She flies !!

[IndySE]

Kermit's flight feathers have been growing in, and though initially I've been thinking about clipping her for safety reasons, I'm considering on letting her keep them.

So far she has about... maybe 5 new flight feathers each wing. They've come in roughly the middle of her primaries. She can now fly 6 feet straight up LOL. So far she hasn't flown at all except only when she's spooked. There are many things in my house that I feel could pose a danger to a fully flighted parrot if she'd show an inclination to explore it (well, more she could fly to place that would be inaccessible to me to reach her in an emergency situation); but if this little miss doesn't want to fly much anyways, then she may very well keep them <3 We'll see how it goes when she gains her full set of new primaries before I jump to any decision.


Early today she got spooked and launched herself a good 8 feet up (we have high ceilings. I was a bit dizzy from standing up so fast so I couldn't quite see where she was. But i held out my hand and she landed right back in it. She had this look in her eyes like "what just happened?? D:". She's so cute -- she has no idea she has the power to fly whenever she pleases x);

 

[trimblegirls]

I keep mine fully flighted for a few reasons. I feel flying is part of their natural psyche and it would be cruel of me to deny them that. I also think that I would be tempted to try to justify leaving Tillie/Jasper unmonitored for a "just a minute" if I thought that they couldn't really fly and get into trouble. I also think if they get scared, they need to be able to help themselves by flying. Tillie now flies over to Jasper every now and then and tries to pick a fight. Not sure why. He could easily kill her. It hasn't gotten so bad that I can't have them out at the same time but I definitely can't leave them in the same room unattended even for a moment. I'm ok with that. Tillie likes to travel so I just take her with me.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Congratulations, Kermit!

 

[IndySE]

@trimblegirls

Yes there are many good reasons to clip, and I've done all I can to inform myself on the topic so I can make the best decision for Kermit I don't have to worry about another bird hurting her, but I do have to worry about the terrier that co-exists with her. After a few weeks we've taught the dog to have no interest in the bird (fear even, because the bird once scurried down an arm faster than we could react and bit the dog on the nose ! Twice!). That said, I would not put it past Flower to do what dogs do best with the right trigger. One thing that has caused me some concern in not clipping is if she were fully flighted, and flew often, she would move more "prey-like" (Flower's hunting instinct is exclusively sight and movement driven), and the dog may show more interest in her than she has previously. However if Kermit doesn't show motivation to fly besides to flee, then I may allow her to keep her special birb powers. Time will tell, and I think there is no one right answer in whether or not a person decides to clip.


@GaleriaGirl--

Thank you very much !
Now, if I could get Kermit to enjoy wearing her flight harness, the decision would be so easy. But alas, we have not got past the "I stick my head in the hole and immedietly back out stage" X);; once my school semester dies down, I'll make training it a priority.

 

[IndySE]

Good news: Kermit figured outs he can fly whenever she wants. She was being sassy about coming out of her cage, so I figured I'd let her hang out there while I worked on prepping her veggies. APPARENTLY, she was just playing hard to get, because as soon as she saw I wasn't going to play her game she flew across the room to get to me (roughly 12-14 feet maybe?)

The bad news is she was very over-exerted from her flight. Extreme weakness, loss of balance... I dosed her in cool water and gave her some seeds for quick energy She also messed up the arrangements on the feathers on one of her flight wings, so that's bothering her too. I'll be keeping a close eye on her over the hour to make sure she regains her strength. She's never flown before so it's no wonder she was wiped out from it.

edit;;
She regained full strength after about 15 minutes. It scared me half to death though ! Droppings are normal and assuming no other symptoms present themselves, I'll leave it to a call to her avian vet on Monday. Getting her into an appointment will be difficult for me to schedule so I'm hoping there's no need to bring her in ! >_<;

 

[snowflake311]

Sprinkles flight feathers are growing in fast. He can hoover off the grown for a little bit. It is exciting he has never had a chance to fly he got clip by the breeders as soon as his wings came in. He still needs a few more feathers.

I was thinking about clipping because I want to keep him down stairs and in the summer time we leave the down stairs door open for the dogs. So I think we will just keep the screen closed. It still scares me. I too have dogs. They have been trained to leave the bird alone when Sprinkles flies I will have Cookie on leash and watch her reaction. We will need to do more training. She leaves the out door birds alone now so It should be fine but never trust a dog with a bird.

I hope that when Sprinkles flys it will help him burn off energy and be more mellow. It would be fun to train her to fly to me and fly to his cage. So far the training has not gone too well he is stubborn.