Roller Skate Training for Bella (my mac)

Some of you have heard me mention Bella, I figured it was about time I introduced her! Here's my favorite blue and gold


I bought a pair of roller skates for her recently and would love to hear thoughts and opinions on the best way to go about introducing them to her. I've never done any training like this before so am VERY willing to listen to advice from more experienced parronts than I

Oh my, Melissa, you've been seriously holding out on us with gorgeous Bella!!! What a pretty girl she is!!!

Sorry, can't help with the roller blades one bit. I'm afraid my big macs would see them as 'foot' toys. (pun intended :32

Thank you Wendy! She's my big cuddle bug, love her to pieces!

Okay. Background required.

What does this bird already know how to do?

How squeemish is she around stuff that moves/may not be all that stable at first. (Cuz how you approach him with these is different based on different personalities.)

Skateboards and scooters are easier first mobile toy tricks than things like bicycles and roller skates.

With a skateboard, it's a (1) (2) (3) proposition.

(1) teach them to perch on it.
(2) set the bird down with them perching on it.
(3) use it at a pull toy.

With roller skates it's more difficult. It depends a lot on whether he will perch on them.

With some, you literally just set them down on the things, hold on to the beak with your hand until they are steady, and slowly roll them a short distance with your fingers in the beak... While making a big deal praising and rewarding them with treats.

With others, it's a lot more complex, and you have to get them over their fear of being unsteady on their feet before you can get them to stay on them.

Otherwise, they'll just hop off and run away, and refuse to have anything to do with them anymore.

What kind of skates did you get? Are they the kind with the attachments, so that you can connect them together at first? (Cuz that way is a lot more stable for the bird...) If so, I would start out that way, and work your way up to moving independently.

JerseyWendy said:

Oh my, Melissa, you've been seriously holding out on us with gorgeous Bella!!! What a pretty girl she is!!!

Sorry, can't help with the roller blades one bit. I'm afraid my big macs would see them as 'foot' toys. (pun intended :32

Click to expand...

A lot of them see them as objects that can be picked up and hurled at your head... YOU EXPECT ME TO DO WHAT WITH THESE?!

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!

(I'm speaking from experience here. That was pretty much my macaws reaction to these things. I have a pair in a box in the garage. Skateboard? Yes. Roller skates? Not on your life... However, they can be flung for distance with either a foot or a beak...) And the birds other than macaws?! They were pretty much, like, "we're going to the other side of the bird room now... call me when you're done playing with those things!"

Oh Melissa, Bella is every bit as beautiful as her name implies. I can't really blame you for being selfish! And roller skates, I can't wait to see photos AND videos!

Mark, excellent instructions! I'm still laughing at your line about, "objects that can be picked up and hurled at your head."

Allee said:

Oh Melissa, Bella is every bit as beautiful as her name implies. I can't really blame you for being selfish! And roller skates, I can't wait to see photos AND videos!

Mark, excellent instructions! I'm still laughing at your line about, "objects that can be picked up and hurled at your head."

Click to expand...

Is it still funny if I tell you that Maggie picked one up with her beak and flung it across the room, scoring a direct hit in the middle of my forehead?!

OR DID IT JUST GET THAT MUCH FUNNIER... ?!

Yeah, roller skates were NOT a hit at my place... Unless of course, you count the dent in my forehead.

Then you could say they were a "direct hit!"

Please bear with me while I try and answer your questions

What does this bird already know how to do?

She doesn't know very many tricks yet (trying to work on that)
She knows how to wave, says, Hello, Mmm! This is good! Rolls over on her back (not on command though) lets me hold her claw for nail trims, lets me pull her wings out.

How squeemish is she around stuff that moves/may not be all that stable at first. (Cuz how you approach him with these is different based on different personalities.)

She's pretty laid back around stuff that is unstable, she's used to being carted around and set down on a bunch of different things.

Would you recommend starting out with an easier trick? My friend had these and recently had to sell all of her birds and supplies due to health issues so I bought a few things

You can introduce her to them, see how she reacts.

Do you have the little rod that fastens the roller skates together, so they don't move independently? If it's stable, it's usually easier to get them to accept it, and perch on it.

Like I say, with the skateboard, I introduced it as a perch. Got the bird used to perching on it for a reward. Then just gradually set it down on the table and got the bird to stand there.

Then put my fingers in the beak and towed her around while she held onto my fingers.

I'd try that with the two roller skates fastened together at first. Hold it in the palm of your hand. Set the bird down on the perch, and walk around like that for five minutes or so...

Then set her down on a solid surface, and see if she'll accept being slowly towed...

Then when she's good at being towed... remove the little rod that fastens them together, and just get her to walk over to you while perched on them...

This is one of those deals where they either accept it or they don't.

With mine it was an emphatic DON'T!

MY CONURES WERE THE TOY/TRICK TRAINING ADDICTS...

Thank you Allee!!! She was sharing a cage with our other mac and I recently separated them, I'm freally enjoying having my sweet mac back though! She seems much happier too.

Mark:
I don't see any place on the skates to anchor them together, I could drill holes and put in a small rod though easy enough

I found this online.

It's different than the way I was doing it.

Winged Wisdom Pet Bird Magazine. Roller Skating -Training & Success - Pet Cockatoo Parrot

(MAYBE THAT'S WHY THE MACAWS THREW THEM AT MY HEAD... )

After having read this more carefully now, I still think my way is better and less stressful (some macaws may disagree.) Carrying them around on it as a perch, rather than setting them down on it.

This person used a rubber band to keep them together. I had the kind that came with "bolt on" training wheels. (a little rod that screwed in and held them together evenly.) Same basic technique there.

Overall, we were fairly similar in how we did things. I used mine as a perch in the hand because it was something that the bird was already used to doing, and comfortable with...

Sunset_Chaser said:

Mark:
I don't see any place on the skates to anchor them together, I could drill holes and put in a small rod though easy enough

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The ones I have came with a rod, and you screw them together, then when the bird is comfortable with it, you unscrew it. (Training wheels.) It just makes it more stable. The person in the winged wisdom article fastened them together with a rubber band. I'm sure you could rig something up with Duct Tape as well...
and that wouldn't risk cracking or splitting them, then just peel the tape off when she learns it..

Thank you Mark!!! I'm looking forward to trying this, I'll keep you guys posted on our progress. I'll probably have more questions down the road too

Bella is stunning! I'm so glad you've finally shared your pretty girl with us. I'll be following this thread closely for how you train her Kiwi's new skateboard got here today, I debated the roller blades but thought we needed to start with something a little easier before moving on to the scooter or roller blades. I'm sure I could plop him down on them and he'd sit there, but how to entice the bird to put one foot in front of the other to 'skate' is the real question with those roller skates lol

Sunset_Chaser said:

Thank you Mark!!! I'm looking forward to trying this, I'll keep you guys posted on our progress. I'll probably have more questions down the road too

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Well, given that my only experience with this one was an EPIC FAIL...

I can give you all sorts of guidance on exactly what didn't work for me...

I just had a brainstorm (or fart, depending how you see it :32:

Put your roller blades on, Melissa, and show Bella how it's done. HAHAHAHAH.

April:
I must confess, I'd never even thought about training her to roller skate until I was going through my friend's stuff to see what was there. I didn't realize that there were tricks that she should learn that would help with the roller skates. It was more of a 'what the heck are these?' Roller skates? Cool!!!! And I bought them, THEN I started thinking. :33:
Oh well, maybe I just need to do more shopping

Mark:
Everyone knows that you are the "go-to" mac person! I appreciate your input, it was EXTREMELY helpful.

Wendy:
I would LOVE to put on roller blades and show her how you're supposed to do it. Unfortunately we live out in the boonies on a gravel road, the only places that would work at ALL would be the barn aisle or my grans garage.

Birdman666 said:

Allee said:

Oh Melissa, Bella is every bit as beautiful as her name implies. I can't really blame you for being selfish! And roller skates, I can't wait to see photos AND videos!

Mark, excellent instructions! I'm still laughing at your line about, "objects that can be picked up and hurled at your head."

Click to expand...

Is it still funny if I tell you that Maggie picked one up with her beak and flung it across the room, scoring a direct hit in the middle of my forehead?!

OR DID IT JUST GET THAT MUCH FUNNIER... ?!

Yeah, roller skates were NOT a hit at my place... Unless of course, you count the dent in my forehead.

Then you could say they were a "direct hit!"

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, Mark, I can't lie, it did get a little funnier, but only because of Poppy. She's about as graceful as a newborn giraffe, but she can hurl an object over her head and peg me with it from across the room. So yeah, I'm laughing, but with you, not at you.

Melissa and April, please let us know how the training goes. Looking forward to videos and photos of your roller birds!

Maggie does that sideways beak fling thing with her beak, and I swear she can hit a fly between the eyes with flung banana from 20 paces...