How do I encourage contact calling ?

[Stitchthestitch]

We have just had the biggest scare with Nova , even Albie hasn't scared us this much !

We didn't realise she wasn't in the room with us and I do t know how long for ,but we spent 20 minutes looking for her calling her name and using the call we use with Albie. We got nothing from her. I was starting to freak out when I found her on my bedroom curtain pole chilling and preening happily .

If Albie did this,she would have called back to us after 3 calls max, so how can I encourage Nova to start contact calling ? As she has only done it when Albie called for her but even then it's only been a couple of times.

I feel sick with relief that she's safe and she wasn't impressed when I gently held her close (he's not really one for cuddles unless on my knee with my left hand cupped over her and only my left hand )

 

[wrench13]

All you can do is respond to him every time he vocalizes, with the same phrase. Eventually he'll get it. Short and sweet is the ticket.

 

[texsize]

The good news is……
If they are in trouble you WILL hear it.
if they are quiet the odds are they are fine or are getting in trouble.

have had my Tiels go missing before.
my biggest fear is they get stuck somewhere unreachable.

 

[Stitchthestitch]

All you can do is respond to him every time he vocalizes, with the same phrase. Eventually he'll get it. Short and sweet is the ticket.

That's the thing , she's super quiet and rarely makes any vocalisations (which when we she does we try and reward and get excited for her as that worked with Albie )

 

[Free as a bird]

We have just had the biggest scare with Nova , even Albie hasn't scared us this much !

We didn't realise she wasn't in the room with us and I do t know how long for ,but we spent 20 minutes looking for her calling her name and using the call we use with Albie. We got nothing from her. I was starting to freak out when I found her on my bedroom curtain pole chilling and preening happily .

If Albie did this,she would have called back to us after 3 calls max, so how can I encourage Nova to start contact calling ? As she has only done it when Albie called for her but even then it's only been a couple of times.

I feel sick with relief that she's safe and she wasn't impressed when I gently held her close (he's not really one for cuddles unless on my knee with my left hand cupped over her and only my left hand )

Ah the old hide and seek game. It is stressful to say the least. I wish I had a truck to make them respond when you call but I don't

 

[Dragon58]

ahh children regardless of species they can and do keep us hopping!! lol my girls and my little sister tell me i should die my hair because its all white now .... i tell them i EARNED all this white hair thank you ever so very much!! lol and dont you ever forget it !!! lol

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I hate when my budgies go on an adventure in my house and refuse to reveal themselves. We have panicked when we couldn't find one during a headcount. Looked for over an hour in a very small house only to find the budgie perched on a hanger in the closet or on a cross brace under a chair. They NEVER contact call to help us find them.

 

[Dragon58]

i havent let ladyhawk out of her cage as of yet but normaly when i let my birds out i sort of bird safe the room....i pick one room....then pick up anything i can...turn garbage cans upside down so they cant get in there close the curtins so i can see them on the outside ( lost a coctial sitting on the side of the curtin facing the windo one time for almost 3 hours!) pick up anything i can on tables and such and put my craft bags in a different room.....never had a bird yet that didnt want to forge around in the craft bags to nibble jump or shread what ever project i was work on.... and of course all other animals outside or locked in other rooms... i still lost them from to time because they decided to walk around on the computer desk amoung keyboards printers monters camras and other odds and ends found on the computer desk frountly the computer desk is also near my chair lol

 

[TiredOldMan]

To me contact calling is very important.
My CAG one time spooked on the porch and took a long flight out of sight into the brush.
I started walking in the direction she headed and calling her name. She started calling back and led me right to her. We were both relieved and very happy. If I can't find her in the house I just call her and she answers.
Didn't have those problems with the Too. Absolute Velcro bird.

 

[Dragon58]

this is the first time iv ever heard of contact calling lik ei said it sure would have made life easer for me and the other birds iv had in the past!!! i normaly get a book about any new animal i adopt that iv never had before.... none of the patakiet or cockitial books had anything on contact calling i tried toget a book on paralets when i bought ladyhawk but they didnt sell them....i'll have to do some reasearch on contack calling right now im just trying to get her to trust me....a big breakthrough today as far as im concerned anyway....when i went to give her her spraymallet today she flew over to the door and stood on it lol, i told her now you dont really think im going to open this door while your standing on it do you ....so i sliped part of the spray mallet through the bars for her and while she was eating it she allowed me gently touch the tip of her back feathers .... and then her foot....she didnt pictularly like it but she let me do it a few times lol as a reward when i got finished i cut a small peace of spray mallet and put it in her food dish for her... its a step in the right direaction anyway and at this point i'll take what ever i can get lol i just wish i was younger or at the very least healther so i could stand for longer peroids of time at her cage to inter act with her....im hoping and praying she will get used to my coughing and not be starttled by it shes doing better then she did when i first got her but it still startles her when im tryihg to work and bond with her...ahhhwww ladyhawk has come to my side of the cage and is faceig me while preaning now with my other birds thats indecated that they were feeling safe and comfortable ..... her cage is like iv said sitting next to my chair humm i wounder if i can get spike to buy me another bar stool to put next to her cage so i can spend more time sitting closer to her at her level.... that would go a long way i think in bonding with her

 

[DonnaBudgie]

She may start imitating your coughing. If anything she will get used to it and won't be scared. It's just your unique "call" to her. She doesn't know you're sick.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I hope you're okay. I have respiratory problems, too. I had a near fatal asthma attack last week during a snowstorm at 4am. If the paramedics hadn't made it to my house in the woods when they did I would have died with oxygen sats of 75% and dropping fast. Then two days later my sisters husband died of a massive stroke. Tragedy. Thank God it wasn't a double tragedy.

 

[Dragon58]

yes im fine and thank you for asking i have copd and im at the stage now where i cough bothers others more then it does me lol when i first got the dogs they would run and hid everytime i put the nebulizer on lol now my little service dog jumps up on the chair and tries to take the mask off my face lol poor girl dosnt relize yet that its not some kind of monster attacking her mommy lol instead of something that helps me the other two just bark at it...sigh drives spike nuts lol he wants to put them out but i told him if we do that they will NEVER get used it and eventually i'll have to be on o2 so its better to get them used to it now ..... only difference will be instead of a mask on my face there will be little hoses in my nose id rather teach them to stay away from my face and NOT try to pull the thing off now with mask lol id be real upset if my litle yorkie bit my nose!!! lol my brother has astma bad as well even as a kid so i know how bad that can be way back then they didnt have home nebulizers so mom had t take him to the hospital several times a day when he had a bad attack to use the nebulizer a few times he was admited and was in an o2 tent....