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Starting Out - Scared and Lazy

Discuss indoor freeflight and managing freeflighted birds around the house. How to live with a flighted parrot.

Starting Out - Scared and Lazy

Postby AmazonServant » Fri Jun 24, 2011 2:54 pm

I've had my Amazon for about ten years now, but she's always had her wings trimmed until this past year. Even when her feathers have grown out quite a bit, she's never bothered much with flying, and she'll only fly very rarely and for short distances, generally only when very frightened. She used to "fly" across the foot-wide gap between the arm of the couch and her cage when she wanted to go back in, but it would take her a minute or so to psych herself up and make the leap. After a while though, she started to just poop on the couch as a way of asking me to pick her up, since she's trained to poop before stepping up. If she's sitting on her play stand and decides she wants to return to her cage, she'll climb down onto the floor and walk across the room, then climb up the side of her cage. That's about as adventurous as she gets. Mostly, though, she just tells me when she wants to come out or step up and that's how she gets around the room. Why bother learning to fly when you can just get Mom to carry you around? So I am wondering, how do I begin teaching her to fly? I need to figure out how to get that initial liftoff (without scaring her) so I have something to apply my positive reinforcement to. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

PS, we're just starting off with clicker training now. :amazon:
User avatar
AmazonServant
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 25
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Yellow Nape Amazon
Flight: No

Re: Starting Out - Scared and Lazy

Postby Michael » Fri Jun 24, 2011 3:20 pm

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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


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