Something New

[Taw5106]

I did something I've never done, I took a parrot outside not in a cage. Buddy is my GCA, 24 yo, and is fully flighted. He's my green tumor, always stuck to me. Venus is my Ekkie, we are coming up on 30 days (Yay!), and her wings are clipped. This girl loves being in the window, each morning she runs to the top of her cage to the playtop next to the window and sits there for hours. I keep a bowl of food Up there for her, she's only sleeping in the cage now.

Both parrots are like night and day. Buddy is in your face, non stop noise, it's hard not to know how he's feeling but Venus is quiet, makes little sounds, and may scream once a day, I'm still learning how to gage her. So today I'm working with Venus on my shoulder. I've been debating on taking both birds outside, Buddy I won't because he can fly and well, we are working on harness training but he's not having it. So today I decided to take Venus out since her wings are clipped, we took two bags of trash out to the can out front, the weather was sunny, about 70 degrees, nothing going on outside and a trip less than a minute. She did good but she did the Ekkie freeze, she was on my shoulder, and she started shaking, totally silent. I stopped at the front door and talked to her, saying its ok, let her look around, she stopped shaking once we were inside. I think outside was too big out front. Tomorrow I'm going to take her on the back porch and sit with her and have my coffee. And I have a harness on order for her.

 

[Anansi]

Hey Tracey!

Yeah, there really is nothing like taking your bird outside without a cage. First time I tried it with Bixby, he froze too. (His pic from when he won the POTM contest was taken that day, actually.) Still working on harness training, as he was far more interested in eating it than anything else.

But just to warn you, even clipped birds can fly off if they catch a little wind. There are quite a few members whose birds surprised them and flew off this way. Their flight ability will be limited, of course, but not necessarily by enough to keep them from flying beyond your reach and getting lost.

Some members were lucky enough to recover their fids after a few hours... or even a few days. Others weren't so lucky.

I just wanted to make sure you knew that. I'd hate for that pretty girl to get lost. Any new pics of her, btw?

 

[Taw5106]

Great. I'm hoping she will accept the harness, now it just needs to get here.

 

[Anansi]

You'll have an advantage over me, in that I had to force the harness on Bixby in order to be able to visit with him in the store. It was the cost of opting to keep him flighted.

But you'll be able to follow the steps lined out in the DVD. I hear it makes a world of difference.