Wing Clipping Dilemna (Cockatiel.)

[turtleman]

Normally, when my cockatiel would get overly flighty, I'd clip its wings. But recently my family got a new puppy, who is in its roudy stages of puppy hood, and I'm not sure if I should clip my 'tiels wings just yet, just so incase for some reason, she decides to fly when she's out of her cage, she won't be in danger since she could get away from the puppy. The thing is, I'm a little worried about her getting out the door, because I know if she gets out, it'll be hard to get her back if she has her full flight feathers. What should I do?

By the way, would anyone be able to tell me if this is a male or female cockatiel by looking at this picture?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/weaslesRkool/Pablo2.png

It's a pearl white faced cockatiel, but I've been calling it a she for a while, seeing as how she hasn't lost any of her pearl markings, and she's almost a year old. (will be a full year in march)

 

[zarafia]

Welcome to the forum. After a few more posts you will be able to post attachments and such. We have these rules to keep spammers from cluttering up the forum with garbage. You would be suprised by what the spammers try to get away with.
Anyway from your description I would say that she is a girl. The only times I have seen male pearlies keep their pearls for a few years is when they are pied also.
I understand your concerns about the new puppy versus her getting lost outside. This is really a decision only you can make. If she has had full flight for a while now and everyone in your house is cautious about her whereabouts then I would say leave her the way she is. But otherwise it is probably wise to keep her wings clipped and only allow the puppy in the room when she is either in her cage or under your strict supervision.

 

[TexDot33]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/weaslesRkool/Pablo2.png

Zariafia is correct in the fact that it takes a few more posts for you to be able to post pictures ... but, in all my infinite wisdom 18::18 I have found a way around it. If a senior member replies to a post and copies the link in that post, the image will show up ... here is your cockatiel for everyone to see. I know very little about 'teils, and will defer to Zarafia on this one, I think she's something like a Demi-God or something when it comes to 'teils.

I might try to suggest something for you here, it's called "Recall Training" basically it's like training a dog to "come 'ere boy" on command. Both of my conures are 85% recall trained. My Sun Conure was very, very, very good at this before a incident with miscommunication and a rookie groomer ... (we aren't going to talk about this again ) ... so we have had to find ways to modify her recall training to keep up with it until her flights regrow.

Basically you get your bird to fly to you on command, and should work flawlessly if you have line of sight with your bird. I know a lot of people who do this with their larger macaws, and I have done it with conures so there is no reason it can't work with 'tiels.

:50:

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OOPS! Someone here uses a lot of Adobe ... PNG files aren't supported for inline thread pictures. Only .JPGS and .TIFFS (and movie files from photobucket) convert the file and we will see the picture in the thread.

 

[zarafia]

Ah that would be Cockatiel Demi-Goddess. He he he...
But not really, I'm just a big fan of tiels. I think they are way underrated. After 25 plus years of keeping parrots of all kinds a pet cockatiel is still just about my favorite bird.
And Tex, I tried to take a look at that picture, but it said " Page cannot be displayed". It might just be my computer though.

 

[turtleman]

How do I teach a tiel recall training?

And yeah, that's what I usually do, I keep her in her cage while the puppy is in the room, but since I'm stuck watching the puppy most of the time, that only leaves me an hour or so a night to bring my tiel our before I put her to bed.

Oh, and here is a working link to the picture of my bird.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/weaslesRkool/Pablo2.png

Just copy and paste that into your address bar, and it should work. (ignore the non-working URL Tags)

 

[TexDot33]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/weaslesRkool/Pablo2.png

Recall training is really easy ...

 

[turtleman]

Could you explain it to me?

 

[Redballoon]

Its like the theory of Implied linguistics,......its complicated.

 

[TexDot33]

Recall training is really easy ...

*scratching head* What the [censored] happened there? Sorry 'bout that, not sure why that posted like that ...

O.k., recall training it's kinda simple. I would suggest that you start small ... like a foot away from your bird's cage ... stick out your finger, give a command (I prefer "come 'ere", or "come") and see if you can get him to fly to you ... the first steps are minor, if you give the command and your bird takes a step towards you, it should be very highly praised! Each small step should be praised early in training, that way your bird kinda figures out what you want them to do.

Luckily for me, Hamlet always wants to be with me ... so when I would put her down I would watch her and just before I figured that she was going to fly to me I would give her a command and praise her when she landed on me ... I got a chance to train her to do something that she wanted to do already anyway, I just associated a command with the action making the training much easier initially. And now, she will come to me on command (when she can take to the skys ... but like I said earlier, we have modified the training so she does it on the ground now ... )from just about anywhere in the house.

 

[turtleman]

My cockatiel already flies right to me the second I open the cage. lol. I guess I have to find a way to make her stay down long enough to make her learn a command of some sorts.