by Pajarita » Sun Dec 01, 2019 11:01 am
Hi, Jg and Galah - welcome to the forum!
Please do not clip him - it will not solve anything and will only delay his getting better -and he really, really needs to get better because obesity kills parrots more than anything else as it implies a host of fatal conditions: hepatic lipidosis, cardiovascular disease, kidney malfunction, high cholesterol, etc. If you clip him, you will be taking away the ONLY exercise he has to lose weight and regain flight. What you need to do is put him on a good diet (and, mind you, pellets ain't it AT ALL!) and exercise his wings so he regains strength in them and the self-confidence he now lacks (and why he squeezes so hard with his toes when he hangs on).
To exercise his wings you need to make him flap them as much and as hard as possible. You do this by making him perch on your hand or arm (blunt his claws so they don't make holes in your flesh and wear something long sleeved and thick but no gloves), raise it above your head and suddenly and fast bring it down. This will make him flap his wings and by doing it over and over and over every day, his muscles will become stronger and his tendons more flexible. As he will also continue to try to fly, you will start noticing that his flights cover a longer horizontal distance before he 'falls' to the floor and that he will have more control over his landings. Once you see noticeable improvement, start using what I call the 'softball throw': grab his body with both hands with him facing forward (his tail will be against your chest) and 'throw' him very gently (the same way a softball pitcher throws the ball - kind of upward a bit so it makes like an arch: up and then down) toward a soft landing (a bed, a sofa, a folded quilt on the floor).
I got a 10 year old caique two years ago at the end of October which could not fly even though his wings were not clipped and, although he will never be a good flier (they need to learn to fly when babies), he now flies about 15 ft without starting the downward curve, flies to perch on shoulders on its own and lands without a problem wherever he wants and not just where he happens to fall. And this was achieved with these two exercises so I know for a fact they work.