Alexandrine free flight

Hey guys,
Im new to the forum and I need your help. I got a baby alexandrine parrot of 10 days. I raised him for free flight. He proceeded well in the beginning. He is 5 months old now. Lately he is not flying to me when I ask him and he goes to a tree and spend the day there. He will return to my house in the evening. And he bites me when I try to pet him. He also opens up his cage on his own. Any advice will be greatly appreciated

Hello and welcome!

If he's not coming back to you when he's outside and going to a tree, he needs to be retrained and you need to stop taking him outside. Keep in inside and continue to work on flight recall (putting him on his cage or a stand and standing across the room and calling him to you, rewarding with a treat). Work with him until he responds every time and will fly to you inside, and only continue the training outside when he comes to you every time inside. Sounds like with the biting he is trying to test his boundaries and you need to re-set these boundaries for him, you are in charge, not him. If he does not come when called, he should lose his outside free flight privileges.

Also it would be wise to invest in a cage with better locks or find a way to lock it so he can't open it (I used a hair-tie fashioned to the door to keep my cockatiels from opening their other cage, worked great).

Thanks for the advice. But sometimes he comes to my hand in one single call. Sometimes he stays still like he didnt hear me. The problem is sometimes he behave well and sometimes he wont.

Nuzaikm said:

Thanks for the advice. But sometimes he comes to my hand in one single call. Sometimes he stays still like he didnt hear me. The problem is sometimes he behave well and sometimes he wont.

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he needs to be 100% before you let him out, he needs to be trustworthy which he isn't right now

Although I do have to question why you're free-flight training him? It's an unnecessary risk as far as I'm concerned, they can go outside on a harness easily with almost 0 danger but without a harness there's nothing you can do if it all goes wrong. Even when trained up after years they can just take off. Look at Birdman's post about maggie in the lost and found section

LordTriggs said:

Nuzaikm said:

Thanks for the advice. But sometimes he comes to my hand in one single call. Sometimes he stays still like he didnt hear me. The problem is sometimes he behave well and sometimes he wont.

Click to expand...

he needs to be 100% before you let him out, he needs to be trustworthy which he isn't right now

Although I do have to question why you're free-flight training him? It's an unnecessary risk as far as I'm concerned, they can go outside on a harness easily with almost 0 danger but without a harness there's nothing you can do if it all goes wrong. Even when trained up after years they can just take off. Look at Birdman's post about maggie in the lost and found section

Click to expand...

Excellent points made here. Your bird has proven that is not trustworthy enough to come back when called, and this puts it at huge risk to take off and never return. A harness will give you back that control and siginifcantly lowers the risk of birds being lost by flying off, getting lost, or spooked by something suddenly. Hope you reconsider taking your Alexnadrine outside without it properly trained. (when its not coming back to you when called, it is NOT properly trained).

Agree with everyone else. Free flight is very risky and should only be done if professionally trained. If he is not coming at 100% don't do free flight. You can take him outside with a harness or even fly him in a large gym or someplace indoors.