# Poppy lost a bunch of flight feathers



## lbeckman (Jun 26, 2016)

Night before last, the entire flock had a bad night fright. It went from one cage to another and it took me ages to get them all calm. I'm sure that it was exacerbated by them almost all being in new cages over the last week, and grouped together more. It only took one bird in one cage to get freaked out again, spread it to the rest of that cage, then to the other cages.  Several of the birds were a bit ruffled looking the next morning, but Poppy is the only one who seems to have lost a lot of feathers. Some of his flight feathers had been clipped, but it didn't seem to effect him much. However, he lost a bunch of flight feathers on one side during the night fright incident and he is now very lopsided. He is not a happy camper at the moment. I'm trying to keep an eye on him and notice when he looks like he wants to go somewhere--such as fly to me--and give him an assist. 

I'm not going to even up his wings, because I think he would do the "drop like a rock" thing then. I'll work on getting his and Simon's cage set up better for him (it's a double flight cage) and include egg food with his vegetables. (I don't usually feed much egg food because while I pretty much always have at least one bird molting, I also am very concerned about them going into breeding condition. They usually eat their vegetables as a flock, but I can put some egg in Simon and Poppy's cage.)


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## Therm (Aug 2, 2015)

Leah, I can sympathise with the night frights. When I had four cages, with two in each I frequently had issues with night frights and on a couple of occasions, it spread so all the birds were in a panic. 
Hopefully Poppy gets back to normal soon and at least you are there to assist him.


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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

I'm sorry to hear that.  I have also experienced the chain effect on the different cages quite a few good times with my current flock.
My budgie boy Leonel is the one more prone to also lose the primary flight feathers during a bad night fright. One time he even lost them on both wings.
When he is more unbalanced, I simply limit the the flight space when he is having out of cage time. Fortunately, he has a very good orientation and the lack of flights don't affect him in a negative way.

I hope your Poppy feels better soon and adjusts well till the new flights grow back. I also wish no more night frights for your flock, at least not for a very long time.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*I'm so sorry poor Poppy lost flight feathers during the night fright. 
I'm glad you are able to assist him in getting where he wants to go and will be able to supplement his and Simon's food with some egg at this time.

I pray there will be no more night frights for your little ones and hope Poppy feels better soon. :hug:*


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