outdoors with no cage

[JustineBird]

I can walk outside with justine on my arm and she will just look around and not move much. When I take her to the store on the weekends I can walk around with here and it seams fine.

I want to get her a Flight suit but I wanted to ask, what everyone has done who has a big bird like a U2 or a Blue and Gold or a Moluccan Too. How to get them interested so I can easily put it on and take it off without her flapping her wings or trying to bite me..

 

[wrench13]

Taking a parrot outside with out some sort of flight restraint OR with very heavy flight return training is just asking for your bird to fly away on you. Happened to me, happened to one of the most experienced Macaw people on here, just happened to someones little cockatiel on this board.

Everything seems fine until something sets the bird off. For me it was a truck hitting its air brakes, for Birdman it was a ladder falling, it can be anything, and POOF they take off. If you love you U2, get an appropriate size harness, watch some videos on putting them on, and trai, train, train. I been working on it for 6 months, they can be stubborn like rocks.

 

[JustineBird]

Taking a parrot outside with out some sort of flight restraint OR with very heavy flight return training is just asking for your bird to fly away on you. Happened to me, happened to one of the most experienced Macaw people on here, just happened to someones little cockatiel on this board.

Everything seems fine until something sets the bird off. For me it was a truck hitting its air brakes, for Birdman it was a ladder falling, it can be anything, and POOF they take off. If you love you U2, get an appropriate size harness, watch some videos on putting them on, and trai, train, train. I been working on it for 6 months, they can be stubborn like rocks.

That is true, I have Justines flight feathers trimmed so she can glide for a second then fall to the ground.. I avoid holding her high just in case.

 

[GaleriaGila]

The worry is that a swift gust of wind can lift a bird, especially if it is frightened (like us, they get extra strength when adrenaline is rushing)...

I hope you decide to use an additional technique. I think there must be no worse horror or heartbreak than losing a bird...

 

[jenphilly]

Start by working with just lifting and stretching out wings. I put on one Max pretty much cold turkey but he trusts me and I can pretty much manhandle him. So start with lots of handling, moving wings like you're checking new flight feathers (no rubbing or petting). Can you flip your bird on his back? I do the Lion King scene where Simba is presented, poor Max is on his back laying in both my hands fully supported. We play and I'll roll him over on his back and put toys in his claws. After stuff like that slipping a harness over his head and pulling his wings thru was nothing.

If you don't have that relationship with him, start with just laying the harness on his back and handing him a favorite treat.

Good luck! Time and patience.

 

[Anansi]

Taking a parrot outside with out some sort of flight restraint OR with very heavy flight return training is just asking for your bird to fly away on you. Happened to me, happened to one of the most experienced Macaw people on here, just happened to someones little cockatiel on this board.

Everything seems fine until something sets the bird off. For me it was a truck hitting its air brakes, for Birdman it was a ladder falling, it can be anything, and POOF they take off. If you love you U2, get an appropriate size harness, watch some videos on putting them on, and trai, train, train. I been working on it for 6 months, they can be stubborn like rocks.

That is true, I have Justines flight feathers trimmed so she can glide for a second then fall to the ground.. I avoid holding her high just in case.

Actually, even birds who have been clipped can still fly away on you. Clipped flight feathers are far more effective indoors than out, as a gust of wind can take them farther and faster than you might have imagined possible. Holding her low isn't an adequate safeguard against that. If you do a search on the forums of this site, you'll find a few members who lost their clipped birds that way.

Wrench13 is right about getting started on harness training your 'too. Here are two links that might help:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/59374-harness-training-videos.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/eclectus/57748-guess-who-finally-got-her-harness.html

 

[jenphilly]

Taking a parrot outside with out some sort of flight restraint OR with very heavy flight return training is just asking for your bird to fly away on you. Happened to me, happened to one of the most experienced Macaw people on here, just happened to someones little cockatiel on this board.

Everything seems fine until something sets the bird off. For me it was a truck hitting its air brakes, for Birdman it was a ladder falling, it can be anything, and POOF they take off. If you love you U2, get an appropriate size harness, watch some videos on putting them on, and trai, train, train. I been working on it for 6 months, they can be stubborn like rocks.

That is true, I have Justines flight feathers trimmed so she can glide for a second then fall to the ground.. I avoid holding her high just in case.

Actually, even birds who have been clipped can still fly away on you. Clipped flight feathers are far more effective indoors than out, as a gust of wind can take them farther and faster than you might have imagined possible. Holding her low isn't an adequate safeguard against that. If you do a search on the forums of this site, you'll find a few members who lost their clipped birds that way.

Wrench13 is right about getting started on harness training your 'too. Here are two links that might help:
http://www.parrotforums.com/training/59374-harness-training-videos.html

http://www.parrotforums.com/eclectus/57748-guess-who-finally-got-her-harness.html

I am working on recall training with my bare eye too. She has a tendency when she is vaguely hormonal to decide I can buzz off and she's not stepping off, she just flies to the highest point. So, with working on training to focus her, I have clipped her. I took her first 3 feathers because I did not really want to 'stop' her from flying, just from getting up to the 14' sections of our home where I can't reach her. Taking those 3 feathers did NOTHING, she still flew from one end of the house to other, gaining lift and landing like nothing was different. I took 2 more feathers (equally on each side of course), and the bugger head can still fly about 25 feet before she starts to drop. Please never never never think that clipping a bird is a safe option and will stop your bird from flying away. There was a photo that circulated recently of someone who lost their macaw, they had a show clip (which leaves the first long feathers so they cross on the back) and the macaw was gliding high in the air like there was not a feather missing.

Found it!! We had posted it on our AHW page...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...140.1073741829.100002775983439&type=3&theater

 

[Anansi]

Wow. A pic IS worth a thousand words!