flight preparation?

[CarlosQuaker]

my Quaker had been clipped late last year, and now he's molting out his old clipped feathers. He has nearly all of his flight feathers right now, only about 3 or 4 on each wing to go. After many crash landings since being clipped I've decided to leave him flighted.

Should I be doing anything to possibly help him fly when he has all of his feathers? I would like to train him to do a flighted recall, but I'm not sure if he needs to learn something before hand. He has flown before, but has never been fully flighted.

Or should I be doing something now to help him, even before he can fly?

[emsy991]

From what I have read, you have to let them slowly learn on their own while growing back their feathers. Of course this is not helpful, but someone more knowledgeable may come around and have some ideas.

Good luck!!!

[Michael]

2 training perches. Teach the bird to fly from perch to perch. I just did it 2 days ago with a rescue parrot that didn't know how to fly and learned the basics in 30 minutes doing this. I'll be posting more about it soon.

[CarlosQuaker]

So I just thought I should give an update on Carlos.

He is pretty much fully feathered now and is able to fly pretty well, considering he's been clipped for most of his life.
Yet he still doesn't take off. He is able to, but won't move until whatever he is perching on moves with him. I've tried training him using the two perch thing, but he won't take off at all. The only time he takes off on his own, without assistance, is when something has scared him. I see him pacing on the couch trying to fly to his cage, but he won't take off unless I pick him up and tilt my hands forward.

Also his wings are unbalanced as he flies. He has the same amount of feathers on each wing, yet the right wing works harder than the left. Would this fix up as he becomes better at flying or could it be something else? When he flies the left wing tilts down and doesn't extend as much as the other wing does. He still tires quickly after a flight and it looks like he is working very hard to move from A to B.

Could these issues be related to the fact that Carlos hasn't been flying for long? For the past one or two months he's been flying a few times each day, and he still isn't improving.