Stop my rainbow lorikeet from flying to the curtain rod

[Kat88]

I've had my almost 10 week rainbow, sparky for 2 weeks now. She's good with target and flight recall, but only if she's not on the top of the curtain rod.

I can't tell if she's having trouble picking the landing (still a baby), or if she's just having fun flying down, then around and then back up. It's getting to be really annoying having to fetch her from up there every time she goes.

Any suggestions on how to get her to stop?






- Sparky

[patdbunny]

Hi and a belated welcome!

There are a lot of owners with flighted birds here so I'm a little surprised no one else has answered you.

I fledge my babies and let them fly around before sending them off to their new homes. My method of keeping them off the curtain rods is negative and undesirable. I wave my arms in front of them when they're heading to land on something they're not supposed to and I give the verbal "not there". I have a lot of play pens, cages and perches all over. When they land on the acceptable landing site they get praise and scritches. They generally catch the clue within a couple of days and fly from acceptable landing site to acceptable landing site (including humans in the area - in my house a human's always an acceptable landing site, especially if they want cuddles and scritches).

So, first off make sure you have a lot of approved landing sites.

Other than using punishment, I dunno. Hope others chime in. Maybe I can learn a better method.

[kaylayuh]

Hi and a belated welcome!

There are a lot of owners with flighted birds here so I'm a little surprised no one else has answered you.

I fledge my babies and let them fly around before sending them off to their new homes. My method of keeping them off the curtain rods is negative and undesirable. I wave my arms in front of them when they're heading to land on something they're not supposed to and I give the verbal "not there". I have a lot of play pens, cages and perches all over. When they land on the acceptable landing site they get praise and scritches. They generally catch the clue within a couple of days and fly from acceptable landing site to acceptable landing site (including humans in the area - in my house a human's always an acceptable landing site, especially if they want cuddles and scritches).

So, first off make sure you have a lot of approved landing sites.

Other than using punishment, I dunno. Hope others chime in. Maybe I can learn a better method.

I tend to do the waving thing, too. This is mostly because my windows are 10 feet tall and I don't own a ladder, so it's hard for me to get the birds if they fly up to the molding on the window. The only one that really did it was Pigpen, and when she flew high enough, I had a "pointer" I would tap about two or so feet away from her and she'd fly down to me.

Probably not the best method, but she didn't respond to anything else, so I really couldn't coax her away from the windows without it. Now I can just tap on the desk and she knows to come back down to the cage.

EDIT: I should also say that the pointer is like a ruler. I can't get nearly close enough to her, since I'm about 5"5' and she's about 4 feet higher than I am, so I'm not actually going to hit her. But she hears the taping and knows to come down.

[Kat88]

Thanks for the advice!

I'm a bit wary of waving my arms around, because she's still getting used to flying. I'm worried that I'll accidentally smack while she's mid air (she can't turn very well).

I'm not sure how long it will take though, it's actually a little bit cute. She'll fly around, decide her landing trajectory is "off" then just keep flying in a circle around the room until she tries to land again, or her flight ends in a steady downward spiral.

It's a bit easier to get her down from the curtain rod now, because she's figured out that my company is better than being all alone up there.

But I'll remember the "not there" advice for when she decides to land on my computer and stuff like that.





- Sparky