Kirby can fly?! (Sorta)

[ravvlet]

So Kirby has dinner with us at the table. Today my toddler started throwing her food, so I had to excuse myself for a couple minutes to go clean her off. All of a sudden my oldest runs in and exclaims that Kirby flew off his perch!

I’m alarmed because the dogs are out at this point, and he’s never done this before, so I follow her to the kitchen and sure enough, his stand is empty...

We found him in the living room talking to himself and sitting on my partners keyboard!

She says he “flew” (glided, his clipped feathers haven’t molted yet) to the kitchen door and climbed up the baby gate that’s around our desks/his cage area. He stepped up for me and is happily finishing his dinner at the table now.

Guess I’m not allowed to leave! What a rude dinnermate I am!

I think this episode is a really great sign for him though - he was such a perch potato before! We got the boys a big java tree today and he was climbing all over it and chattering to himself. When I moved him to the cage for nap time he had a grand old time using perches and toys I didn’t even know he knew he had. I’m so happy to see him start being active and social, he’s a totally different bird.

 

[PickleMeDickles]

Yea Kirby! Ive been working with SassyByrd for well over a year to teach her to fly and it’s been a slow process (for us). What I noticed is that for the first 6 months or so, it seemed to be all about gaining confidence with flights that were initiated br a flight/fight response. Lots of crash and burns.

Then short highly anticipated flights emerged (ex: she knows she has fresh tamales in her bowl in her cage, and she just couldn’t wait so she dove off my shoulder and chose to fly the last few feet to her cage. She really seemed to build confidence and started nailing landings.

Now we are in new territory. Now she is learning to fly just because she would rather be at place B rather than A. I think this is the most frustrating stage if all. This seems to be all about confidence, but as of yet I can’t “do” anything to encourage this type of flight, no, this is up to the bird. I do clap and praise when she accomplishes a flight now, and she really seems to feel proud when it works out. And we are making progress, albeit slowly.

Good luck, and I’m curious to see if the stages Sass has gone through so far in regards to flight, are normal or individual to the bird.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Good job Kirby! I've been trying to get Amy to fly,even if it is just short trips,but he shows no interest at all. Oh he LOVES the flapflap lessons,he knows how the routine goes,gets all excited and at times will vocalize about it,but that's as far as it goes. I'm on the fence about this though...sure he would definitely benefit (healthwise) with zooming here and there,but we go out on adventures so much,I'd be real paranoid on taking him out with fears he'd get frightened and zoom off into the abiss
I really need to record one of our adventures,just to show folks on what a totally different bird he is when we go out,and it would kill me to halt them do to my fear of loosing him.



Jim

 

[SailBoat]

"Guess I’m not allowed to leave! What a rude dinnermate I am! "

Close, but its more like; One needs to ask permission prior to Leaving...

Enjoy this process. As stated above it is a process of stages and each stage must be completed prior to the next. Yes, it is filled with fear as they dive-off into the sky.
Gratification is held in moments of success that are quietly over sheltered for our fear of an impending serious crash. Its the life of a Parent, regardless of the species...

 

[PickleMeDickles]

Oh Boats, you nailed it with “blah blah blah regardless of the species”! As mother to a 20 year old precocious daughter and a 5 (ish) even more precocious bird I can attest to the ugly truth of this statement. Sometimes I think they are on the phone plotting behind my back to see who can break me first.

The day after SassyByrds disappearing act my daughter called me from school at SDSU. Now, she knew how upset I had been about Sassy, and I think in her own way she actually tried to tone things down, but that was just not to be. In a nutshell, it went:

Mom, the degree that I’m getting from SDSU (that I paid cash for with money I don’t have), I want to really thank you, but I’ve decided not to pursue certification so I won’t ever be using it (a registered dietitian) but it might look really good on a resume some day. Oh, and I need $900 by Friday for plane tickets to Bali. It is a requirement to complete my degree (the one she’ll never use but it could possibly look good on a resume some day). Oh, and the best news? There is a 15 hour layover in China and I’m legal to drink there. (yea!!!) �������������� (not).

I’m not sure at this point who I’ll blame the first Grey hair on!!!

 

[SailBoat]

Wow, sadly my hand would have rushed into my pant pocket, only to find a large hole in the bottom. Hmmm, likely that Amazon, must have chewed that hole and took what money I had. Sorry sweetheart!

Oh Boats, you nailed it with “blah blah blah regardless of the species”! As mother to a 20 year old precocious daughter and a 5 (ish) even more precocious bird I can attest to the ugly truth of this statement. Sometimes I think they are on the phone plotting behind my back to see who can break me first.

The day after SassyByrds disappearing act my daughter called me from school at SDSU. Now, she knew how upset I had been about Sassy, and I think in her own way she actually tried to tone things down, but that was just not to be. In a nutshell, it went:

Mom, the degree that I’m getting from SDSU (that I paid cash for with money I don’t have), I want to really thank you, but I’ve decided not to pursue certification so I won’t ever be using it (a registered dietitian) but it might look really good on a resume some day. Oh, and I need $900 by Friday for plane tickets to Bali. It is a requirement to complete my degree (the one she’ll never use but it could possibly look good on a resume some day). Oh, and the best news? There is a 15 hour layover in China and I’m legal to drink there. (yea!!!) �������������� (not).

I’m not sure at this point who I’ll blame the first Grey hair on!!!

 

[Laurasea]

Such a great thing when the learn to be parrots again!!!!! Congratulations!!
My Penny has learned again how to fly, a year and a half in and I saw her play with a toy today so I feel and share your joy.

 

[wrench13]

Flight. Always a mixed feeling thing in our house. Salty is not flighted. I lost a loved red spectacled 'zon many years ago, because I let his wings get long enough to sustain flight. He went everywhere with me, just like Jim's Amy. And one day a 18 wheeler hit its air brake in the street right next to us, and poof Skyler was gone, never to be found. Ever. My point of view, flighted parrots must have harness' on when taken outside. Every person in the household , regardless of age or mobilty or feelings for the parrot MUST excercise scrupulos care to not accidently leave a door or window open, not to have the parrot on their person when going outside unless harnessed. Even parrots that have been trained in free flight and recall risk that 1 in a thousand chance they might become spooked and poof , they too may be gone. My opinion only and each parront has to make their decision about this. Even parrots that will never see the outdoors run risks of flying into windows, mirrors or landing in a spot unbeknownst to their owners, only to become unwittingly injured or even killed. You have to balance the plus side of a better physically fit, maybe better mentally adjusted parrot against the points I made above. A hard decision to make, but one of the most imporant ones.

 

[ravvlet]

Our vet felt (and I agree) that if we want Kirby to have a better long-term prognosis it's important to get him really exercising, and flight is our ideal goal. He actually did come with an aviator harness! Our cockatiel is trained to use his too, although when we go outside we typically use his backpack instead and are getting the new Pak-o-Bird GoGo front carrier for Kirby.

I feel like also if Kirby is in fact a wild caught bird, being flighted will give him a lot more mojo - he's made some great progress already and his real personality is starting to show through. I can't help but wonder however if being fully flighted is going to be something that will really let him feel confident again, especially since we don't know if he was able to fledge in the wild or not.

---

Kirby gave me a scare today! I was putting our toddler to bed (she sleeps in our room) and right as she dozed off I heard a big rattle from Kirby's sleep cage - I think he fell off his perch, but maybe he was just shaking out his feathers? I immediately got up and checked on him and he was open-mouthed staring at me because the sudden bright from my phone flashlight freaked him out. I let him be and checked on him after an hour or so and he was peacefully sleeping, so I guess he's ok?

I've also noticed that when I want him to step up to move from room to room (to eat dinner, go to bed, be moved from the tree to his cage, etc) I've got to "explain" what we are doing, ask him for a step up (and be told no, sometimes emphatically) and then give him a couple minutes to reconsider. Is that just an amazon thing, a bird thing, or an older bird thing? I've never had a bird this size or this age (the Timneh I kept in college was much smaller), our 'tiel is still a baby so he does whatever I ask, like having some kind of velcro-cling winged puppy. We have a routine now where I tell him, just like I tell the kids, "We're going to bed in a few minutes Kirb" or what not and then go and brush my teeth or something before I can come back and get him and be fairly certain he'll be ready to step up for me. It's actually pretty cute.

I haven't had to use the dowel in a few days now, which is really great.

Also wanted to note that we have scheduled a second opinion appointment, largely about his fatty tumors but also about his exercise routine, heart rate, and diet with another CAV in our area that's a little further from our home. Everyone locally that I speak to frequently and whose opinions I really value about bird care (rescuers, our local parrot store people, etc) have been urging me to take him to this vet as my current vet has apparently generated some notoriety in the bird fancier community and also the new vet is apparently a very skilled surgeon. We took the boys in to the boarding facility we will be using to have samples taken for disease testing so that they can be approved for staying with them while we are on vacation, and the groomer who took the samples said she rescues older amazons (and she saw Kirby's ad on Craigslist too) and that she swears by this vet as she is very good with older birds who might have health issues due to diet or neglect.

I do like my current vet, but she doesn't seem to have the best relationship with the local parrot community which I find really strange - this is inclusive of rescue or rescue-oriented organizations.

 

[wrench13]

Oh yeah, amazons, at least, can certainly give a gentle push off if they do not want to do something. Salty does that all the time, taking my finger gently in his beak and pushes it away. Persist and the gentle push off now becomes a nip with a blood puntcuation mark. LOL, talk about training me. I got real good at reading body language very quickly.

 

[PickleMeDickles]

Huh, didn't know "the push off" was an Amazon thing (or even a parrot thing) until lately. If it is pass Sass's bedtime and I am bugging her, she takes a finger or two and "leads" my hand out of the cage. The she guards the entrance and continues to push me out. I haven't tested boundaries much as I do appreciate my fingers but that's interesting.

As far as using a dowel, I use my hand/arm and a dowel interchangeably. At first I did this because the Sass would try to remove a portion of my arm when I tried to "take her away" from daddy. Then I didn't want anything to solely be attributed with the negative so I started throwing in trips to the goody jar via dowel and other fun trips with the dowel. This has actually come in SO HANDY.

When Sass got out a few days ago a 3 foot dowel was a welcome sight (to Sass) and she eagerly climbed onboard from well over 9 feet up in a tree. If I had had to drag a ladder she might have spooked and been off. Also, since the dowel can be either good/evil, it is much easier to remove her from an area where she doesn't want to be removed if I can also offer a big enough bribe (do you want a whole almond all to yourself?). Plus, if she is in a chompy mood and I use the dowel out of self preservation, it's not like she "won" when I change from arm to dowel as it can go either way anyhow. Does that even make sense?

 

[ravvlet]

Inspired by his little adventure yesterday, I put a waterproof cover over our bed and let him glide from my hand to the headboard as well as doing some flapping on my hand. This seemed like such a good idea at the time...

So now he glides off everything and runs along the floor between his playstand and his cage! Not to mention exploring our desks. Lucky for him we had to make them pretty bird proof because Cricket is always into everything. Someone is feeling awfully brave!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

A long time ago, my friend Mariann moved in with me for a few months ( until she could find her own place) and she brought with her Shainna,who was a dna'd DYH 'zon and she would do the EXACT same thing lol. If I tried to get her to step up,she would ever so gently pick up my finger in her beak and move it away I thought it was cute!



Jim