Hi people :)

[heyholly]

Hi everyone,

My name is Holly I have two birds. Ollie my 12yr old female superb parrot also known as a barraband parrot and Pippin my 11mnth old male Regent parrot or rock pebbler.

Ollie had been my loving companion since I was 12. She's super friendly, well to me anyway, and enjoys nothing more than sharing a biscuit and coffee.

But I came about this forum because a month ago I purchased Pippin. Now I had a few birds over the years so I thought I knew a thing or two about taming them. I got him to the point where he would eat on and from my hand but I just couldn't seem to progress any further. He's not in any way an aggressive bird and in some ways quite confident with people, but he seem to have some pretty major trust issues with hands and unless there was a sunflower seed in it he wasn't having a bar of them. Touching him was out of the question. So I went online and came across Micheal's training techniques and the results have been amazing. He picked up target training within one session and step up in the next two. He has become a much more accepting and confident with my hands.

The question I have is do I need to clip his wing to progress from training in the cage to training outside of it. I'd prefer not to as I don't want ruin what I've already gained. Any advise there would be greatly appreciate.

Thanks for reading look forward to taking to you all

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.
I am so glad that you asked first. Clipping him will only cause more fear. You don't want to tame him (break his spirit) by crippling him. A flighted bird with freedom is a confident bird. He will progress much fast with the freedom of flight.

[Wolf]

Welcome to the forum, I am really glad that you asked before clipping your birds wings. Despite what some people believe, and advise, other than for a valid medical reason clipping a birds wings causes many more issues than anything else, as it doesn't actually solve anything and in fact is detrimental to the health and well being of the bird.

[Pajarita]

I agree with both Wolf and Liz. Clipping is not only not kind to a bird (how anybody can justify doing such a thing to a bird and still claim to love it is beyond me), it's emotionally (you are taking away the only way Nature gave them to avoid danger or unwanted advances) as well as physically damaging (the stress of been grounded is real bad for them and muscles start deteriorating within 40 days -there are studies).

Now, your problem is that you are used to an exception and now got yourself a 'normal' bird. Both regents and superbs are considered aviary birds and not true companion material precisely for their propensity to dislike human handling - they also tend to be quite flighty (is Ollie an able flier, clipped or was clipped for a long time and no longer flies proficiently?). Couldn't you find it in your heart to love him for what he is even if you cannot touch him? And, as a matter of curiosity, if he doesn't step up for you, how do you get him back into his cage after he has his out-of-cage/flight time?

[Harpmaker]

Welcome to the forum!

What sort of advice are you looking for? Are you worried about not being able to get Pippin to go back to his cage if he can fly? Or something else? We can help with a lot of things, but we need to know what the problem is first.

[Wolf]

I apologise, I don't know exactly how this went off course, but will try to bring it back on target.

Thank you for asking before clipping your birds wings. No, you do not need to clip your birds wings to progress from training inside the cage to the outside of the cage.
If you have not been giving your bird any time out of the cage before now, however you will need to expect him to not listen to you right at first. He may need to rush around and crash while he learns to navigate inside such a small space as a room. So I would allow for this and get him accustomed to having some time out first. He may be just as calm as can be when he comes out or as just mentioned he may need to get it out of his system and learn the boundries of the room before you can begin training out of the cage.

[heyholly]

Well that answers that question lol. Thanks for the input everyone

Yes Ollie is an aeronautic acrobat. She's a very capable flier. I've never clipped her wings but I got her as a hand raised baby who was only just barely weaned.

As for Pippin, I should explain, he's not completely wild. My understanding is that he was an aviary bred bird and the people I bought him from, bought him as a baby, clipped his wing and handled him that way. They said he was quite friendly but since his feathers had grown back he was (understandably) less interested them and recommended I re-clip the wing. I really don't like clipping A birds wing either and only wanted to use it as a last resort.

For the first few weeks I just fed him treats as I walked past the cage and eventually got to the point where I could feed him from my hand and convince him to step on to it, so I had step up just not a very solid one and every time I put my hands in the cage he'd still recede to the furthest corner. When I got him out the cage he'd fly around a bit and then go land on the top of his cage. He'd come and land on my head occasionally and I fed him treats. To get him back in the cage took some persistence of me following him from spot to spot and asking him to step up but we'd get there eventually.

The big difference I've had with the clicker training is he that he's a lot clearer on what he's getting the treats for and the result had been a more confident and interested bird. I took him out his cage this morning and set him on a perch. To my surprise he didn't fly off instead looked at my for the next cue. He is still a little jumpy and gets easily distracted outside the cage but I think he just needs to build on his confidence outside the cage.

The reason I asked about clipping the wing was because I couldn't understand what kept the bird from flying off while I was working with then outside the cage. That is until I started experimenting in the last couple of days.

[Wolf]

Ok, I'll bite! What did you find out was the thing that kept him from flying off?

[heyholly]

Just that he seems to have gained more trust and confidence, that's all I mean

[Wolf]

Ok, I was curious and that is what it has always seemed to be the answer for that question to me. Thank you for your answer.