Walking On Floors - Do You Allow It? (PROS / CONS)

[Violet_Diva]

I was just reading a post from Anansi about his preference with regards to not allowing his birds to walk on the floors. It got me wondering how many of us do or don't allow this activity.

Do we make species specific decisions on this? (If your species naturally forages on the ground or not.) Do we encourage running around on the floor - or do we discourage it? What are the pros / cons?

I'm interested to know whether you either allow or disallow floor walking, and what factors you considered while making this decision :33:

 

[Scott]

I don't like my flock walking on the floor, however some do, and it has instinctual purpose. My Goffins in the bird room do so, often as a group, hopping around having fun. For this reason I keep the floor swept to avoid the temptation of food. Biggest fear is injury; when they do this in my presence I am extremely careful!

 

[Violet_Diva]

I personally don't allow running around on the floor. Firstly there's just too many hiding places - English houses are typically small unless you're rich! So there's usually lots of stuff in every room (unless you're a minimalist!) I feel that for safety reasons, I need to be able to see the birds clearly at all times when out of their cages, and having them able to go under sofas or tables or behind furniture just isn't practical, especially should an emergency evacuation be needed.

In the wild, eclectus live very high up, where they are safer from predators.
The only times Bella has been on the floor is from crash landings, as she's panicked during this time, it's the perfect time for me to swoop in and offer an extended arm of rescue and then put her back up high and safe. This reinforces our trust bond.

The fact that I also have cats, means that I can't guarantee that there's no unsafe bacteria on the carpet. If the birds walk on the floor and then eat with their feet - who knows what they might ingest! A risk I'm not prepared to take.

I do however allow walking on the coffee table. As I think having their feet exercised on a flat surface periodically should have some benefit to them.

 

[SilverSage]

My flock is flighted, so for the most part they stay up off the floor anyway with the exception of the cockatiels, who naturally forage on the ground. I provide higher up foraging stations.

As far as “allowing” goes though, I do allow it. We are a small family and haven’t had a problem keeping track of little bodies. The worst that happens is conures choosing to go under the couch and refusing to come out lol. That’s best solved with bribes or just ignoring them until they get bored, depending on the bird and how much time we have.


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[OutlawedSpirit]

I allow it to an extent. Since my birds are clipped, if they want to come to me while I'm in the other room, the only option they have is on the floor. I would prefer them to be flighted and to be able to fly to me, but with our current living arrangement that involves several people that are not the most observant when it comes to closing doors, it is not safe for them to leave them flighted. I would have to leave them caged 90% of the day instead of allowing them to be out 90% of the day.

Anyway, back to the floor issue. So I am generally okay if they get off their cage or play area onto the floor and come to me to be picked up. However, if they get down and try to play on the floor or just wander around, then I pick them up and put them back on their cage or play area.

The only exception to this is occasionally I'll spread a bunch of foot toys and foraging snacks out on the floor and sit on the floor with them while they play just because I think it is good for them every once in a while as a change of pace, but I make sure I sit on the floor with them so that it is a "okay if mom is with you" kind of thing.

 

[OutlawedSpirit]

I will also add that if our living arrangements were different and it was just my wife and our daughter, I would allow them to be on the floor a lot more. However, we currently live with our very young nephew who does not yet understand to stay away from the birds. Although Bo is very good with him and has given him a few gentle "bites", I do not think Gus would be as forgiving.

 

[Jen5200]

Two of my conures are flighted, and the third will be once she regrows her flight feathers. I generally don’t allow any of them on the floor. We have a cat - 99.9% of the time that the birds are out he is outside or closed in his end of the house. While we are very careful to keep them separated, I didn’t want the birds to ever get caught playing on the floor “feeling safe” if he followed someone out of his room or whatever. I also worry about them playing with his toys or getting into his food, which is on the floor. They’ve never showed any inclination to be down on the floor, and I’ve made sure that they have play stands, toys hanging from the ceiling, table top stands and free standing perches to encourage that lack of desire to be on the floor. Our cat Has been very good the few times that he’s been around the birds, but he is a hunter that hunts mice and outside birds - so I prefer that there never be opportunities for a mishap. It has worked well for us.

 

[jenphilly]

I might be one of the few post that openly allows my Max to roam about freely... but he is a macaw, not a small bird. But Max arrived to me as a floor dwelling creature (he is adopted from a parrot rescue, or more that he adopted me). We have numerous beautiful large java playstands and Max has absolutely no interest in being up high on a playstand. And Max is my shadow, he follows me about often, or at least will follow to see what I am doing and if he is satisfied I'm safe, he waddle his butt back to one of his play areas or he has a chair from an old dining set that he claimed as his food stand, and he also is potty trained himself, he climbs up on his chair, poops and climbs back down to go to his tunnel or the stair landing where all his toys are. I keep a towel under the two chairs he frequents, easy for cleanup.

Max is flighted, but he does not like to be up high and while he can take off from the floor, stand, counter or about anywhere, when he lands up high, he won't turn around and take off and fly down. We joke no one told him that he is a macaw that should be up high... He had lived in a home with a large cockatoo for 25 years (so reported when he was surrendered), so that may have formed his habits.

Max's lifestyle would not likely fit or work for many homes, but we have no children and our cats have trained / taught that their area is the lower living room or my bedroom that is a cat haven with a huge playstand and overstuffed chair in the bay window sitting area. And that was done specifically so the cats want to spend their time there, I do not encourage any interaction between cats and birds.

But the irony... my bare eye cockatoo, which is by nature a ground forager and should be on the floor, is the one who likes to be up high. She loves the high row of windows we have in our home and she does make use of all the javastands. So I have a blue and gold cockatoo and a bare eye macaw I guess!!

Having Max on the floor does mean that the vacuum is never put away and always checking on wires or anything left on the floor that is not safe for a bird beak.

But again, many would not be able to have a macaw live the lifestyle that Max does, but I am home almost all the time with living with MS, so he does live more like something between a puppy and a child But it is not something I would encourage for all homes or families. Again, Max arrived to us as a floor dweller, it is just our job giving him safe play areas! He has claimed the space between the sectional sofa and the wall, so there is a play tunnel for him there too, which for some reason he has always loved.

 

[SailBoat]

We are a very different household as our Amazon has taken on the status of a Free Roamer /Flyer. His cage is never closed.

I do not recommend this 'life style' as it requires that every part of the home, including all exterior doors are Bird Proof. It requires extensive changes to the way one moves about the home and that the first thing that comes into one's mind is: Where is the Amazon???

It also involves allowing the Parrot: Freewill. As in this arrangement, they are choosing where and when to a far greater extent.

Personality is everything!!!

Once again, I do not recommend this 'life style!'

 

[itchyfeet]

Our's aren't allowed on the floor. They're all comparatively small, and there is just too much foot traffic with my kids, work kids, other animals - it makes me too nervous. But we've also taught them all to stay off it from day dot and it doesn't seem to be a 'thing'.

 

[GaleriaGila]

The Rb is "allowed" everywhere, but the price for this is a somewhat barren decor and constant vigilance!

 

[chris-md]

I try not to allow it. Thereve been a few times we didn’t hear Parker crawl off his cage into the kitchen where we were and we can close to stepping on him. Eddie and I have body checked each other a couple times.

But he’s Out of cage when we’re home so it’s hard to control. So we don’t allow it but we’re admittedly a bit passive about correcting it.

 

[texsize]

The short answer is, I don't allow it.

The long answer is...

Two of my Cockatiels Lucky and Baby like to land on the floor when I let them out. There is always some food (seeds and pellets) buried in the carpet and they like to eat it. I think that they think it tastes better if they find it themselves instead of getting it in their food bowels. When I catch them on the floor or flying down to the floor I make them fly back up to their play area of make them go home to their cage. This is mostly out of caution for them. They are small and it would be to easy to step on one of them.

Bing is the other exception.
When I have Bingo out of his cage and sitting with me he is normally content to stay with me and get scratches or cuddle. BUT sometimes he climbs strait down to the floor. It's difficult to explain why this is an un-good condition. He tends to consider the floor, the area under his cage, the area under the chair I am sitting in to be his nesting area. As Bingo is bonded to me I can sit on the floor with him and play with him or pick him up and get away with it. Anyone else in the family that comes closer than 3 feet will be attracted. He will RUN right at them and bite toes or anything else he can get ahold of.
So when he goes to the floor after I take him out of his cage he goes strait back into his cage. He has mostly learned not to go on the floor because he knows it the Game Over for his out of cage time.

 

[clark_conure]

clark walks on the floor when I'm laying on the floor, or when I put him there while I do something but i'm always cognoscente of his location and there are no other animals in the house. Sometimes we play tag, or conure chase on the floor, or not so much anymore its timeout for punishment. For the most part I can't get him away from me so if he's on the floor eventually he will literally climb up my entire body to get back on my shoulder.

For me personally with my bird it's a non issue, but I fully understand how a busier household this could be an invitation to heartbreak.

 

[DiscoDuck]

interesting thread to read the different posts. Seems to be every variation.
FWIW
My GWM periodically will go to the floor of his cage and haul newspaper and either decorate the walls or shred it. When sitting on his perch in front of the TV he prefers to chew his toys or attack the cats. I dont remember ever seeing him go to the hardwood floors.
Out side is another matter. He will periodically slide off the park bench and pretend he is the Aerator in Chief. No Rudy.. you are not the lawnmower. So with who knows what is in the grass. I figure its better that he eat the sidewalk. He seems to prefer the pebbled concrete where he will try to dislodge them, Determined little quarry miner.

I guess I let him be a bird. I dont know if Macaws forage on a forest floor. I know this species eats clay at the river banks in the wild. I am relatively careful and dont let him get too, uhhh.. into who knows what .... I just give him a monitored bit of periodic freedom.

 

[Soyajam]

Remi prefers to be off the ground.

In the room I keep her cage, I have a bean-bag in front of the TV and often chill out there with her. In this instance she often flies to me, and part of being curious (and bored) she climbs down and "sharks" around the floor looking for trouble to get into.

The way she does this means she isn't in the kind of danger just walking on the floor constantly provides but she's always supervised when shes on the floor.