PLease help on wing clipping [not]

[terri]

On this forum Ive come to understand how important it is on not to clip their wings .Im not doing mine again .I understand that they will take a long time to grow in [right?]. But please share with me on how life is like.I have a good size house,do I let them go anywhere or should it be one area? Do you leave them alone in one room while your in another? Do they run around on the floor and try to find you .Should I put perch stands everywhere? Also first thing I have to encourage them to fly right? Thanks for your advice

[cml]

Life with flighted parrots is hard sometimes, but oh so rewarding as well!

I would say it depends on how much out of cage time your parrots have, mine get 2-3hrs everyday, and during that time they are alone in the living room sometimes, but we also hang out, train or just move about the appartment.

Learning to fly in a house is tricky, so what we did was introduce one room at a time in a pace that they liked. Remember to get blinds for your windows which you can use when they are out, so that they dont fly into the windows. Also walk around with your parrots, letting their beak touch walls, the tv, mirrors etc.

As for bird proofing, I dont think there is much difference compared to a clipped parrot's house. Just make sure you dont have things that can fall down easily on places they are likely to land on.

Other than that they will find places to land, explore and come to love being allowed to fly free. Our two parrots loves to hang out on top of the highest bookshelf, on a couple of perches Ive built (tripods with a perch mounted at the top), and their playstand (also homebuilt). They also land on the sofa, on the tv, the coat rack, on top of paintings (the top frame) etc etc.
Basically, both you and them will find out what works!

Other than that, Michael has an excellent article on teaching clipped parrots how to fly which I reccomend that you read.

Good luck and I am so happy you've decided to try having your parrots flying free =)!

[liz]

I took the door off of Rambo and Myrtle's cage last year. All they used it for was to swing on. I put their food in the cage and hope they eat it in there instead of carry it out.

Basically a flighted bird is not going to get hurt. I use ceiling fans. Myrtle caught the tip of her wing once. Now she flies under them. While on my shoulder she felt the heat of the stove and stays away from it. Of course when I am cooking I stay in the kitchen or turn off or cover the pots when I am called away.

Rambo not flighted is another matter. We have to make sure we don't step on him jor close him in a room.

Flighted or un flighted just protect what you want to keep. If you have house plants make sure they are safe.

Believe me there is nothing like a happy bird landing on your back and climbing to your shoulder for kisses.

[marie83]

I very much believe in having their own cage where they can be put away if needed or at night.
I would say pretty much all your questions are personal choice though. As it stands at the moment Mine only have access to one room and although it is pretty much bird proof we only let them out when we are actually in the house as a precaution, also my birds are so different in charecter I think Ollie would bully Harlie or try to nip her through the cage (for that reason I don't leave them unattended when out but I would if the room was 100% birdproofed and I only had one ). Ollie frequently goes into other rooms but it is always brief and supervised as we haven't really birdproofed them.
Obviously the more space you can give your bird the better.
The number of perches you have around is up to you again, we only have one and a play gym but my birds are allowed pretty much anywhere else they want to perch on as they don't chew everything and there isn't anything they could really hurt themselves on. If thats different for you then you may want extra perches/playgyms to encourage them to spend more time there.
Michael has a really good article from when he trained Kili on his blog. Someone else may be able to get you the link as I don't have chance to find it at the mo.

[pennyandrocky]

congrats to both you and your birds i sometimes imagine when i tell people i have fully flighted parrots they're picturing these birds zooming around all day crashing into everything and pooping everywhere.mine mostly fly in 2 rooms where people are the game room where we have a playstand and the living room where there is a tree that i built from tree branches i cut from the yard.sometimes penny will fly down to the kitchen,and mya will go into the bedroom to watch her daddy sleep from on top of a large bookshelf.when mine grew their flight feathers and were ready to fly they hung on to their cage bars flapping their wings to build muscles,when you see them do this make sure curtains are closed over windows to prevent injuries.mya did have a couple crash landings at first but did not get hurt she just shook her head and tried again.please keep us up on progress i'll never forget how proud mya was when she mastered flight.

[terri]

Well thanks for all your input . Im able to form my game plan now. Ive been busy reading and watching micheals articles.I dont know why I havent ventured done there before. Im obviously new here.Before I was reading training by Barbara Heidenreich.It was the same thing over and over[sorry if someone likes her ] it burned me out .Id rather hear from people with multiple bird experience. Sounds like from your posts Marie,Liz and Penny theres been lots of birds Ive informed my family that this was going to be a group effort.[Good thing the blinds were mentioned] I forgot about that .Penny I cracked up reading your post [thats what I was picturing] I have tall ceilings and imagined birds dive bombing us! Well Im trying Micheals clicker thing on my Lory [Hes taken an interest!!] If this is good for the well being of my birds Im all for it One room at a time and more of those java wood tree stands.

[liz]

The only time I close my curtains is to keep the bright sun out of a room. Rambo climbs up furniture to look out windows. Myrtle hangs upside down off the valence to look out. I guess because Rambo can't fly that I just didn't think about crashing into windows or ceiling fans. It's a good thing Myrtle is smart.

Myrtle does come out of no where and land on me. She flies quiet and you only know she went by because of the wind.

[terri]

The only time I close my curtains is to keep the bright sun out of a room. Rambo climbs up furniture to look out windows. Myrtle hangs upside down off the valence to look out. I guess because Rambo can't fly that I just didn't think about crashing into windows or ceiling fans. It's a good thing Myrtle is smart.

Myrtle does come out of no where and land on me. She flies quiet and you only know she went by because of the wind.

Didnt you post somewhere once that one flew and woke you up in bed ? [That would be my dream life]