My Experiment

[dhorje]

 

 

I wanna share this experiment with you guys.

 

I have read many times in the forums parrots flew out of the entrance door once they have the opportunity to escape. Some of the owners I met told me that too. We are very careful about not leaving our door open and the curtain is always shielding the entrance door. I was curious what if one day I left the door open by accident, would Cocoa take the opportunity to escape like the rest?

 

I have taken Cocoa to many outings and she always stick with me, making no desire to fly away unless something spooks her. I am not sure if she would fly away if the door is left open. So I decided to do an experiment this morning. I wanna know how she is going to react when she sees an open door.

 

I put her on harness and tied the leash to the settee. The leash was about 20ft long. I left the door wide open. Cocoa was standing on the settee and she was facing the door. She was about 4ft away from the door. My wife was sitting in between Cocoa and the door. A few minutes later, Cocoa was on take off mode. I thought she was going to head out of the house. Surprisingly, she flew to my wife's head. That's one of her favorite perches.

 

I placed her on her stand which was about 10ft away from the door. She stood still there and did her preening. My wife walked in and out of the house to see any reaction from her. It seemed that she didn't bother about it. Then I walked out of the house to feed the fishes. Cocoa looked at me as I was walking out but she was still unmoved.

 

20 minutes had gone and my wife went out to dry some clothes. On seeing my wife walking towards the door, Cocoa flew to my wife's shoulder. When my wife reached the clothes hanger, Cocoa flew up and stood on the hanger. After my wife had completed her chore, I took Cocoa in and placed her back on her stand. The door was still left open but Cocoa didn't fly out. The experiment lasted 45 min.

 

I am glad that Cocoa treats our home as her. She didn't make any attempt to fly off. This is my 1st test on her and I will do more tests regularly. I want her to get used to seeing an open door.

 

And of course I will never do this test without a harness. Even though she is unmoved by the open door this time, it doesn't guarantee she won't take off in future. We never know what they, the parrots are thinking.

 

I shot a video of Cocoa flying this morning.

This is the farthest outdoor flight flown by Cocoa. I added another 20ft, making it more than 120ft.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJzCnoGHaXc?hl=en_US&fs=1

[Luvparrots]

Well congratulations Sanggay on your controlled experiment. It is always interesting to know and try to understand what our grey's will do. I think you are right to know that maybe next time Cocoa might be more adventurous. She could have been just "testing" the waters so to speak. They do seem to want what they want when they want it, without thinking of the consequences. :ohmy: Sounds like any two year old!!!

[dhorje]

I posted my 2nd day experiment here when this site was out of service.

 

http://buffaloparrot.smfforfree3.com/index.php/topic,5446.0.html

[Luvparrots]

On the 3rd video Sanggay, it looks like Cocoa would have gone adventuring if she had not been harnessed. It of course gives me pause. I'm glad she was harnessed.