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bugie recall flight problems.

Discuss topics associated with teaching birds to fly. Training parrots recall flight, target flying, and other flying exercises.

bugie recall flight problems.

Postby Cozzy » Thu Apr 22, 2010 11:55 am


I started to train my :budgie:s to perform recall flight a while ago. Thier wings were perviously trimmed and started to grow again.

In the beginning they performed really well, however, as their flying ability improve they tend to fly off during trainning section. What should I do to stop them flying off during trainning
Cozzy
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 124
Location: Hong Kong
Number of Birds Owned: 4
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot
Budgie
cape
Flight: Yes

Re: bugie recall flight problems.

Postby Kathleen » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:41 pm

I used to have a budgie named Duke and he died prematurely. Before his death, he grew back a few of his flight feathers and he could fly. He couldn't gain height but he was able to fly a long distance (also I think he used the ground effect to his advantage) and would glide as well.

Throughout Duke's entire time with me, he would fly off to go toward his cage. As he grew in a few flight feathers, he continued to fly off toward his cage and he would get closer and closer to it, but he was never able to fly to it (because he wasn't fully flighted and couldn't gain height to reach it) so he would land on the floor near it.

I would go and get him and bring him back. Sometimes when I brought him back, it would be okay and I could continue to train him, but most of the time he would just keep flying back toward his cage again and again.

You can't stop the bird from flying off. Budgies have a short attention span, are hyper, and have a fast metabolism (these qualities are beneficial for wild budgies but may not be for one that you want to train).

Here's what you can do:

If it's possible, train the bird in a room where it has no place to go, and if you can, go in a room with nothing in it besides perches for the bird to fly to. If there is nothing else to land on, then it probably won't fly anywhere else.

Limit the training sessions. Do a few short training sessions rather than just one long session. Maybe do training for 10 minutes, and then take a 10 minute break. Then, do another 10 minute session, and so on.
Kathleen
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Flight: Yes

Re: bugie recall flight problems.

Postby Michael » Thu Apr 22, 2010 12:44 pm

Cozzy wrote:In the beginning they performed really well, however, as their flying ability improve they tend to fly off during trainning section. What should I do to stop them flying off during trainning


Then that means they aren't motivated. They have to want the treats so bad that rather than flying away, they'll be flying toward you or the training area. Another issue could be making the training sessions too long. If they are performing well at first but flying away in 5-10 minutes. That means they've had enough and are no longer interested. So the fact that they are able to fly away is meaningless because even if clipped, the birds wouldn't train at that point anyway. So don't be disappointed by the bird flying away. Use that as feedback for your training and to gauge motivation.

Also I suggest rewarding return to perch flights as well or the bird will always want to fly to you and not want to go back. You can see how that worked with Duke.
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Michael
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 6286
Location: New York
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: bugie recall flight problems.

Postby Cozzy » Fri Apr 23, 2010 12:39 am

So don't be disappointed by the bird flying away. Use that as feedback for your training and to gauge motivation.


I am not disappointed....that is why I am trainning to work out what went wrong with the pervious trainning with both the :senegal: and the :budgie:......
And try to learn from the mistake......

As alwasy I would keep the trainning section short <10mins

Once again, thank you for your advice...
Cozzy
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 124
Location: Hong Kong
Number of Birds Owned: 4
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot
Budgie
cape
Flight: Yes


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