Spooky flyer.

Sprinkles is learning to fly he has his flight feathers in. I don't want to cut them my last parrot was flighted my parakeets are too. The thing is Sprinkles is only 1 year old and flys when spooked but he does not know where or what to do when he gets in the air.

Will he kind of outgrow this?. Not much spooks him but sudden lound sounds do. Like the sound of water under a tea pot heating up. Or the sound of my dog scratching at the door. It has been over 20 year since I had a young parrot. So from what I remember about Kiwi was in her older age she did not spook at all. nothing really.

I am just really really carful now with locking doors so no one can just open without thinking. When Sprinkles is out the house is on lock down haha.

So are young conures just flighty birds? Will they out grow it?

snowflake311 said:

Sprinkles is learning to fly he has his flight feathers in. I don't want to cut them my last parrot was flighted my parakeets are too. The thing is Sprinkles is only 1 year old and flys when spooked but he does not know where or what to do when he gets in the air.

Will he kind of outgrow this?. Not much spooks him but sudden lound sounds do. Like the sound of water under a tea pot heating up. Or the sound of my dog scratching at the door. It has been over 20 year since I had a young parrot. So from what I remember about Kiwi was in her older age she did not spook at all. nothing really.

I am just really really carful now with locking doors so no one can just open without thinking. When Sprinkles is out the house is on lock down haha.

So are young conures just flighty birds? Will they out grow it?

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You need to be teaching your Parrot proper flight paths and what to do when those paths end into walls, windows, mirrors, etc...

Start by standing at your Parrots cage and look at the flight paths that you want to teach your Parrot. Now with Parrot on hand, fly each path and come in contact with whatever the path ends with a soft touch to the surface. Define that surface by tapping on it. Let your Parrot tap the surface. Do the same for all surfaces. The point of this is to muscle memory the path and the hard surfaces. Once, you have taught the Path, teach the turns or landings needed for a safe conclusion.

A spooked Parrot has not plan, other than to get out of there, ASAP! By teaching the many flight paths available, including return paths will provide muscle memory that will take over for those first few seconds and they convert to the muscle memory and then to the taught alternatives to not flying into walls, etc.

We do this every month as part of the introduction of anything new or any changes. The more often you do this, the fewer the number of spooked flights going badly!

My conures are both flighted, and they do get spooked sometimes - it is exactly as you describe - take off with no thought about where to go or what to do. My greencheek isn't 2 yet and he definitely is easier to spook than Baby who is almost 6. I did as Sailboat suggests and walked them through the house tapping on walls and windows (and letting them test as well). It really reduced the number of random paths they take when spooked - like they have the house and obstacles mapped in their heads and now have chosen routes. The other thing that I found helpful, was watching the paths they most commonly take when spooked and putting perch stands at the locations that they seem to "aim for" so that they have a safe spot to land when they get there. We have not had any near-misses with walls or windows since we started walking routes and provided destinations that they can aim for when they are panicked and not thinking

I walk around the house with Sprinkles on my shoulder all the time. But I have been holding him higher and walking him around. The past few times he has gotten spooked he flew to me or his other rope perch across the room. He is very knows windows because most of his perches have been next to them so he touches them. Our windows have that decretive lines in them. I think that help remind him that he can not get out.

He is doing much better flying now.