Jumping off of cage. Help!

[ZivaDiva]

Earlier this week, Ziva was sitting on top of her cage and put her wings out. I told her she was a big bird and then an eagle. She got very excited with the attention and then flapped a few times and jumped off the cage onto the floor. She's clipped and went out about 2-3 feet and hit the carpet. She was fine. She climbed on to my bed and then back on to her cage. I thought it was a one time deal and I was wrong. She loved it and is now doing it when I leave the room or sometimes just for the heck of it. She gets excited and holds out her wings and then goes for it. I am no longer calling her an eagle or commenting on the behavior. She pretty much hits the floor, makes a u-turn and goes back up on the cage.

 

Her previous owner of 6 years only let her sit in the doorway of her cage while she petted her but she wasn't allowed out. When I'm home, she's out. I did buy a nice big play gym for her but haven't set it up.

 

My plan was to have the gym in the living room which has hardwood floors. I can't have her jumping off of it on to the hardwood. I did go out and buy some thick rubber mats and a 6x9 carpet to put over the mats so she'll be cushioned in case she falls or jumps.

 

Is there anyway to stop her from jumping? A serious talk on safety did not do the trick! :whistle:

[Luvparrots]

My Ana Grey is now eight months old. She was clipped by her breeder. She so much wants to fly and she glides down to the floor whenever she wants to come to me or wants to go back to her cage. All of my floors are hardwood, well except the bathrooms which are tile, anyway, at first I was scared she would break something, but she continues to do it without injury. I no longer try to stop her from doing what is so natural to her. I can't wait for her to be able to fly again as God intended. I don't know if this little talk helps you, but Ana Grey is healthy and seems to know what she is doing when she jumps down from her hanging perch or her cage or wherever she takes off from. Good luck with your little daredevil!!

[ZivaDiva]

Thanks for the reply. It makes me nervous as I've read so much about them falling to the floor and being injured. She has fallen inside her cage a few times and does say, "Did you fall? I'm sorry." Obviously she's fallen before. But this is actual jumping off on purpose.

 

I have 2 house rabbits that roam at will and it freaks them out when she jumps.

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about her flight feathers. She came clipped and I've known several people that lost their birds because someone opened a door and forgot the bird was out. I have a 15 year old (human) that's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. She's been known to come home and sit on the couch and leave the front door wide open.

[DavidH]

Shanti will also jump or fall once in a while. He lands on carpet from about 4 or 5 feet. The last time was two nights ago when a racoon was standing staring at him through a glass door about 3 feet away. He totally freaked and "flew" out of the cage. I think he gets a little lift from his spread wings, so the landing is not a bone-breaker.

 

He was also clipped by the breeder, so all this will pass when he grows some flight feathers. (Then I'll have a new set of issues).

[redkim]

Fred jumps all the time. From the top of her big ole cage down to the hard floor. She seems to do it when - a. we both go outside, she jumps off, runs across the floor and then climbs up the screen door to watch the outside world or b. when she has decided she has had enough "out but on the cage" time and would rather come be with us if we have lapsed in our attention and not come to get her already.

 

Her wings are clipped and I am going to have to make a tough decision when they grow in (I would prefer she fly) butright now I don't want to stop the jumping off as one day she'll do it after she gets enough flight feathers in and fly or hover a little before she falls and maybe build on that to get her flying.

[ajlinva]

When I adopted Bingo (CAG), I was told that he had busted open the skin over his keel? bone on his chest three different times over his 8 years. His wings were clipped when I got him, but now is fully flighted. I do worry about him flying out the door, but love to see him fly. We are very careful about doors, so I think we will not clip his wings anymore. Thank God this has not happened since we have had him because I would have a fit if he were to hit the floor and bust his chest open again. Maybe he had an improper wing clip and was un-balanced, but just to let you know what can happen.

[casper]

One of my greys is not flighted but if startled will crash to the floor. I worry about him splitting the skin over his chest area as well!

 

I have my floor carpeted now and each time I let the birds out I pad the floor with extra cushions and rugs, he tends to land in the same areas so I pay extra attention to them.

 

When he first lost all his flights, my husband made a perspex cover which fit over his cage when we let him out, this was to stop him going too high on his cage, we just used to clip it over and this worked for us.

 

Just pad the floor and hopefully this should make it safer for your grey:)

[ZivaDiva]

A split keel is what I'm worried about. She is kind of uncoordinated. In the beginning, she fell more like a bowling ball but now she's doing a smoother landing. The other thing that frightens me is she lands right by the corner of my bed and it's a nice sharp wood corner. I keep thinking I'm going to need to baby proof and pad all the sharp corners.

[Raposa]

ZivaDiva, did she learn to fly at all before her wings were clipped? If not, that could be the cause of her lack of coordination. I would think it would be a good idea to bird proof the areas she tends to jump in. You might also see what you can do with her cage top to make it more enticing for her, so that she likes being up there rather than wanting to jump off. On the wing clipping question, that is a seriously tough one. Jenna was fully flighted when I got her. She flew all over the house, and especially liked landing on top of a hanging lamp in the dining room and refusing to come down. She also flew right into the sliding glass door and into the living room window a couple of times. In addition to all that, there are a lot of people in and out of my house (my mom is disabled and has multiple care givers and health care providers in and out) and I would be petrified that someone would inadvertantly let her out the door. So I made a decision to clip her wings, and that was done about 8 months ago by an avian vet. She has done well with it, but I think I will let her feathers grow out again . . . I would prefer to have her fully flighted, but I am also aware of the dangers involved. There are also 5 cats in the house, none of whom pay much attention to her but if she could quickly get places where I could not supervise, it might be a bad situation . . . We'll see how it goes. I urge you to make the decision you think is best for the safety of your bird. Most people on this forum are strongly against clipping, but each situation is different and has to be judged on its own merits.

[Tycos_mom]

I trully love to watch my birds fly and enjoy all that flying does for their confidence and happiness. But I did just get Fwrgies wings clipped I tried for 5 months to keep her off my kitchen cupboards and about two weeks ago I got up their to see what kind of damage she was doing because she kept chewwing up their any wa what I found wa a 2 ft long hole and going down the center of it was a large electrical wire that led straight to the fuse box. I was horrified I thought omg if she starts to chew through that wire she's a dead bird. So I took her to the Vet and had her wings clipped She didn't talk to me for 3 days when ever I approched her she turned her back. I thought for sure she didn't love me anymore. but she got over it and she can still fly from her cage to my bed so when I'm laying around she can come over for a cuddle. I will let her have her wings again I've now sealed the hole she made with metal so she can't chew through it but at that moment the fear I felt for her life was so intence.