Question about outdoor aviary time

[Minimaker]

I don't know if anyone remembers my birds but I have a nervously inclined greenwing macaw named Sailor, a goffins, two conures and three budgies. We've had them a year and finally built them an outdoor aviary this spring.

My goffins Mako adores being out there and is thrilled to fly around a bit (he's finally settled in and is fully feathered except for the occasional chewed odd one due to hormones) and I can leave him out for around three hours without him getting bored or upset. He seems perfectly entertained.

The problem is my nervous nelly greenwing Sailor. She hates it out there and she can't really calm down while out there. She was my nipper who finally came around after six months, but she never did learn to be happy or calm outside the cage no matter much we bring her out (and we do). It's been a year and her personality never changed much. She's happy as a lark inside her enclosure and she loves to be petted, kissed, and played with inside it-but take her out and forget it! Too nervous and wants back in, to the point she'll walk away from us and go back to her enclosure by herself and climb all the way back up to where she was or even higher on her higher positioned perches. This was nothing we did, she came to us this way. We've been nothing but kind and loving to her. And she does clearly love us back now, although it took some time working with her to earn that. She wants attention all the time and gets it, but she wants it only while inside the cage.

Well anyway my question is this-knowing how she feels about being outside, how long should I leave her out per day? She had a rough winter and I feel like the fresh summer air and light can only benefit her health. Most of you have far more experience than I do so I thought I'd ask. Should I force the issue and leave her out for awhile to get used to it or should I respect what she wants and only leave her out for a short period daily (weather permitting)? What's the right thing to do? And also, anyone with outdoor aviaries-what do you do about bugs? I'm finding it hard to keep bugs out of the food/water bowls and away from pestering the birds. Is there any trick I haven't heard of yet to solving that problem or is it a lost cause?

 

[SailBoat]

Noted that you're really not getting a response to your question. To me, it looks more like you are having an issue regarding your MAC wanting to be in its own cage. Therefore, being in the MAC section may have been a better choice, possibly with a title of My MAC fears being out of her cage, or like wording.

Try camping-out with her in front for her cage. Clearly her cage is her comfort zone. And you need to develop an extension of that comfort zone. Always target, only good thing happen when she is around her Humans. So, reward her when she sits with you just out side her cage.

As time passes, move a tiny bit further from the cage. As time passes by, you should be able to develop larger comfort zone.

You have already tried the stuff her out in the outdoor aviary and that is clearly not working for her.

At least every other day, complete the 'Real Estate Agent' tour of the inside of your home. Always end-up at your seating area next to her cage.


My Amazon is complaining that your parrots have prettier stuff then he has. Needed to remind him that he eats his fairly quickly.

 

[Minimaker]

Noted that you're really not getting a response to your question. To me, it looks more like you are having an issue regarding your MAC wanting to be in its own cage. Therefore, being in the MAC section may have been a better choice, possibly with a title of My MAC fears being out of her cage, or like wording.

Try camping-out with her in front for her cage. Clearly her cage is her comfort zone. And you need to develop an extension of that comfort zone. Always target, only good thing happen when she is around her Humans. So, reward her when she sits with you just out side her cage.

As time passes, move a tiny bit further from the cage. As time passes by, you should be able to develop larger comfort zone.

You have already tried the stuff her out in the outdoor aviary and that is clearly not working for her.

At least every other day, complete the 'Real Estate Agent' tour of the inside of your home. Always end-up at your seating area next to her cage.


My Amazon is complaining that your parrots have prettier stuff then he has. Needed to remind him that he eats his fairly quickly.

We take her all around the house on a daily basis, honestly. She's not left in the cage all the time. She's just not comfortable anywhere but the cage no matter what we do. We even take her to town with us sometimes. Anytime (and I do mean anytime) she's out of the enclosure she's nervous. We have a rolling playstand we roll up to the cage that she comes out on but her eyes are always scanning as if she's thinking nervously that something might get her. I only have birds on this level of the house and she is the biggest one. No one goes after her. I don't get it, I really don't. As for putting her outside, I sit out there with her, I have a chair inside it. She makes nervous noises and wants me to pick her up and her eyes are on the door like "Take me in Mom, take me in!" I don't want to cave on this completely because she needs true sunlight and fresh air. She had a bacterial infection this past winter and it was a struggle to get her over it. It was a hard few months and I know she needs the health benefits of being outside where it's light and fresh. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at it and it still took three rounds of meds to get her over it. I drove her an hour and twenty minutes one way to a better avian vet, I bought a good air purifier, I steam cleaned her enclosure often, changed her food, bought her an expensive water bottle made for big macaws in case it was her water bowl. Wiped down the perches daily. Our winter seemed to hit her like a ton of bricks. I want summer to hit her in a good way