- May 14, 2011
- 1,260
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- Parrots
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13yr. old male umbrella cockatoo,
we call him Amigo!
7yr. old Goffin cockatoo, she IS Sassy!!
Amigo's flying free "training"??
A lot of people have asked me about how I trained my bird, Amigo, to be a free flyer, what training techniques, videos, format, etc. Haha, these questions always make me smile and think back to his beginning to fly freely days. At this time, 2yrs. ago, I had no idea that there WERE training techniques or videos available! What the heck was a clicker?? A parrot forum?? Who knew?! I was still in the dark, pretty much, with what we were about to introduce to not only Amigo, but my husband and myself.
Amigo came to me a very unhappy, caged bird. The previous owner was an old friend that lived about 5-6hrs. away, I had met Amigo once, but that was several years ago. She was having to move and asked if we would help her out by taking him in, just till she got settled. Well...long story short, he ends up being a forever bird. Before Amigo, we had NO experience with birds. It felt like our home had been taken over by an alien, it was horrible! Thank God, he bonded to our 16yr. old son, so he was at least manageable when my son was home from school. Son leaves for college...now what? I call previous owner and plead with her to take Amigo back, at least till my son was home for summer vacations. No way, she says, can't do that, still unsettled. Bummer! Within a week, Amigo bonds up with me, decides he is IN love with me, (lucky me), and life continues. He was still this force in the house that could not be trusted around other people. At least I could handle him, thankfully. I could not keep him happy with toys, good food, lots of entertainment, he always seemed to be discontent. This is a big assertive bird.
A year after having this bird in our home, my brother-in-law recommended this book called King Solomon's Ring, by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz was a naturalist living in Europe in, I believe, around the 1930's. He studied animals in their natural settings, as much as possible. He acquired a pet cockatoo, not sure which kind, but one of the larger ones, and allowed it to be free. He kept an open window in his home just so the bird could come and go, at will. This bird was bonded with him, this bird knew where home was. This book started us on our path to allowing Amigo to be free.
After living with Amigo for two years, in the home. My husband suggests that maybe we should try Konrad Lorenz's technique. I'm like,,What?! I know you don't like this bird, (only because the bird doesn't like him), but I am not just going to let him GO!!? I re-read the book, and the more I thought about it,, the better it sounded for a bird like Amigo. His personality, his size, his aggressiveness. The only problem now was...his wings are clipped. Which was a good thing.
We had an outdoor cage for Amigo during the day and when we were outside, on the deck, I would have him with me, or when my son was home, he would hold Amigo, out of his cage sitting on a chair. Through this time, Amigo's flight feathers were coming back, slowly. My husband built a ramp, ( a 2"x4"x10' board), that wired on to Amigo's outside cage on to a large oak tree limb, next to the deck. The first time he came out of his cage to the ramp, he was scared but curious. He walked up the ramp into the tree and loved every minute of it! He hung out there for about 3hrs. chomping down limbs the whole time! He finally came down and we sat on the porch some more.
This bird was totally bonded to me when he started to fly. He knew where home was, food and water. He was a terrible flyer when he first started to really take off. Lots of crash landings and misses. He would over-shoot a landing spot and end up sprawled out on the ground. At that time, he wasn't strong enough to take off from the ground, so would coming running towards me, to heIlp. I would follow him around the property, scared to death, that I was going to lose him. I called to him constantly so he would know where I was. When he would get too far away, I would head back to the house and call to him as I went. He followed. There were times when we had to get the ladder out to retrieve him from a tree because he didn't know how to fly down.
I hope this post wasn't too terribly long. This bird is NOW, 2yrs. later, a Jedi warrior out there! To see him this way was worth every minute of stress and sleepless nights of wondering if we were doing the right thing by him. I think we did good!
A lot of people have asked me about how I trained my bird, Amigo, to be a free flyer, what training techniques, videos, format, etc. Haha, these questions always make me smile and think back to his beginning to fly freely days. At this time, 2yrs. ago, I had no idea that there WERE training techniques or videos available! What the heck was a clicker?? A parrot forum?? Who knew?! I was still in the dark, pretty much, with what we were about to introduce to not only Amigo, but my husband and myself.
Amigo came to me a very unhappy, caged bird. The previous owner was an old friend that lived about 5-6hrs. away, I had met Amigo once, but that was several years ago. She was having to move and asked if we would help her out by taking him in, just till she got settled. Well...long story short, he ends up being a forever bird. Before Amigo, we had NO experience with birds. It felt like our home had been taken over by an alien, it was horrible! Thank God, he bonded to our 16yr. old son, so he was at least manageable when my son was home from school. Son leaves for college...now what? I call previous owner and plead with her to take Amigo back, at least till my son was home for summer vacations. No way, she says, can't do that, still unsettled. Bummer! Within a week, Amigo bonds up with me, decides he is IN love with me, (lucky me), and life continues. He was still this force in the house that could not be trusted around other people. At least I could handle him, thankfully. I could not keep him happy with toys, good food, lots of entertainment, he always seemed to be discontent. This is a big assertive bird.
A year after having this bird in our home, my brother-in-law recommended this book called King Solomon's Ring, by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz was a naturalist living in Europe in, I believe, around the 1930's. He studied animals in their natural settings, as much as possible. He acquired a pet cockatoo, not sure which kind, but one of the larger ones, and allowed it to be free. He kept an open window in his home just so the bird could come and go, at will. This bird was bonded with him, this bird knew where home was. This book started us on our path to allowing Amigo to be free.
After living with Amigo for two years, in the home. My husband suggests that maybe we should try Konrad Lorenz's technique. I'm like,,What?! I know you don't like this bird, (only because the bird doesn't like him), but I am not just going to let him GO!!? I re-read the book, and the more I thought about it,, the better it sounded for a bird like Amigo. His personality, his size, his aggressiveness. The only problem now was...his wings are clipped. Which was a good thing.
We had an outdoor cage for Amigo during the day and when we were outside, on the deck, I would have him with me, or when my son was home, he would hold Amigo, out of his cage sitting on a chair. Through this time, Amigo's flight feathers were coming back, slowly. My husband built a ramp, ( a 2"x4"x10' board), that wired on to Amigo's outside cage on to a large oak tree limb, next to the deck. The first time he came out of his cage to the ramp, he was scared but curious. He walked up the ramp into the tree and loved every minute of it! He hung out there for about 3hrs. chomping down limbs the whole time! He finally came down and we sat on the porch some more.
This bird was totally bonded to me when he started to fly. He knew where home was, food and water. He was a terrible flyer when he first started to really take off. Lots of crash landings and misses. He would over-shoot a landing spot and end up sprawled out on the ground. At that time, he wasn't strong enough to take off from the ground, so would coming running towards me, to heIlp. I would follow him around the property, scared to death, that I was going to lose him. I called to him constantly so he would know where I was. When he would get too far away, I would head back to the house and call to him as I went. He followed. There were times when we had to get the ladder out to retrieve him from a tree because he didn't know how to fly down.
I hope this post wasn't too terribly long. This bird is NOW, 2yrs. later, a Jedi warrior out there! To see him this way was worth every minute of stress and sleepless nights of wondering if we were doing the right thing by him. I think we did good!
