Humans teaching birds to fly, one baby step at a time.
After watching the video of a woman hacking the wing of an 8 week old baby in a misguided attempt at keeping the baby safe I decided to share my step by step instructions to how I have always successfully trained a baby to fly safely and at their own pace. Once they learn to fly and land clipping then becomes a personal choice but learning to fly should always happen before they are clipped imho.
If you are getting your baby from a breeder weaned you can still go through these steps although the rate the baby will learn will be quicker. Please ask your breeder to not clip. Better yet find a breeder that actually starts this flying process for you. If they are too lazy to give the best start to your baby maybe you should look elsewhere for a breeder. Let me be clear, studies have shown over and over again that a baby bird allowed to properly wean and FLY is a much happier well adjusted baby. This critical time greatly effects the well being of the bird for the rest of their lives. Confidence is critical. Think for a moment how this applies to humans, a person who is confident and has self esteem will go much further in life because they believe in themselves. While I know we are talking about apples and oranges here I believe that the same principals apply.
Okay the first thing is to watch for that time when the baby really starts flapping their wings. Take them in your hand supporting them by putting your thumb over top of one foot so you are keeping them on your hand stable and allow then to flap until they get tired. I encourage this by saying Ohh are you flying? My excitement and voice inflection I believe encourages them.
Next is floor work, in a room where there is nothing to scare or distract them (no other pets, children) put them on the floor and walk a little ways away, what you are doing here is using their desire to be with you. Start calling them, in the beginning they will either walk or run to you. Give cuddles and loving when they make it to you. Do this for short sessions multiple times per day. Next while they are running to you they will start flapping, its natural for them. While they are doing this and walking or running they will get small lift offs this is wonderful and should be greatly celebrated. Nothing is cuter than the look of total amazement on a babies face when their feet leave the floor the first couple of times.
After they have gotten a few lift offs from the floor and have started to understand what their wings can do you add the next step. I take them into my bedroom, shut the door. I have a large queen bed. It is closer to the floor because it is on a platform bed instead of a box spring. I have them on my hand starting about 12 or 13 inches from the surface of the bed I lightly toss them off my hand toward the bed. As they get less fearful and more accepting of this as well as continuing the floor lift offs during play time. I slowly increase the distance that I let them be from the surface of the bed until they are landing and really flying toward the bed. This is a nice safe surface for them to land on as well as having the room bird proofed as much as possible, nothing on the dressers, no distractions, curtains closed and other common sense precautions. This stage goes on for a while until you are seeing real confidence in the babies flying abilities.
Then I set up a stand in the room. I put them on the stand and I sit on the bed. Same concept as the floor exercises in that I am using their desire to be with me. I call them to me, at first they will make a b-line to the bed landing on it because that is what they know. Later they will start doing a loop around the room. Sometimes crash landing on other surfaces hence the reason for keeping the room as safe and clean of clutter as you can. Then they will be getting more control and either landing on the bed or safely on another surface. This is where you start encouraging them to land on your arm as you call them, giving them a chance to learn even better precise control.
After all of this is done with some skill and finesse you can move onto bigger rooms in the house always keeping safety and the abilities of the bird in mind.
It really is that simple, the rewards that you will get by allowing your baby this critical step in it's development cannot be understated.
I will try to upload some video to better illustrate some of this over the next few days but I do hope I was clear in the explanation of each step that it makes sense and helps someone properly fledge their baby.
After watching the video of a woman hacking the wing of an 8 week old baby in a misguided attempt at keeping the baby safe I decided to share my step by step instructions to how I have always successfully trained a baby to fly safely and at their own pace. Once they learn to fly and land clipping then becomes a personal choice but learning to fly should always happen before they are clipped imho.
If you are getting your baby from a breeder weaned you can still go through these steps although the rate the baby will learn will be quicker. Please ask your breeder to not clip. Better yet find a breeder that actually starts this flying process for you. If they are too lazy to give the best start to your baby maybe you should look elsewhere for a breeder. Let me be clear, studies have shown over and over again that a baby bird allowed to properly wean and FLY is a much happier well adjusted baby. This critical time greatly effects the well being of the bird for the rest of their lives. Confidence is critical. Think for a moment how this applies to humans, a person who is confident and has self esteem will go much further in life because they believe in themselves. While I know we are talking about apples and oranges here I believe that the same principals apply.
Okay the first thing is to watch for that time when the baby really starts flapping their wings. Take them in your hand supporting them by putting your thumb over top of one foot so you are keeping them on your hand stable and allow then to flap until they get tired. I encourage this by saying Ohh are you flying? My excitement and voice inflection I believe encourages them.
Next is floor work, in a room where there is nothing to scare or distract them (no other pets, children) put them on the floor and walk a little ways away, what you are doing here is using their desire to be with you. Start calling them, in the beginning they will either walk or run to you. Give cuddles and loving when they make it to you. Do this for short sessions multiple times per day. Next while they are running to you they will start flapping, its natural for them. While they are doing this and walking or running they will get small lift offs this is wonderful and should be greatly celebrated. Nothing is cuter than the look of total amazement on a babies face when their feet leave the floor the first couple of times.
After they have gotten a few lift offs from the floor and have started to understand what their wings can do you add the next step. I take them into my bedroom, shut the door. I have a large queen bed. It is closer to the floor because it is on a platform bed instead of a box spring. I have them on my hand starting about 12 or 13 inches from the surface of the bed I lightly toss them off my hand toward the bed. As they get less fearful and more accepting of this as well as continuing the floor lift offs during play time. I slowly increase the distance that I let them be from the surface of the bed until they are landing and really flying toward the bed. This is a nice safe surface for them to land on as well as having the room bird proofed as much as possible, nothing on the dressers, no distractions, curtains closed and other common sense precautions. This stage goes on for a while until you are seeing real confidence in the babies flying abilities.
Then I set up a stand in the room. I put them on the stand and I sit on the bed. Same concept as the floor exercises in that I am using their desire to be with me. I call them to me, at first they will make a b-line to the bed landing on it because that is what they know. Later they will start doing a loop around the room. Sometimes crash landing on other surfaces hence the reason for keeping the room as safe and clean of clutter as you can. Then they will be getting more control and either landing on the bed or safely on another surface. This is where you start encouraging them to land on your arm as you call them, giving them a chance to learn even better precise control.
After all of this is done with some skill and finesse you can move onto bigger rooms in the house always keeping safety and the abilities of the bird in mind.
It really is that simple, the rewards that you will get by allowing your baby this critical step in it's development cannot be understated.
I will try to upload some video to better illustrate some of this over the next few days but I do hope I was clear in the explanation of each step that it makes sense and helps someone properly fledge their baby.
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