How to convince a parrot that she can fly?

[Pugtato]

Hello Everyone!! Kippy and I are two peas in a pod and I since many of her flight feathers have grown out I would LOVE to teach her how to fly (she has no clue and has been clipped since she was a baby), and of course, fly to me! Just the other day she leaped off of the couch and crash landed at my feet by the computer table (she was A-OK), so she knows how to flap and knows that is how you move around with those things, but she has no finesse with them. I would really like to learn how to teach her a safe way to fly to me, and to anywhere around the house she wants to go. Can anyone help me?

 

[triordan]

How old is she? I think she will need to develop the muscles to fly, so any wing flapping she does would help~ sorry not much help

 

[weco]

Since you're where the "sweet blue grass" grows, find an exceptionally thick bed of it, make, borrow or rent a suitable pair of wings, position a folding ladder in your thick bed of sweet blue grass, climb up & jump of, flapping like crazy.....oh, be sure Kippy has a real good vantage point for your demonstrations..... )

Actually though, if you have carpeting, you could hold Kippy about chest high & just let him go.....he will instinctively flap & try to fly. Eventually he will work everything out and after some practice, will even get his landing style polished.

It's a shame that some people don't want to be bothered with letting chicks fledge & learn to fly. A friend of mine knows of a lady who has a 30yo grey that has never flown since she's had him & she got him as a just weaned chick. Apparently, like Kippy, the grey came clipped & her circumstances for some 10-12 years was such the bird was constrained to a small play area outside of its cage.

You might want to invest in several large pillows for your practice landings.....

 

[khaiqha]

I taught my IRN to fly by having two chairs next to each other. Put the bird on one and a treat on the other. Leave a very small gap so that a simple little jump will allow the bird to get to the treat. Once the bird is confident in doing that, spread the chairs a little further apart and let it jump the new gap.

I did this for a week, slowly spreading the chairs. My IRN was very terrified of flying in the beginning, and luckily I had my roommate's bird demonstrate the jumps. With time, using the chairs, my IRN was crossing the entire living room to get the treat.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Do you have anyone that can help you? Start in a hallway, have a helper hold your bird and force them to fly to you(it sounds bad, but it's sometimes the only way to get them started). Stand close so you bird doesn't have to fly far to get to you. You bird might be scared, and will be a bad flier so try to line your hand up with his path, it will help him to gain confidence rather the fly to the ground.

Do you have a clicker? It's good to use a clicker in training.

Click and reward each time he flies to you and make sure to be very excited. He'll be out of shape at first so make sure to give him lots of breathers and stop when you think he's had enough. As the days go on he'll be able to go further, and eventually you can leave the hallway and start in an area with a little more open space, then a full on room.

 

[Pugtato]

Thank you everyone for the helpful advice! Kippy has definitely been using her wings MUCH more often in the past few weeks, and I have been doing on/in hand flapping exercises with her, daily, for about a month now. Only problem is she knows what we are doing, puts a death grip on my finger, hunkers down, and flaps like the wind. So I am having issues figuring out how to teach her to land safely.

Yesterday, she did something kind of neat, unintentional, but neat. I was blocking a knitted scarf in the living room and Kip was on my shoulder drilling holes into my shirt, when she nipped the back of my neck, I shook my shoulders to knock her off balance but instead she jumped ship and did a low fly all the way down the hall way and into the bathroom!! She landed in the laundry basket, and even over my fiances laughter I could hear her "PICK ME UP!" chirp coming from the room! So I know she can fly somewhat, even though her morning attempt resulted in a full frontal splat into the TV, thank goodness she was unhurt. I am going to try the chair thing this week and then once I convince my fiance to brave her beak I will get him to help me with the hand to hand work. Only thing is he "claims" he "doesn't like her" but I catch him talking sweet to her all the time so I should be able to convince him to help me.

 

[mrgoogls]

thats nice i want to evetually let cooper's feathers grow out to fly but not with 2 dogs/2cats around. he learner how to fly before he was clipped. so i wont have to much trouble(i hope). cooper sometimes jumps off his playgym when he wants to get back in the cage. he tries to fly but of course cant. just hold him about chest high, and drop your hand. he should let go and start flapping trying to fly. eventually he will build the muscle to fly. i do this with cooper because one, his wings are lightly clipped so he can still glide a bit so always lands safly and doesnt get hurt, 2 it helps keep him in shape, you know, get a bit of exersice. hope that helped!

 

[Pugtato]

I also have two dogs, but boy do they know to stay the heck away from Kippy. If she does not bite the nun-chucks outta them they know they face the wrath of "Da Momma" next. Currently the dogs leave when they see the bird.

 

[MonicaMc]

I taught my IRN to fly by having two chairs next to each other. Put the bird on one and a treat on the other. Leave a very small gap so that a simple little jump will allow the bird to get to the treat. Once the bird is confident in doing that, spread the chairs a little further apart and let it jump the new gap.

I did this for a week, slowly spreading the chairs. My IRN was very terrified of flying in the beginning, and luckily I had my roommate's bird demonstrate the jumps. With time, using the chairs, my IRN was crossing the entire living room to get the treat.

Through all the recommendations, I second this one the most. You want the bird to gain confidence in flying, not scare them or forcing them into flying. Two chairs, two perches, a chair and you, a perch and you, etc. Doesn't matter as long as you use two stable areas that the distance can be increased or decreased between them.

The most Important skill to train



And a post I made for someone else explaining the steps

When people say to break a behavior down into tiny steps (like baby steps), they mean to break them down really small! Not too many birds can "connect the dots" and immediately understand what their owners want them to do.


Typed this up for someone else... it's a cross-post, although perhaps it may be of help...



If he knows step-up, and he'll step up reliably, then you can teach him to fly on command! The first command is step up, using a different command.

1. "Come" - have Kiwi step up. Repeat 10 to 100 times
2. "Come" - have Kiwi stretch just a little to step up. Repeat 10 to 100 times
3. "Come" - have Kiwi use his beak to step up. Repeat 10-100 times
4. "Come" - Have Kiwi hop to your hand. Repeat 10-100 times
5. "Come" - Have Kiwi hop to your hand with a wing flap. Repeat 10-100 times
6. "Come" - Have Kiwi fly to your hand in a short distance. Repeat 10-100 times.
7. "Come" - Have Kiwi fly to your hand in a somewhat longer distance. Repeat 10-100 times.
8. etc....

More or less, break down the command into small steps, and repeat each step until Kiwi accomplishes the step at least 9 times out of 10. If Kiwi is reluctant to go onto the next step, then go back a step and repeat until Kiwi is comfortable with that step before proceeding further.



You can read more below.
http://www.flyingparrotsinside.com/

 

[MikeyTN]

I let them do what is natural to them, they will fly IF they feel the need. ALL my birds a flighted and of course a lot of them came to me clipped. But they will fly if they want to as I don't feel the need to teach them to fly. They will do it on their own, it's their natural instinct!!!

 

[MonicaMc]

Yes, it's their natural instinct *to* fly, but learning *how* to fly is another matter entirely! Older birds who haven't had a chance to learn how to fly or haven't flown in years tend to be afraid to learn how to fly than birds who are learning for the first time.

Of course, it helps to have a 'teacher' bird around, but that doesn't mean that a non-flying bird will learn to fly without first getting the confidence to take that leap or jump into the air. Starting small and building up the distance a bird has to go to get from one spot to another is a great way to get a birds confidence level up without terrifying the crap out of them.

 

[MikeyTN]

I have taught birds how to fly in the past but as the years went by I don't see the needs to do that anymore. Basically rehabilitation! But that's just how I see it, as over the years I see them flying when they feel it's time or have the need to fly. I let all my babies do their flying lesson to get it out of their system. So I have baby birds learning to fly here often. I just got done with weaning 7 babies and started their flying lesson. So there's really no need to preach to me.

 

[noblemacaw]

It has been my experience that some of the flying skills have to be learned. The baby parrot should be allowed to fledge so it can have the skills to go with the instinct. My Eclectus never was fledged and I had to teach him how to fly. Joaquin did have to learn the skills as they were not natural because he was not fledged as a baby.

Valentino my RFM....holy smokes this baby parrot can fly. His skills surpass any flighted parrot I ever lived with. Last night he got a wild feather up his cloaca and he as flying around the living room like a freak. He was diving, rolling, flying sideways, hovering, even flying backwards. It looked like Valentino had cabin fever with the erratic flying he was doing. Valentino was also making these odd squeals while doing his freak flying. I was laughing and watching as my parrot was having fun. Not once did he knock over anything or smash into anything. Valentino's flying skills do surpass any parrot I ever lived with.

Flying down to me to the entryway from the loft is no longer a challenge for Valentino. Lupe will hold him up in the loft while I get positioned and when I call to him holding up my hand Valentino will launch off Lupe's hand and fly straight down to me like in a RFM dive. He no longer flies in circles getting the workout. ZOOM...softly lands on my hand and squeals. I started calling him my Paragon Falcon. Valentino can be a very fast flyer too.

I can't wait to take this parrot outside to fly in his harness.

 

[MikeyTN]

noblemacaw,

When a baby isn't fledged properly, it is at the fault of the breeder or the owner that raised him/or her. I fledge all my babies before they leave me!!!

One way that I used to do to help build wing muscle is by holding on to the bird's feet(more like them holding on to your hand with a death grip) and go up and down, not fast, but enough to make them raise their wings to flop. But over time they will fly on their own. Most of the time is because they want to come to see me so they fly towards me. Also imagine a macaw flying towards you out of the blue when they've never done it before...lol...

 

[noblemacaw]

Mikey,

You strike me as a very good breeder that has done all they can for the babies to give them the best start possible. No I do not think it is breeders fault if the baby does not fledge properly. Sometimes even when they are old enough to go home they still might now have the skills learned yet. The new person will need to take over and help the parrot learn those skills.

For instance...every parrot baby I took delivery one has recessed back to needing that syringe of warm wet hand rearing formula even though they were fully weaned eating on their own with stable weights. Of course I am kind of anal about baby parrot weights and work very hard to stabilize weight after a baby comes to me. If that means I need to hand feed that baby I will do it but I do know how to hand feed. If helps that the baby is old enough with strong feeding responses so it is just the matter of learning each other and getting the routine down.

Valentino came to me from a wonderful breeder. He was very healthy, confident, beautiful baby RFM. However coming from TX to MN was quite a shock for the little guy and I ended up having to hand feed him 3 times a day at 30 to 60 cc's each feeding to help him adjust and feel more secure. Even now I give him a syringe of hand rearing formula before bed. That way he goes to bed with a full crop and will rest much better. I would love to get 50 more grams of weight on Valentino but I have read they can still grow up to 3 years. With as much flying as Valentino does I am having a bit of a hard time with caloric intake matching his crazy flying. There are days he can lose as much as 20 grams on a high activity day.

The first time Valentino flew to me he landed on my head. That was....crazy.

I think you are doing your babies just fine with your method of fledging. It is the owner that takes your baby that needs to keep up the learning as well.

 

[MonicaMc]

We're talking about an adult parrot here, not a baby... Kippy is two years old, if not older, and may have been kept clipped all of her two years(?) in a pet store prior to being purchased by Pugtato.


She may understand the concept of flying (i.e. flap your wings when your in the air!) but doesn't know how to fly. (is she still clipped?) She is an 'older' bird, so may be trepid about learning how to fly.

 

[noblemacaw]

I think with help from the owner the parrot can learn to fly. It might take time and patience and taking the steps to keep the parrot safe.

I like the chair idea where they start off hopping from perch to perch and slowly extending the distance between the chairs so that little by little the flying comes in to play. If I come across a parrot that does not know how to fly and is afraid I would use that method to help them learn.

 

[Pugtato]

I really don't know much about Kippy's life before she came here. I was told by her previous owner that she was a 6 month old bird, that had been owned by his sister and given to him because she did not like Kippy. I know that he clipped her wings to an unreasonably short level, far below the recommended lengths, for somewhere around a years worth of time. Before that I have no idea.

I now know that Kippy is a four year old bird from a "breeder" in Indiana. I can't seem to track down her breeder so I have no clue if she was pet store bought, or breeder bought. I also have no idea if she was allowed to learn to fly properly. BUT She is doing amazingly! She can now fly from the top of the TV to the couch, from the couch to her cage, or from her cage to me! As she has independently done all three! We have "flying lessons" nightly and I ask her to cling to my finger and flap, and then I ask her to fly to a specific location like the couch. She is getting the hang of it!

Landings are still brutal at times, but she is getting MUCH better about watching where she is flying. Her wings are almost fully grown out, and she seems to really be enjoying the added freedom. Its go great to see her flapping like a mad woman!

 

[MonicaMc]

It's great news nevertheless! I'm glad she's enjoying her new found freedom!!!!