Ollie's flight feathers are growing in! Excited yet scared...

[Sunnyclover]

Ollie has 3 flight feathers on each side grown in now. We've been teaching him to fly already and he can even turn mid air and seems to enjoy it. If I lift up my hand he'll fly to his play stands and cage or my husband or me. I like the idea of him being flighted and seeing how it goes for a while. I am worrying about if he goes through puberty and gets an attitude I might have to clip him again which would be a bummer. I'm also worried because he seems to love me and love spending time with me that if he's flighted he won't want to come and hang out and cuddles anymore with me. I also worry I won't be able to just take him from room to room with me or that he won't go to his cage when I need him to and he'll fly away. Did anyone have a conure who totally changed when they became flighted? Or what were the differences when they became flighted?

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

If your bird is bonded to you, he will not stop loving you when he becomes flighted. In fact, it will be a more honest friendship because the bird can fly to you and choose to be with you because he wants to. My birds always follow me if I leave the room, and often fly to me because they love me and want to spend time with me. You can also train your bird to fly to you on command, which is useful if your bird ever makes it outside. If you decide to clip his wings to force him to be with you, then that's not love. The bird is forced to be with you, whether he likes it or not. As I'm writing this, my cockatiel is head-butting my hand because he wants to be petted. And he's an excellent flier. The differences when he became flighted was he could fly to me when he wanted to instead of screaming and pacing, he was more confident and less needy, and he gets enjoyment out of flying laps around the room. And, he is healthier because he gets more exercise. My green cheek conure was partially clipped by the breeder, but he can still fly quite well. I'm waiting for his feathers to grow back so he can fly as well as my cockatiel and budgie. The benefits of letting your bird be flighted are great, so unless it's a safety concern, go ahead!

 

[itzjbean]

I second the advice given above. I never clipped my Jenday and he loved flying around the house to find me. It is exactly like above, birds that get to fly do seem happier. You'll want to of course have him on a harness or in a travel cage if you want to bring him outside, for safety purposes. No matter how bonded he is to you, all it takes is one thing to spook him and he's gone forever.

 

[Sunnyclover]

We just found out that we're going to have workers come in and out if our house for the next 6 months doing renovations. So far when we were out of the house they turned out the lights in the kitchen on an overcast day and Ollie was completely in the dark screaming his head off for the whole time (we checked our pet cam and rushed home) after being told to leave the lights on for Ollie. I want Ollie to be flighted but I'm scared that the workers will open the door and he might fly out because they scare him and he sometimes flutters about in a bit of a panic when they come and go. I really don't want to clip him again but do you think it would be safer? I can't loose my baby! Also I've decided that I'm pretty sure Ollie will still fly to me and spend time with me because he lept off his tree to get to me this morning so I think I'll probably be good. Anyways...I don't know if I can trust the workers even if I'm home...thoughts?

 

[Inger]

I wouldn’t leave him out of his cage when the workers are there unsupervised. If you’re there, can you be in a different room with the door closed and Ollie with you? I don’t know that clipping him would make it any safer. He could still get spooked, get outside, and be caught by a gust of wind OR not have any escape route from a predator.

As for lighting-get some painters blue tape and tape the light switch on when you leave the house. [emoji3]

And while Bumble is a parrotlet, she’s fully flighted now and has always been mostly flighted. Her favorite place to fly is TO ME from wherever I set her down, so I don’t think your bond will suffer [emoji3][emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sunnyclover]

We have a pretty open floor plan plan on the bottom floor and it's actually open up top with a balcony to the 2nd floor which is going to be great for flying. I think it would be really easy for him to fly out the door and I am worried he will get crushed by the door, workers are nice but just no mindful of him. I am going to see how it goes and if anything even close to dangerous happens I may have to rethink things a bit. When he is clipped I take him near the door all the time and he doesn't fly out, he also did try to fly back in the house before even though he was clipped and outside. Hmmm.

 

[Sunnyclover]

So far it's been interesting with Ollie learning to fly! So far he only understands he can fly from a human to his cages/play stands/tree. He can;t yet understand to fly to us from any of those places. Not sure why that is, he definitely wants to fly to me but can't quite do it on his own. I did have a sad moment when I wanted to have cuddles and he didn't and flew to his tree. :-( But luckily he does want to hang out almost as much as I do so that is good. I was afraid he secretly hates me or something and would want to fly away from me but luckily he still wants to be with his Mommy! So far so good. If anyone has any tips on how to have him understand he can fly to us from his stands and cage that would be great.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Ugggggg I think we may have to get Ollie clipped because my son almost let him fly out the door and almost crushed him.in the door in one fail swoop. Yes he knows better. Gah.. it's only been a week since Ollie started flying so I'm pretty upset. We did talk about having to probably clip Ollie if we took him with us on car vacation and on flights (too dangerous in hotels and such with people coming in and out and people not knowing birds can fly ect). At least we wouldn't suddenly have to clip him.for a vacation if he was used to flying. Maybe when my son us a bit older we can let Ollie fly free! Gah I'm upset about it though. I don't want to do it but I don't want to loose my baby either.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

It must be so hard with young kids and birds. I don't know how you're going to talk to your son about leaving the door open, but I hope you don't have to clip Ollie. If you do, please realize that he can still fly if he gets outside, because the wind can carry him up into a tree and he'll be gone. And birds can fly with just a few flight feathers grown in, so if he grows a few feathers back without you noticing he can also fly away. As for going on vacation, I don't think it's worth having to clip him just so you can take him with you. I think you should board him or have someone take care of him while you're gone.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Yeah I understand what you're saying but we will be traveling a lot and Ollie is so bonded to me that boarding him is just not good for him. He would hate that. He's traveled before and lived it...I think the benefits outweigh the down side of the clipping. He is such a happy little bird and he just wants to be with me. Even now that he can fly he just wants to sit on my and hang out...he only flies back to use potty and then wants me to go get him. He also dive bomb attacked my son earlier and got scared and my son was coming in the door at the time and he actually was partly outside but didn't fly away. Also a worker who is doing construction on our house left the garage door open yesterday despite being told a bunch of times my bird could fly away. I was about to die. My son maybe going to boarding school at some point so I think next time he grows them in we'll probably keep them in. He only has 3 flight feathers in and he is flying like a pro and I'm thinking it's just not that safe right now for him to be flighted but my ultimate goal is to not clip him next time they grow out. My heart is broken but I can't loose my baby!

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Have you clipped Ollie yet? Please do make sure if you absolutely have no other choice but to clip him that a vet does the job.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Yes we clipped him and yes a vet did it! I wasn't taking any chances with my baby. He is clipped but he can still fly to his play stands and stuff so it really hasn't been so bad or different for him so far but it's been like 8 hours. He is not mad at me. Sweetest bird ever.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

If he can still fly inside the house he can definetly escape out an open door and catch a gust of wind. I'm sorry that you had to clip your baby's wings. I could not imagine doing that to mine.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Well he definitely can't ascend at all but if I give him a lift he can get to his stand which is mainly where he wanted to go anyways and he tells me when he wants to go there. He does go down really fast now so I know this will keep him safe and I never take him outside without a harness clipped or not. I hate clipping him but it's only temporary until the workers are gone and he'll be free to fly next time his feathers return. I can't wait...I loved seeing him fly. Thank you for your sympathy... we're going to make it as easy as we can on him and if he wants to go somewhere we will take him even if it's not something we want to do...he should get to choose!