ASSUME your bird is smart enough to let itself out (i know tons of people with GCCs including myself whose birds do this) and PLEASE put a LOCK on the birds cage. if you don't do this immediately, this tragedy can easily happen: your bird, which sounds very affectionate, will want to cuddle with you while youre sleeping, and get crushed, without you knowing it. has happend to countless people. please dont be the next one!! a bird should be securely locked inside a cage if its in the same room as you while youre sleeping.

[Taytortots]

I see why you would be concerned about this. I guess a little detail would help.
Someone was in the room with me, it was during the day, and the person had come in and opened the cage to spend time with the bird. I woke up when she was getting the bird from the pillow beside me. She wouldn't have been there more than a few seconds.
But yes, I see very much why this would be concerning and I assure you the cage is closed during the night and this has only happened this one time.

[marie83]

So you already know your bird can fly, it just appears she would just prefer to walk/get carried everywhere. I believe animals are much like people in that the less they do, the less they want to do. She gets everything she needs so why should she fly? She will probably enjoy flying once she starts doing it reguarly.

She already can fly so that puts you in a good position to start encouraging her to make use of that ability, you just need to work out what will motivate her to fly. Remember she wont be very fit at the moment so take things gently.
I would start by teaching her the command "perch" or "go to perch" - whatever suits you. I used a handheld perch to begin with (but you can use a training perch or attatch it to something but kep it low so she can walk onto it to start with) and encourage step ups (dont use the step up command though, just lure her with target or a treat) onto it whilst rewarding. When she is confident to step onto it introduce the command. When successful start moving the perch further away (or your hand if it is a fixed perch), bit by bit and go back a stage or two if she stops going to climb up onto it.

After this you can raise the perch a bit and continue getting her to climb up at close range, then move it back again so she has to stretch to grab it with her beak before she can get on it, then back again so she has to hop over a tiny bit, then back a teeny bit more so she has to flap her wings a touch. Its important you give her something she really wants as a reward and dont move the perch back until she is 100% confident with the step before. Eventually she will be flying across the room in order to get her treats.

She will learn she can fly to get where she wants to be in this process. When you take her out the cage you will be able to put her down and then let her fly to you in order to get attention, put one of her toys somewhere for her to go to fetch it to play with, etc.