The most clumsy bird in the world.

[cml]

Leroy has to be the most clumsy bird in the world. Remember that I wrote a post a few days back after he crashed badly into a wall? Thats just the tip of the ice berg. He has repetedly crashed into walls, windows (which were covered with blankets!), shelfs, kitchen cabinets and today he found somewhere new to crash into.

He crashed into a lamp, one of those floor standing kind of lamps from ikea with one big screen facing upwards and a spotlight about halfway up the stand. I was horrified to see it happen, he crashed right into the Y-shape thats between the main rod and the smaller one for the spotlight, effectively getting himself stuck with the head in the Y choking himself while the wings were out to each side. I immediatly grabbed him and got him out of there and he wasnt even flustered afterwards, but gladly resumed training. I know I wouldnt after getting my head stuck in what in effect became a strangling device.

Parrot proofing will take on a whole different meaning with this bird, the thing is our home is parrot proof and Stitch has never once gotten himself into this kind of trouble. Leroy seems to be magnetic to doing stupid things (I cant parrot proof the walls ^^). I have no idea how to stop these things to happen as our home already is parrot proofed in most ways, and I cant do much more atm.

I think the problem is that Leroy is an aviary bird, he isnt used to human environments. Stitch on the other hand has been here since he was 3 months old, he is a master at indoor flight! He will do jet fighter turns through the doorways, take a roll to the side if one of us is in the hall, and easily land at the opening to his cage without breaking a sweat.

How do you teach an aviary bird not to crash into everything ^^, and getting him used to a home environment? Will it all be trial and error for him? A few light crashes wont hurt him, but today could have gone bad and the crash a while back was quite severe. I dont want him hurt!

Cheers!

[allirho]

Leroy sounds like quite a character!
I don't know how much this will help, but after my budgie crashed into a window and put a crack in his beak I took him around the house on my hand and knocked on all windows, walls, posts that I thought he might accidentally crash into with him watching.
He seemed to tilt his head each time I knocked on something and I would bring him up close to the wall/window (or whatever) and touch his beak to it so he would know it was solid.
Since then, my budgie hasn't crashed into anything and flies like a pro around the house. He avoids windows and mirrors, darts around posts and lands on his training perch perfectly.
I have no clue if it's because I went around and showed him things, but I like to think so

You could also try moving that floor lamp directly beside walls or into another room completely until Leroy starts to show some improvement in co-ordination!!
Good luck!

[Shelby]

I suggest going back to the basics of flight training with him so he can learn more control. Reward him for landing only on safe places like T-stands and playgyms and make sure he has a clear flight path (as much as possible) from one perch to another. Also, it sounds like he needs practice with his landings.

Another thing I just thought of - if he grew up in an aviary, he is probably used to landing on the wire sides of the aviary. Take a few minutes to show him that there's nothing to grip onto on human walls and put a perch or something for him to land on in front of every wall. You could also try hanging a few tapestries or bead curtains or something along small sections of wall, so if he does miss a perch he has something to hang onto, instead of crashing head first.

[cml]

I will definatly walk him round the house showing him the walls at some point, but right now we are focusing on rebuilding the trust he lost in us and the world after his crash. We've made huge progress again and he is now stepping up again, knows targeting and is okay with touching. Soon it might be possible to walk him around the room they are in, but right now he's easily spooked and I dont want him to fly off and hit a wall again ^^.

Today's training session was great, we wokred on targeting, step up and he flew between 2 perches a couple of times. Baby steps, but in the right direction =).

Oh and the aviary thing, yes I thought of that as well, it makes sense as flying into a wire-net wall = landing on it. The result of hitting our walls are quite different though...