Difficulties teaching young budgie to fly

[Ronan265]

My budgie is 6 weeks of age and is starting to fly, although he keeps flying into windows which gives me and the bird a heart attack each time. I do have curtains but when I close them he starts falling asleep. He doesn't mind be handelled but hasn't learnt step up since he only sometimes is intrested in millet.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forums, Ronan265 and Budgie! Don't forget to tell us his name will you....unless of course it is Budgie

Windows really should be covered with something as budgies can cause themselves serious injury if they do happen to collide with them. I would look into perhaps some lacy net curtains which will allow daylight in but still give good coverage. Vertical or Venetian style blinds are also good if the budget or your living circumstances allow.

Often the most important part about teaching a bird to fly is teaching them how to stick the landing! You can start in a carpeted bedroom perhaps, standing maybe a foot away from a nice soft bed and giving a very gentle boost, so that he learns how to land. You can do this around the house at various spots where he is authorised to land, such as the top of his cage or a playstand if he has one, and gradually increase the distance over time until he is confident with those landings. Then he will learn where is appropriate for him to land (not that he will necessarily stick with just those spots of course!), at the same time as building strength in those little wings.

 

[BirdAddictK]

Welcome to the forums, Ronan265 and Budgie! Don't forget to tell us his name will you....unless of course it is Budgie

Windows really should be covered with something as budgies can cause themselves serious injury if they do happen to collide with them. I would look into perhaps some lacy net curtains which will allow daylight in but still give good coverage. Vertical or Venetian style blinds are also good if the budget or your living circumstances allow.

Often the most important part about teaching a bird to fly is teaching them how to stick the landing! You can start in a carpeted bedroom perhaps, standing maybe a foot away from a nice soft bed and giving a very gentle boost, so that he learns how to land. You can do this around the house at various spots where he is authorised to land, such as the top of his cage or a playstand if he has one, and gradually increase the distance over time until he is confident with those landings. Then he will learn where is appropriate for him to land (not that he will necessarily stick with just those spots of course!), at the same time as building strength in those little wings.

My budgie is 6 weeks of age and is starting to fly, although he keeps flying into windows which gives me and the bird a heart attack each time. I do have curtains but when I close them he starts falling asleep. He doesn't mind be handelled but hasn't learnt step up since he only sometimes is intrested in millet.

Well, there are lots of videos on YouTube giving tutorials to teach a bird to step up. You should check those. And about the flying part, after teaching step up you should teach your budgie to fly to you so that if you see it doing something wrong you can simply call it to you.

Even if you don't want to teach your bird tricks, step up and flight trading is essential for communication between you and your bird. So, you could go check out a few videos on YouTube giving tutorials on teaching your birds these things.

And for the landing part, after reaching fight training, you should use flight training to teach you bird to descend(fly down). This is important bc if your bird flies out on accident and lands in a tree, this training will be helpful.

 

[Ronan265]

Well, there are lots of videos on YouTube giving tutorials to teach a bird to step up. You should check those. And about the flying part, after teaching step up you should teach your budgie to fly to you so that if you see it doing something wrong you can simply call it to you.

Even if you don't want to teach your bird tricks, step up and flight trading is essential for communication between you and your bird. So, you could go check out a few videos on YouTube giving tutorials on teaching your birds these things.

And for the landing part, after reaching fight training, you should use flight training to teach you bird to descend(fly down). This is important bc if your bird flies out on accident and lands in a tree, this training will be helpful.

Thank you, i'll focus on him stepping up on command for the next couple days

 

[BirdAddictK]

Thank you, i'll focus on him stepping up on command for the next couple days

You will need to use treats as luring message to step up and after repetition you should phase out the treats

 

[fiddlejen]

Strongly suggest adding either lace curtains (as already suggested), or else sheers. I put mine up with pressure-rods, so no new installation needed. Sheer panels can usually be found pretty in-expensively.

Alternatively (or, UNTIL then): DIRTY windows. Well don't have to really be Really Dirty. Take a water bottle that makes big droplets and spray the windows. Do Not wipe it off. When it dries there should be some markings from the drops. Do it a bunch more times, so you can still see out BUT you can See there is a window there. If there is enough water-marking on the window, the birds should be able to see that.

(Obviously, if the problem continues, that will mean the water-mark option was not good enough. But so far this "intentional benign neglect" approach to windows has kept my birds from attempting to fly through my many large windows. On the rare occasions I feel a need to actually wash my windows, I finish by spraying them with a new coating of watermarks.l)