Flew off the cage for 1st time~what now

[BaxtersMom]

Many of you may know by now that I got an adult CAG about 5 weeks ago.(I talk about him all the time:)  He was cage bound and neglected in my mind.  He didn't fly and that's okay but now that he is able to be out of his cage when ever he wants and especially on me he is flapping those wings! :woohoo:  I was worried about his landings and got lots of great advice on how to help him land. Let him do it and build his muscles up, etc. Guide him to a soft spot like the couch or bed, untill he learns his lands better.  We'll we've been practicing every day and he likes it:woohoo: but he does get to breathing fast after only about 4 tries to the couch. (Is that normal?) And today there was some kind of loud noise outside and he just flew right off his cage through the living room and into the dining room. About 30 or 40 feet:ohmy: The cage he flew from is about 5 1/2 feet tall and as he flew he was continually going down gradually, but doing pretty good:) . He never a flew up. He landed in the corner wall near the kitchen. He wasn't going fast at all by that time and he was only about a foot off the ground when he hit. It wasn't a hard hit at all and it probably would have been a great landing had he had just a few more open feet to fly. There's my concern. I don't want him to bang into walls or anywhere he can hurt himself obviously. What is the next step in flying. Is he going to start doing this all the time on his own? We do have low ceilings and small rooms but it is an open floor plan all through the house from front room to the back of the house and large doorways where we we do have them. I'm sure since he has done it once it is bound to happen again as he get more confident. And his confidence seems to be growing daily:silly: Will he learn to judge his distances as he goes along? And what about learning to take corners and having more control? He doesn't know how to stop himself yet or slow down or so it seems. Will he learn that on his own, too? Is there anything I can do to help him here on out or do I just let him figure it out on his own? Any advice is appreicated. I was also wondering if he will want to fly more or was it just that he got spooked? Do most greys fly around the house or sit or stay on or in their cage? I have no idea. I am so excited that he flew and so proud, too;) but one accomplishment can lead to unknown harms I am finding out. I would also like to hear how other greys bird fly so I know what to expect in the future. Thanks.

[Tigerlily]

Tigerlily was a little clumsy to begin with, crash landing on perches and gripping on curtains and banging into mirrors and floors cause she couldn't orientate herself.

Every time she crashed somewhere i just calmly went to her and got her to step up which she did.

Thats all I did.

Now there's no stopping her.

She'll fly out of my bedroom take a left turn whilst hovering and fly into the living room and onto her cageB)

she's constantly flying to and from places but with that comes the flying to places she's not supposed to be and me having to get up and move her, only for her to fly there again, and again, and again:evil: i'm sure she just finds in entertaining:evil:

 

Tigerlily also used to be VERY brethless after flying round the room once or twice. she still gets quite brethless but not as much. I've just put it down to lack of exercise but don't know for sure, i'm no expert!

 

So i'm sure Baxter will get the hang of it eventually;)

[nims]

Hi Baxtersmom,

 

Im glad Baxter is enjoying flying and is a shame that he was cagebound for so long. Birds are born fly! I think they really enjoy flying not to mention that it's great exercise for them. Indy is a baby grey and it took a while for her to find her feet and wings when she flew. The breathing thing is normal Indy does a few circles in our living room and you can hear her breathing (their muscles arent as developed as wild birds and can only fly short distances because they are captive)

 

Encourage baxter as much as possible and it does build their confidence up also. After more flying he will learn to land more gracefully. Indy flys first and and then scrambles somewhere to land!! :laugh:

Try making it fun for him and offer him treats if he flies and lands well or flies to you.

 

Good Luck!

 

Nims

[Tycos_mom]

Oh I wouldn't worry you would not beleive some of the areobatics my Amazon can do she's a pro and knows it I've see her go sidways through an opening at full speed the opening was a door that was only open about 4 inches she flew around to the opening turned sidways so she would fit through and kept on going It won't take long before your Baxter will be doing the same thing. I bet within a week or two he will have this flying thing down to a science:laugh: :woohoo: :silly: :laugh:<br><br>Post edited by: Tycos_mom, at: 2008/08/25 21:42

[BaxtersMom]

LOL.:laugh: HaHa,my husband seems to think that Baxter is too bulky to fly and it's something we won't have to worry about much. Ha!.:laugh: I tried telling him they fly in the wild;) and he will do it here if he's allow:) . And now with all your stories I am getting so excited. I thought the greys would maybe fly from the perch to a person and back but it sounds like they can be great acrobatic flyers, too. I will definately keep encouraging him to fly. After we practice I always tell him what a great job he has done and give him a treat. And when he's flapping on my arms I tell him "Fly Baby Fly" He follows my lead and does fly towards the couch as I'm guiding him but he holds on to one finger the whole way untill he lands:side: . He didn't have my finger earlier today though but he really did okay. Silly me thinking I could encourage him to flap but not realize flying would come next. Atleast didn't think it would happen this soon. I thought the heavy/fast breathing was probably because he wasn't in shape for it yet. Thanks again. I loved all the stories! Keep them coming so I can show my husband what we are in store for and of course all advice welcome.

[nims]

Did you know that in the wild African Greys can cover great distances and fly up to 40mph!!!B)

 

Nims

[BaxtersMom]

Wow! Had no clue. Amazing!

[Suzzique]

Dont' worry just like kids learning to walk there will be the occasional crash but they will get the hang of it quit quickly then there is no stopping them! :woohoo:

[Broomer]

Our breeder clipped Loki last week before we got there. As for now, we don't mind, since we're in a 750 square foot condo with no where for him to fly (with 2 toilets, 3 sinks, a stove and a washing machine to worry about). I think we'll let those wings grow out once we move to let him learn to fly, but for right now, it would only be the living room, so just not fair to him since the rest of the condo would be somewhat off limits if we weren't in there with him.

[BaxtersMom]

I know what you mean. My house is small too, 1100 square feet and I am worried about the space too but luckily it is an open floor plan so he could do some flying and should have plenty of room to turn once he figures out how, that is;) I just feel sorry for him staying on his cage or inside it all the time especially if he doesn't want to. We'll see how it goes. I took him down from his cage a few hours ago and we did some more practicing. He is trying to get or fly ahead of my hand now. Before he would hold on to my finger (for dear life it seemed), now he's pulling away from my hand and getting in front of it and I have been putting my hand under his belly to support him while he goes:laugh: I let him fly from just a few feet off the ground too and just let him land a few times so he can figure it out. Shouldn't hurt too bad from only a few feet up. When we first got him I planned on clipping his wings right away so he didn't fly away from us. Then I learned he didn't fly at all:huh: Now I am feel for bad for him because he wasn't allowed to do anything in his life I don't think and I want to make up for all those bad years he had.

[Suzzique]

Really the only thing that you really need to worry about is that Baxter doesn't fly into the kitchen while your cooking. I have a beaded curtain over the doorway from the living room to the kitchen.

[judygram]

Wow there is no stopping Baxter now, he has found his wings and is learning to fly and land and he will have some crash landings until he gets it right but it must be awesome to see him fly. You are doing the right thing to allow him the freedom of flight, probably the first time he has been allowed to do so.

 

Baxter will do fine Erika with your love and guidance.

[BaxtersMom]

Thanks everyone. I guess I shouldn't be such a worry wart about it and quit being so over protective. It's time for my baby to fly:P

[Kaskoo]

Kaskoo still does his daily attempts to take-off... He's waiting for the day he can begin to fly...I'm sure he's really worried they'll grow back without him knowing..

Im sure Baxter will be fine! Relax! Have fun with him... and Congratulations! :woohoo: :silly: {Feel-good-000200A2} :woohoo: I think the only thing you need to worry about is the kitchen... and Suzziques idea of a beaded curtain will help! :side:

[danmcq]

Hi Erika,

 

It's great to hear that baxter is progressing well at getting his "Wings". He has been dormant in that cage for so many years, that his pectoral muscles have atrophied. By the flapping exercises he has been doing while out of the cage with you. Those muscles are staring to slowly build. A startle as he experienced will take place from time to time, but it seems he handled it well and started slowing down for a landing before hitting the wall, which shows he is a smart flyer and saw it coming.

 

To get him to learn control. Start with small hops from a perch to your arm or from one arm to the other. You can do this by holding one of his favorite treats like an Almond, Pine Nut, Grape etc. and enticing him to flap/hop to get it. This will teach him targeting, control and distance approximations.

 

You can also start walking off and calling him. Stop before to far away and he will start trying to fly and land on your shoulder to go where you go. he will eventually just fly into the room you are headed for and perch while waiting for you to catch up.

 

With full primaries in place, it won't be long before he starts doing some more serious acrobatics. :-)

[SFsailor]

What are GREAT thread!

 

The WORST thing about having birds flying in the house is.... when they take off they sure stir up dust and their dander, causing it also to go flying every where

 

My CAG was a bad flyer when she first started to fly. She couldn't turn and would go into walls. NOW she can hover and turn, make real tight turns, and has much better control all around.

[BaxtersMom]

Baxter still likes to practice flying but he has only initated flying solo about 3 times from his cage or to his cage. He doesn't seem all that interested in learning control or even flying in general. He does however still love for me to hold him and flap his wings like he is really going places and we do this daily. I help him out and guide him to the couch or to his cage and kind of go with the flow:) He still always hangs on to one of my fingers for safety though which is fine with me.

[shanlung]

 

An earlier letter from thread here.

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/african-grey/8152-wing-clipping.html

 

 

Hopefully giving additonal food for thoughts for folks thinking of this option.

 

 

MrSpock wrote:

Proper wing clipping will allow a bird horozontal movement and the ability to glide downward to a floor. The ideal wing clip is one that allows a bird to fly about 8 ft before gliding down.

 

Hi Dave,

 

In an ideal world, what you say above may be right.

 

The other extreme will be extremely severe clipping of wings. When I was in Riyadh and in a parrot shop, this grey jumped off the top of cage about 5 feet from ground. The sound of him hitting down, the spray of blood around him, and the screaming of that poor guy hurt me crazy. I do not wish ever to have another keel bone broken even if not in front of me.

 

People clipped for a few key reasons.

 

1. They had been conditioned to that because of what they read or were told. This seemed to be peculiarly American. Tinkerbell wings were so nearly clipped by me at the beginning as the books I read all recommended that (all American books) as well as forums in 2002 when I first had Tinkerbell. I was lucky enough to bought a British parrot mag to give me second thoughts.

 

2. The sight of initial flights, the crashing into walls was extremely frightening and I thought my precious Tink was crazy in trying to fly through walls while I stumbled about chasing her with a pillow to cushion her falls after hitting the wall. Once again, I so nearly reached for that scissors and Tink the flyig grey of Taiwan so nearly did not exist. But that british mag persuaded me to let that continue for a few more days.

 

She then found her flying skills to turn, slow, hover and stopped banging into walls.

 

Folks, this episode is inevitable. Your birds may be natural fliers, but even so, they MUST develope their muscles , flying skills and sense of balance. But at this early stage, their speed will be very slow(even if it appeared fast to you) and chances of harm to them will be there.

 

You can minimise this by letting them fledge in a small room, with curtains or rope nets around the walls for them to fly to and cling too. Or you can run around like me with a cushion.

 

If you see a human toddler trying to walk and falling down, will you have fear for his/her safety and not ever let him discover balance and walk? Will you have him/her crawl for the rest of their life because you are afraid to see them fall?

 

This is same as your choice for your bird.

 

3 By clipping wings and thinking thus the clipped bird will never fly away. I need not repeat my earlier postings of clipped birds that flown away.

 

In what Dave said , that is true in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we live in the real world.

But most people then went on to extrapolate that then, their bird will never be able to fly away. That is where I draw that line.

 

So after you got that 'perfect clip' and your parrot then fly about 8 feet and not gaining height. But again, have that clip been tested under worse case condition? Such as a sudden blast of air horn , or a strange hat thrust in front to see if that parrot cannot gain height in a spook situation?

 

Can you bear to do a sudden spook, or allow others to do that to your parrot? To see if that clipped wings hold good in spook conditions? And with Murphy at your elbows, how about throwing in that gust of wind at the same time?

 

Can you ever guarantee such conditions will never ever occur to you?

 

People had thought so. Their parrot paid heavier price than they did.

Your choice again to see if you can beat those odds.

 

On a different note Dave, I tried to log in to your old forum to let you and other friends there know about my last trip to be with Tink in Nov last year. If you did know, fine. If not, you might like to read this

 

Tinkerbell Interlude photoset and videos, and start of next chapter of life. Also as to why I am now here in Brisbane , down under.

http://http://shanlung.livejournal.com/65169.html

 

 

Shanlung

 

http://http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/

[Broomer]

Our breeder said she only did a minimal clipping to Loki. I can tell, the feathers only have about 2 inches cut off. She said she would give him a proper clipping next time we see her, but I'm starting to think that we should keep with the minimal clipping, and hope he can't gain too much height (out kitchen has a bar that leads into the livingroom, so beads over the door probably wouldn't stop him from getting into the kitchen while we were cooking :unsure:). The last few days Loki has taken off from out ottoman onto the floor (about 2 feet up) and today he took off from his playstand which is just under 5 foot. He thankfully landed on the ottoman which was about 5 feet away, but if he didn't he would have hit a laminate floor hard. I'm going to have to start teaching him to flap those wings better. His landings are ok, but I can tell he lands keel first then slides on his claws when he hit the floor (again, this being from the ottoman, he's done this a few times) but man-oh-man am I scared if he ever did it from the playstand and missed the ottoman. :unsure:

 

Though I will admit, it was my fault for him taking off from the playstand. I got home from work at around 10:15pm and Kim was staying at a friends house tonight (Our friend just had surgery, so obviously she needed someone there). Loki was going nuts in his cage (he was in there from about 4pm , this being his first extended caging) and I knew he was hungry. Stupid me, instead of getting his food ready and getting the ottoman (no longer a foot rest, but feeding and playing area :silly:) ready for the feeding, I let him out and put him on his playstand. I then proceeded to go into the kitchen to get the food ready. I was in eyesight of him, and he was evidently hungry enough and missed having company that he didn't want to wait.

 

All in all, I was very very glad he aimed for the ottoman and caught the top side of it with his lil claws :whistle: .. whew.

 

Though, on a side note, after he takes off from the ottoman, and starts walking on the floor ... well his little waddle is so damn cute! :laugh: :silly: :lol: