Worried I might NEVER be able to have both of them outside of the cage at same time..

[Tropical]

I am officially the BIGGEST IDIOT I feel so stupid. I know I'm not supposed to have Rascal and Coconut outside of the cage at same because Rascal spooks and takes off flying full speed while screaming his head off (the VERY odd thing is that he ONLY does this when Coconut is also outside of cage) and this gave Coconut a serious head injury about 3 weeks ago when he sent Coconut flying off in panic mode.

I didn't realize the tiny door on side of cage was not fully closed and that Rascal had gotten out of cage while I had Coconut out and of course Rascal did the "spook" flight thing which scared Coconut into a spooked panic flight and Coconut flew straight into the blinds and hit the tile when he landed on the floor VERY hard I heard him SMACK!!! He didn't get hurt this time thank goodness.

... but this has me worried... what if I will NEVER be able to have both outside of cage at same time? Or do you think Coconut will eventually be able to handle flying when he's spooked like Rascal can

Is it NORMAL for a tiel to fly straight into walls while in a panic when they are not as experienced at flying??? As Rascal NEVER does this. They were fine flying together in the past (when I did use to have them out at same time) but NOT when Rascal goes into panic flights as this sets off Coconut.

 

[riddick07]

Spooked and panic are different. If Rascal is sounding off the danger alarm than Coconut might just be more panicked than if he had actually seen the danger himself since he doesn't know where it's coming from.

When I have strangers come into my room to meet the birds when they are out one will sound off what I call the 'Stranger Danger' alarm. One starts flying and screaming then everyone follows suit. I end up with 6 small birds flying all over the place...some clipping walls in their rush.

Even my experienced fliers can clip the walls. Coconut might get better at not running full on into things but no one can be sure. Rascal might outgrow this or Coconut might learn to ignore him. OR You may never be able to let them out together but that is one of the risks of having multiple birds

 

[Tropical]

Spooked and panic are different. If Rascal is sounding off the danger alarm than Coconut might just be more panicked than if he had actually seen the danger himself since he doesn't know where it's coming from.

When I have strangers come into my room to meet the birds when they are out one will sound off what I call the 'Stranger Danger' alarm. One starts flying and screaming then everyone follows suit. I end up with 6 small birds flying all over the place...some clipping walls in their rush.

Even my experienced fliers can clip the walls. Coconut might get better at not running full on into things but no one can be sure. Rascal might outgrow this or Coconut might learn to ignore him. OR You may never be able to let them out together but that is one of the risks of having multiple birds

When Rascal does the "spook" thing he's not actually in a full on "REAL" panic... it's more of a spook thing if that makes sense where he makes the "danger alarm scream" and flys off in full speed.... this of course sends Coconut into a real panic mode "fright" flight. What I don't understand is WHY does Rascal ONLY do the "spook" flight thing when he's outside with Coconut? He NEVER does this when he's by himself. This is something very new that Rascal has started doing ever since I got Coconut.

All I know is that having them BOTH out of the cage at same time is another serious disaster waiting to happen for Coconut

I'm HOPING maybe in a couple months I can try having them both out at same time but only in my office which is smaller room.... maybe Coconut will be more likely to land on something rather than fly straight into the wall if Rascal spooks him... I don't know

EDIT: Once Coconut spooked by himself and he was perfectly fine... it's Rascal spooking that is the problem for Coconut's safety.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Just an additional thought...

Recommended to me in the early days... "wall and window training"... taking the bird around to walls and windows, and encouraging them to tap or at least experience the situation, so they can see that walls are WALLS and windows are HARD AIR. Has worked for us.
Demonstration... it's also a cute "trick". Click the picture.

 

[Tropical]

Recommended to me in the early days... "wall and window training"... taking the bird around to walls and windows, and encouraging them to tap or at least experience the situation, so they can see that walls are WALLS and windows are HARD AIR. Has worked for us.
Demonstration... it's also a cute "trick". Click the picture.

Very cute video, what a smart bird you have! Thanks for sharing I'm going to be renovating my house soon... can I borrow your bird? He looks like he could be useful with that LOL

I've actually been doing just that ever since I got Coconut. I kept taking him to mirrors, windows and walls and making him hit his beak into it so he understands it's solid. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have helped him

Rascal has NEVER EVER flown into walls.... but Coconut will fly full speed right into them when Rascal spooks him

I REALLY hope Coconut will eventually grow out of this... the serious head injury he had 3 weeks ago was the scariest thing ever... and as it turns out that wasn't a "freak accident" afterall but rather something that is very likely to happen again every time Rascal spooks Coconut. This is very scary

 

[Tangie]

I had this problem with Kiko jut the other day! It was horrifying! I had him on my bed, an I crinkled a Bannanna Bread wrapper, and he panicked. He flew straight into our sloping wall with a smack! He wasn't dazed at all, though I was still petrified.

He isn't the best flyer, and my room is so tiny, and weirdly sloped, he can get confused. And I am SO dumb because I have never put a perch high up that he finds safe to land on.

Does he panic, fly around once or twice, and then collide with something?

 

[Tropical]

I had this problem with Kiko jut the other day! It was horrifying! I had him on my bed, an I crinkled a Bannanna Bread wrapper, and he panicked. He flew straight into our sloping wall with a smack! He wasn't dazed at all, though I was still petrified.

He isn't the best flyer, and my room is so tiny, and weirdly sloped, he can get confused. And I am SO dumb because I have never put a perch high up that he finds safe to land on.

Does he panic, fly around once or twice, and then collide with something?

YES! That’s exactly what happens… he flies around in a full on panic mode… usually does about two circles (this time he flew into one room and then flew into other bedroom where he slammed into the wall at full speed.. well not the wall this time but the window blinds) and boy can you can hear the force upon impact. It’s the scariest thing ever and 3 weeks ago he sustained serious head injury had to rush him to emergency clinic. I ended up installing a curtain rod in the kitchen (as shown in below pic) where the accident happened because I feel like the accident might not have happened if he had a place to land. Since then his flying has improved tremendously… but I don’t know what to do about this whole Rascal spooking he heck out of Coconut



The room todays incident just happened in has NO place for him to land... you think I should put curtain rod above that window too? It's a small spare bedroom.... he could have EASILY circled back out of that room but he flew right into the blinds instead...

 

[SilverSage]

This exact thing is why I get frustrated with a lot of breeders of cockatiels. 1) for not fully fledging babies before clipping, and 2) for not being careful with the genetics. Either one of these (more likely the combo, I don't remember if you said your boy was clipped early) can contribute to being a terrible flier. A few years ago I had two pair of tiels. One produced expert fliers, the other, and I KID YOU NOT, produced such horrible fliers that EVERY SINGLE BABY over several clutches flew BACKWARDS once they were clipped. All that to say, some of his problem may be genetic, some of it may be because of an early clip, so he might get better he might not.

It sounds like Rascal is a good little flock member it sounds like he is initiating flock behaviors that would keep him and his little buddy alive in the wild, such as fleeing from danger together. It however with coconuts poor flying skills there is a safety risk. You may have to take them out one at a time for now, but I doubt it will be forever. At the very least coconut will eventually learn where he walls are.


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[Tropical]

On second thought I'm starting feel slightly more optimistic that Coconut MIGHT grow out of this because he just flew into the living room wall... and this made him turn around and fly right smack into the blinds. He was NOT even spooked! This is because he just tried to fly out of the bathroom which is in the master bedroom and into the living room which he has never done before... so the unfamiliar flight path threw him off and got him "confused" and uneasy! He does very stupid/careless things when this happens.

I will reaccess the situation in a couple months once Coconut is older and hopefully a lot more experienced! In the meantime I do make him fly for exercise which has actually helped a lot with his flying skills.... but he has loooong way to go.

It's CRAZY that I never had any of these problems with Rascal! Coconut is nuts

 

[SilverSage]

Isn't it insane how different each of our fids are? Even when we stick with the same species and gender!


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[Tropical]

This exact thing is why I get frustrated with a lot of breeders of cockatiels. 1) for not fully fledging babies before clipping, and 2) for not being careful with the genetics. Either one of these (more likely the combo, I don't remember if you said your boy was clipped early) can contribute to being a terrible flier. A few years ago I had two pair of tiels. One produced expert fliers, the other, and I KID YOU NOT, produced such horrible fliers that EVERY SINGLE BABY over several clutches flew BACKWARDS once they were clipped. All that to say, some of his problem may be genetic, some of it may be because of an early clip, so he might get better he might not.

It sounds like Rascal is a good little flock member it sounds like he is initiating flock behaviors that would keep him and his little buddy alive in the wild, such as fleeing from danger together. It however with coconuts poor flying skills there is a safety risk. You may have to take them out one at a time for now, but I doubt it will be forever. At the very least coconut will eventually learn where he walls are.


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Thanks, I HOPE you're right... but it does make me feel better when you said you doubt this will be forever (not being able to have both out of cage same time that is). Yes, Coconut's breeder severely over clipped Coconut to the point that he was dropping like a rock... he couldn't even safely glide. He almost broke his wings and got seriously injured because of this and I could only let him out in a padded room. I was soooo relieved when he could finally start flying a little.... but since he was never allowed to fledge the poor thing is a disaster.

Perhaps since Rascal has been alone his entire life he is indeed now doing these panic alarm calls and flights purely based on instinct!... he has NEVER done this before until Coconut was adopted. It's very annoying because Rascal will do this for seriously NO reason! Maybe being alone his entire life has messed Rascal up a little bit... he doesn't know how to handle feathered flocks LOL I've been his only flock thus far.

 

[Tropical]

Isn't it insane how different each of our fids are? Even when we stick with the same species and gender!

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Yes, tell me about it! LOL If I didn't know any better I could swear Coconut and Rascal are not even the same species they are soooo insanely DIFFERENT!

I did want something more "lively" as Rascal is most laid back bird on entire planet who sleeps all the time... careful what you wish for hehe... I LOVE Coconut but he is nuts!

 

[SilverSage]

In the wild, the flock flying off together at the first sign of troublewould be the thing that kept them both alive. Not just that they both flew off the fact they both flew off at the same time. My guess is that rascals survival instincts are being stimulated by having a friend. It's actually a good thing, even though it's having an unpleasant side effects right now.


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[Tropical]

In the wild, the flock flying off together at the first sign of troublewould be the thing that kept them both alive. Not just that they both flew off the fact they both flew off at the same time. My guess is that rascals survival instincts are being stimulated by having a friend. It's actually a good thing, even though it's having an unpleasant side effects right now.


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Yes I definitely think you are right... because this behavior is very new and started right after I adopted Coconut. I highly doubt Rascal is ever going to stop this new "behavior" so if Coconut doesn't learn to be able to handle it then I'm in trouble

I will try not to worry about for and will regroup on it in about 2 months... keeping my fingers crossed. :34:

 

[gracebowen]

All I can offer is it took Jet a while but he flies good now. When I got him all of his primary flights had been cut and he dropped like a rock.

When he started flying he always crashed on his but. He has one tail feather that never grew back.

 

[Tropical]

All I can offer is it took Jet a while but he flies good now. When I got him all of his primary flights had been cut and he dropped like a rock.

When he started flying he always crashed on his but. He has one tail feather that never grew back.

Oh yeah, I can relate to the tail feather thing... Coconut lost all of his tail feathers he only has 2 left! How long was Jet crashing into walls? Did he ever fly into window blinds? or mirrors? Thank goodness Coconut never flies into mirrors anymore.

Coconut used to do this all the time and improved tremendously but today has been a big set back So long as Coconut is flying in familiar path he's perfectly fine... but if Rascal spooks him or he's flying in unfamiliar area he's a disaster and does stupid things.

 

[Tropical]

OMG... Rascal just did the spook thing (he screamed and tried to fly off) twice in a row while I had him outside the cage with Coconut.... but I had Rascal restrained in his flightsuit (which has leash and is tied to my shorts) since I'm about to bring him with me shopping... but when Rascal "freaked" out (it's very annoying because he's not even a real panic mode) it made Coconut freak out of course and sent Coconut flying off full speed in a panic but guess what? Coconut was perfectly fine and flew up onto the curtain rod both times

I think I just found a safer way to get Coconut used to Rascal freaking him out... I simply need to make sure Rascal is wearing his flightsuit and is secured to me so he can't also take off flying as this is what puts Coconut at great risk. I will wait at least another month until I start doing this type of "desensitizing" or whatever it should be called... once Coconut is more experienced... so hopefully this method will work

 

[Tropical]

Sorry nevermind my above post... that idea is not going to work. The only reason Rascal did the "spook" thing while he was sitting on my shoulder wearing the flightsuit is because he heard the loud garbage truck picking up trash and I highly he would do the "spook" thing otherwise when he's sitting on my shoulder and I can't tie him to the cage because he would hurt himself... so this not so "brilliant" idea is off the list

NEVER in my wildest dreams did I even think this would ever be a possible problem and that I would have to keep one tiel in the cage while the other is out because of the risk of one tiel dying or getting seriously injured. This is bumming me out Keeping GCC separate from tiel wouldn't bum me out but having to separate the same species is sad.

 

[SirEdwin89]

Have you considered doing a partial clipping? Hopefully someone else can elaborate on this, but I could Have sworn I've seen maintenance cuts mentioned that aren't designed to really hinder the birds ability to fly, just to make it so that they can't fly quite as fast. That way if they do smack in to things accidentally, they aren't as likely to get hurt because they aren't hitting with the same force.

Seems like it could be a good potential middle ground for Coconut, at least until he becomes a bit more accurate flyer.

 

[SilverSage]

I had thought of mentioning that as well, and it MIGHT be wise, however it seems like a huge part of the issue here is that he was never fledged properly (yes, I know I sound like a broken record) and trimming the wings right now may make things worse in the long run. It's hard to say.


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