Recall training - experiences

[Skarila]

Hi all!!

I am curious for those who did train recall training - how did it go for you? Did you start with an already tame bird, or did you perhaps had a non tame bird who was reluctant with hands?

Did the recall training pay off? Does the bird do recall every single tame when you want, or is it strictly on the bird's terms when they know "hey this is a training session so I know I will get a nice treat!"

I'm curious about everyone's experiences and how did they do it!

Here's my begginer's experience:

Now, I have a 10 month old emma's conure Pascal - I got him from an aviary, so he was completely wild and terrified from people. I think that now it is exactly 8 weeks since I have gotten him, and with a lot of patience and love and lots lots of training, I am getting him to participate with recall trainings. We started small, from simple step ups. Now he got that one down, so from apple (his high value treat) he gets millet (good treat) for his step ups. Then slowly I started moving away so he had to jump onto my finger instead of stepping up. He was quite reluctant the more I moved away, usualy maximum was 1.5m away. But today I could successfuly recall him over and over across the room which is approx 6 meters, which is amazing! He is flying much much better, and I believe it is good to train his little brain that he has to think WHERE to land during his flight. And boy, he is getting good. I am hoping soon to move him to fly to other rooms as well, he is still stuck in one room only as he doesn't trust me entirely, when he is spooked, he will not step up or come to me just yet.

Now he is trying to land on my head or back as I am writing, but he is so terrified, but he keeps trying but fear is so strong for him. I think he is testing where and how to land, so I try to be super calm for him when he tries to come. After a while he will learn to land on either me or the table without getting spooked

 

[chris-md]

Sounds like you're doing a great job!

I did recall trainign with my eclectus. He never flew, except when startled, and he wasn't good at landing so it was always a terrifying crash landing. So I started recall training primarily to teach him to land properly.

It had a greater effect than I could have imagined, for better and for worse. It opened up a lot of confidence and general curiosity. He has long been a perch potato, but suddenly he learned that his wings could be used for something , which encouraged him to...be less stationary than I would like, sometimes, but that's just a bird being a bird.

His recall isn't very tight, but that's due to his unique circumstances surrounding his severe barbering. He's only flighted for about 3 months out of the year, so much is lost over those other 9 months he's incapable of flight.

 

[Skarila]

Sounds like you're doing a great job!

I did recall trainign with my eclectus. He never flew, except when startled, and he wasn't good at landing so it was always a terrifying crash landing. So I started recall training primarily to teach him to land properly.

It had a greater effect than I could have imagined, for better and for worse. It opened up a lot of confidence and general curiosity. He has long been a perch potato, but suddenly he learned that his wings could be used for something , which encouraged him to...be less stationary than I would like, sometimes, but that's just a bird being a bird.

His recall isn't very tight, but that's due to his unique circumstances surrounding his severe barbering. He's only flighted for about 3 months out of the year, so much is lost over those other 9 months he's incapable of flight.

Oh Sweet Ekkie baby! I am sure your ekkie is very thankful that you taught him that a bird can fly - yeah I also get kind of nervous when our birds get really flighty, but as you said, it is in their nature. It is good to give the birds some confidence.

What do you mean by your last sentence? He heavily barbs for 9 months, making him flight impossible for him?

My Pascal sadly will not come to me unless there is something for him, and if he is heavily afraid of something. Or when he is somewhere he shouldn't be. He then rather flies off elsewhere.

 

[chris-md]

Yes Parker barbers (chews his feathers up). He molts in September all new feathers, and is fine until around Christmas when he starts chewing his feathers apart, everywhere but his head and tops of his wings. By March he has zero tail feathers, and maybe 1-3 primary feathers on each wing (he destroys all secondary and most primary feathers), and no body feathers (just down feathers).

It’s this sept-dec timeframe where I can work on flighted recall. After that we have to leave it alone.