Erithacus
New member
Hi, I am new here. Just signed up a moment ago. I would like to share some of my experiences. I have had Cocoa, my CAG since Sept 2008. She was hand raised by us. She is the 1st parrot I keep fully flighted as all my previous ones were wings clipped.
We live in Malaysia, a banana shaped country in South East Asia. I started taking Cocoa out regularly on the 2nd day of her arrival. We started with short distance walk around my housing area (10 minutes or so) and slowly increased to 2 hours now. She has grown accustomed to outside surroundings. She is very comfortable with our regular routes and she is very vocal as we walk. She is silent when we go to new places. The farthest distance she had traveled was 200km when we went to my mom in law's house. Of course we drove there not walked. She has been in many car rides too.
Recently, I took Cocoa hiking with us in the jungle. We spent almost 2 hours there. To date she has hiked 4 times with us. I think she is getting used to the surrounding in the jungle. She was a bit nervous on the 1st time.
Pics taken during the hiking.
Besides taking Cocoa out for outdoor activities, I also trained her to fly outdoor on harness. I took her to a nearby playground where there is a football field. I attached a long line to the Aviator harness and she will fly and land on the monkey bar at the playground.
Videos of Cocoa flying
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYaAhSLCq2o"]YouTube - African Grey Harness Flight 14[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqtk3bL2A-8"]YouTube - African Grey Harness Flight 15[/ame]
After reading many threads in the forums about escaped parrots, it made me worry about my Grey. I have foreseen that one day my Grey would fly out too.
I kept my house's windows and doors closed since Cocoa started flying. Cocoa has never seen an open door when she is out of cage. I have a curtain shielding to door to prevent her from escaping. I wanted to know what would happen if Cocoa saw an open door. Would she dash out like other parrots that had escaped?
I decided to test her out. I put her on harness and attached a 25ft line and tied to a sofa's leg near the door. I placed her on the stand which was about 6-7 ft away from the door. I left the door wide open for an hour. Nothing happened. Cocoa didn't even bother to look outside. Then I took her stand out and placed it about 6 ft outside of my house. After awhile she flew back into the house.
Next day, I did another test. This time I placed the stand right in front of the door. I expected her to fly out maybe to the gate which is about 16 ft away. She likes to perch on the gate. Well...she didn't fly out. She flew back into the house, perched on my wife's head who was at the computer.
On the 3rd test, I placed her outside the gate. I have a car parked in front of the gate. I used the same 25ft line and tied it to the gate. Then I played badminton with my daughter in the street. Cocoa flew to the roof of my car to watch us played. Every time I hit the shuttlecock she said "wooo".
Cocoa never made any attempts to fly away during these 3 tests. I assumed that she has seen the outside world and is no longer a big deal to her. Home is safer and more comfortable. Even though she had passed the tests, I still keep my doors and windows shut. I wouldn't want to take any chances because I don't know what she thinks.
Hope that you don't get bored with my story.
During morning walk.
In my office.
Thanks so much for sharing
