Leroy crashed into a wall

[allirho]

I've had a similar incident and I thought it would make sense to write about it under this topic.
This past Tuesday, my budgie flew into the window at a pretty fast speed. He squawked, bounced off the window an flew right back to me.

I've got the opposite problem that you do, Cml. Tamago has no problem coming out of the cage, but ever since Tuesday I've noticed that he's quite nippy whenever I put my finger near his beak. Before he would fluff up his neck feathers and beg to be pet/scratched whenever I put my finger near his beak, now he dodges, plasters his neck feathers tight to his body and does the biting, nibbling thing.He will still let me pet him while he is sitting down on a perch, occasionally, but doesn't really let me pet him when he is on me. This is odd because he was really cuddly before.

I thought maybe the change in behaviour was a result of his losing trust in me after the collision? I probably should have mentioned that he was sitting on my shoulder before he took off and smacked into the window, so maybe he blames me for not protecting him?

Also, I noticed the next day that he had a small crack in his beak along with a little red line above the crack that looked like a bit of internal bleeding. The crack didn't seem to cause him any pain and he was eating, playing, pooping as usual. Since Tuesday the beak has completely healed and everything is normal except for what I mentioned above- the change in behaviour towards me.
I'm not sure what's going on...
It's been a few days so I thought he'd go back to normal but this morning the behaviour is still odd.
Have you gotten any more progress since getting Leroy to target out of his cage?
It's been a few days and Tamago is still not his pre-collision self. I'm worried!

[Naurthon]

I was just wondering... Does this Leroy has anything to do with UBRS? That might explain his wall crashing.

LEEROYYYY JENKINNNNSSS!!!!!!

Nikko got spooked the other day and flew out of the bird room, down the hall into the living room, then back into the bird room where he ended up inside of Dante's open cage and refused to come out. He was clearly freaked and I couldn't figure out why. I figured he was just disoriented and about being in the wrong cage. After I finally got him out, he still seemed skittish for a while, but he eventually settled down.

Today, I was talking to my mother on the phone. (I've apparently created family drama by offering an opinion on something, and mom was telling me to expect nasty phone calls from my aunt and uncle. /sigh) While talking to Mom, I was wandering around the living room and noticed some bird poop on the sliding glass door. I assumed it was on the outside of the door, but when I got closer, I realized it was actually inside. Then I realized that Nikko must have flown into the glass when he got spooked that day.

He doesn't seem to have taken any lasting harm. He has been a bit more skittish around my hands since then, though, although I was no where near him when the incident occurred. He is calming down, though, over time. Hopefully you'll find that your bird will go back to its former way of being as well.

[cml]

Have you gotten any more progress since getting Leroy to target out of his cage?
It's been a few days and Tamago is still not his pre-collision self. I'm worried!

A little yes, target training is solidifying again and we have been able to do step ups to a limited degree. It works fairly well with a hand held perch, and sometimes with our hands, but he is still quite reluctant though.

He doesnt show any signs of hurting any longer though, and he is running around happy as ever. I think it will just take time to rebuild trust. I really hope everything goes well with Tamago as well !

[allirho]

Have you gotten any more progress since getting Leroy to target out of his cage?
It's been a few days and Tamago is still not his pre-collision self. I'm worried!

A little yes, target training is solidifying again and we have been able to do step ups to a limited degree. It works fairly well with a hand held perch, and sometimes with our hands, but he is still quite reluctant though.

He doesnt show any signs of hurting any longer though, and he is running around happy as ever. I think it will just take time to rebuild trust. I really hope everything goes well with Tamago as well !

That's reassuring to hear!
For a little update, Tamago did fluff up for a petting while he was on my finger today, though it lasted only for a second before he realized what was happening and plastered his fingers back down again lol.
I guess you and Naurthon are right; the birdies will just need more time to trust again.
Thanks and good luck!

[Maria]

From what I’ve observed, it seems that parrots/birds have to explore and get familiar with their surrounds in order to find placed to land well, etc. Like they don’t necessarily have a good sense of judgement as to where and how things are in order to be able to land on them, etc., unless they explore the area(s) first. Sometimes I’ve wondered about their eyesight, as in how can they not also see that it is a door or window, has handles and window pains in order to indicate that. I haven’t quite pin pointed that yet, but I’m sure michael can give some insight to that. Eventually they do learn there is a window or door there, but also not always by flying into it. They explore the area(s).

My bird fell in the cage in the middle of the night just the other night, when the room was very dark because I did not have the night light on this time. This indicates to me that they probably feel around the cage while not in daylight, to feel where the perches are, if they want to climb down like to get a drink of water (which he does in the middle of the night at times too, if he’s woken up, then goes back up to sleeping perch and goes back to sleep). The fact that the night light was not on, he probably could not see as well; I’m really beginning to get convinced they have trouble seeing in the dark. I’m thinking he mis-stepped or mis-judged where the perch was in the dark, and trouble seeing in the dark, and that’s why he fell. He fell to the bottom of the cage, “thump!” and it woke me up, and I ran to the cage, even myself I was having a bit of trouble seeing where he was because of the darkness. I ran to the cage, picked him up, and cuddled, held, and checked him, making sure he was ok. He was, and he started cuddling against me. They do sometimes fall from their hanging chew toys within the cage, while swinging on the toys, etc. Each time I check him, make sure he’s ok, and make sure he hasn’t gotten any poo on him from down there in the bottom of the cage. He’s fine. I just will never ever again have in sleeping in a room at night without a night light on.

Each time he's fallen like from a hanging toy, or from when he's first gotten his nails clipped and has to get use to the new length (they fall), he's been ok, and he just climbs right back up again. But there were a few times where when he's fallen, I've noticed it was looking like he was trying to get one or the other wing ? ? back into place ? ? - - have ya'll ever seen this? Where they kind of move and circle their wing around, like the wing becomes out of socket? Or maybe it's a feather that's out of socket, and they're trying to get it back in socket again by moving the wing? And they can feel when a feather is pinched or bent a certain way and out of socket?

That’s a funny reply macbrush, about your motorcycle LOL.

UBRS? ^^

I think his issues are that he is used to living in a big aviary where crashing feet first into the aviary wall means landing on it. The effect is somewhat different when hitting a wall though, hence his crashes .

This sounds like a very logical explanation. It would make sense. He thinks that’s how he lands on walls, is to grab onto them with his feet… hmmmm …. This could be.

allirho I bet the cracked beak thingy could be what’s bothering him, why he doesn’t want to be touched around that area. It could be sensitive and/or bruised and in pain some, and until it heals, he’ll not want the area messed with, as he’s trying to protect it, and/or maybe the area to the touch hurts him until it heals. I hope you took him to the vet once you noticed what you thought could be some internal bleeding, and got whatever needed to be taken care of for his beak done. A birds beak is very sensitive, and they use it for a lot of things, and it is not a dead thing like our finger nails and toe nails. When we cut our nails, we don’t have pain. Birds beaks feel pain when they hurt them, even though the beaks are also strong. There are nerves in the beak. They use them to sense things, feel things, they use them a lot like we use our hands, to help them with things, to hold things, and they also use their beaks to test a perch/area first to see if it is steady before they step up on it, etc. They feel a lot of things with their beaks, and there are a lot of sensory things going on which involve the beak. Oh I see now that you’ve said you think the beak has healed ……. I would still at least have it checked out by a vet.