by Pajarita » Wed Jun 10, 2020 11:15 am
Thank you for understanding! That is very mature of you.
No flight is bad but not so much because of the wing atrophy per se but because flight is the only exercise available to birds -it's the way nature made them- so birds that don't fly tend to gain too much weight and have cardiovascular problems. But the greatest problem is that because nature never considered that a bird would be deprived of flight, she made it so flight is necessary for a healthy respiratory system. See, birds have lungs like we do but they are not like ours, they are not as flexible and they don't have a diaphragm to push the air in and out of the lungs, they use muscles instead - and the lungs are connected to air sacs that are placed in pairs all connecting to each other so, when a bird takes a breath, the air goes into the lungs and the air that was in the lungs already moves into the first pair of air sacs which, in turn, moves the air it had into the second pair of air sacs and so on and so forth until it comes out again when the bird exhales (they are not like mammals that exhale the same air they have just inhaled). This is needed because birds need much more oxygen than we do (because of flight and their super fast metabolism) so their respiratory system is much more efficient than ours is with the air sacs allowing for more oxygen absorption than just a pair of lungs. Problem is, exquisitely efficient machines are also VERY delicate and one single wrench into the whole thing screws everything up. See, there is a pair of air sacs (its called the 'posterior') that is only inflated and deflated by the movement of the same muscles that move the wings up and down in flight. No flight = no complete inflation/deflation of the posterior pair of air sacs = partial atrophy of the same pair of air sacs. One could say: "Well, the bird doesn't fly so it doesn't need ALL that oxygen and although it is sad that it cannot, it's not such a big thing" But it is because rule of thumb says that any organ that is even partially atrophied is more prone to infection. Bodies and organs evolved so their function and elimination of 'bad' stuff is linked. When it comes to respiratory issues, it means that the lungs (and, in the case of birds, the air sacs) have to be used as nature intended for them to be used so they remain 'clean' enough of pathogens to prevent disease. We clean our lungs through mucus (phlegm) that acts as a sticky broom for all the impurities we breathe in - when we cough is to get rid of the excess of this mucus that has been produced because of the presence of a pathogen. So, when a bird does not breathe as it's supposed to, you end up with a bird that is prone to respiratory infections. And birds cannot cough so it stays there.
Now, there are ways you can exercise Cake's wings so as to improve things but you need for him to be able to perch on your hand and trust you completely - and you do not have that... yet. So, the first order of business is to make him more comfortable (so he would not be mad at humans for neglecting him), to gain his trust and teach him to step up. Javi Caique came to me not being able to fly because he had been kept clipped as a baby and, once he grew and was not able to fly well, his owner did not realize this was not a good thing. He will never be a good flier but he can now fly horizontally without losing altitude for about 12 ft - and although this doesn't sound like much, it is a great improvement for him. I achieved this by exercising his wings daily. I would make him step to my hand and raising my hand all the way up, I would bring it down real fast and hard which made him flap his wings furiously because he 'felt' he was falling. I would do this every single day for about 5 minutes two or three times a day. It's slow going but it does strengthen the muscles and stretch out the tendons. I admit I haven't done this lately and I do have to start again... And, if it is any consolation, the new quakers I got need to exercise the same way and they also do not trust me or even know how to step up to a hand or a stick so I am going to have to start from square one, too - just as you would have to do with Cake.
I already replied to what you can do to make him more comfortable on the thread you started about what to do with his cage.