baby catalina

[Sarah13]

thank you so much for that support. first problem is to keep the house shot all the time ,afraid she would fly away. today she start to land in my hand from the top of the kitchen . i think i need to train her outside the house. can`t decide at the moment witch way to go. if i "only " ask my Ginger to be able to fly around the area and get back ? in same area . is it call free flight and need to train her everyday for 2 hours ? does she will fly whenever she likes ? just feel the house does not have enough space to 5 people and a big flying bird landing and flying everywhere. she is amazing ,very clever ,still eats her formula twice a day so it still difficult to refund with food.in Israel there is no free flight trainers so i have less information in Hebrew. almost all the macaws in ISRAEL are clipped so i feel doing something not practical mybee to daily life. because to commit to such a lot of time for life is big responsibility.

A bird can learn both coming and going when asked or to go as they please but staying in the general vicinity. Those are both called "freestyle" and "at liberty" free flight respectively.

Training for 2 hours can be a lot but if broken down or based on your particular bird's attention span, you can do that. When free flight training is in full swing, you will easily blow past 2 hours and they will be happy to do so. Also, any encounter with an animal is "training" whether you are meaning to or not...you are either increasing the chances that the animal will want to interact with you and behave in a way you find desirable or it will not. They are constantly observing and learning from you and their surroundings because as a prey animal, their life depends on it. With something like flight, they can focus and participate much longer than say tricks or other behaviors we commonly teach them as flight is so natural and is crucial to their survival. Due to this, they will instinctively want to invest their energy and mind to it with little to no motivation while fledging. That's why getting an unweaned or pre-fledged bird is ideal for free flight. You have that very small but optimal window of time to train the safety behaviors needed for outdoor flight with little to no work compared to an adult bird at which point, you will have many other issues including "instinctual drift" to contend with.

You're right, a house no matter how spacious, if we're being realistic, is not large enough for a macaw to get proper flight in but with your large yard, if flight training is not possible, think of investing in an aviary? You can look into safe containment materials that allow nearly the next best thing to free flight which is the opportunity to have a large, safe outdoor space to spend time and fly. That way, if triaining and resources are limited in your country, your bird still has the chance to fly and be outdoors while remaining safe. While young, they are so full of energy so it can be challenging to have a flighted macaw in a house but with age and your training/care/patience, they usually calm down and mellow out. My 2 macaws are indoors and flighted but are happy to sit around unless it's "fly time" especailly my older one. I see you're on FB. I can find you there and get you connected with some reputable free flight trainers. Free flight is still a taboo practice for the most part in the US.

 

[GIL KARNI]

tank you so much for your kind willing to help. can i talk with you on phone ? it will be much better to understand all what you means. like : "instinctual drift"
what do you think o training outdoor with harness ?
my communication with GINGER is amazing .we were visiting and help feeding since she was 1 month. now she is at our house for about 3 weeks.ifeed her twice with formula and the other time give her all the solid food.

 

[GIL KARNI]

when is it the best time to train my parrot ? morning ? when she is hungry ?

 

[Sarah13]

when is it the best time to train my parrot ? morning ? when she is hungry ?

Training is forever and always as they are constantly learning from you what makes them comfortable or uncomfortable. Multiple short sessions are usually best to maintain interest and "leave them wanting more" so motivation is not lost/there is no boredom and burn out.

Having them "work for their food" at breakfast time or dinner time is always good whether it be through foraging or training/flying versus free feeding all the time (leaving a bowl full for them to just eat as they please). I personally do not agree with weight management to train though (having a bird weigh a certain amount before you train) as I think the weight of a bird is irrelevant to its motivational level and desire to eat. Always weigh your bird for health reasons/training experience but not for the purpose of deciding WHEN to train or feed them etc. Weight management can damage the relationship if done incorrectly as they will quickly learn that YOU are the bad guy withholding food and are causing their hunger. Political correctness alert...heavy people get hungry and are as happy to eat as skinny people, vice versa. A fat bird will becoe hungry and want food just like a lighter bird. (starving, extremes, health etc obviously taken into account) so making the bird weigh a certain magic number doesn't really determine if they are hungry or motivated at that moment. The same can be said with aversives aka negative reinforcement (a type of discomfort that is presented to get a certain behavior to repeat ie spraying a bird with water to get it to be quiet or sit still over lunging). They need to understand what you need/want from them or they will not understand the aversive and again, see you as the bad guy. If good training and relationship are in place though, aversives can be used in emergencies and not damage the relationship and of course, get the behavior you want/need (Quickly grabbing them to keep from getting hurt, accidentally bumping or scaring them if you or they fall or are trying to get something dangerous away from them etc etc).

Appetite and Food management are different and I do agree with these and so will your bird as relying on hunger is used very little and eventually not at all to get motivation from your bird. The ultimate goal behind these approaches is that you will not need to rely on food to train. When the appetitive aspect of obtaining the reward (yay I did it right/won the prize) is stronger than the consummatory aspect (physically eating the treat or receiving the toy/reinforcer) you will have a bird training and flying for you willingly and not based on hunger. You will be able train/fly a bird that just ate and often times, when given the treat after completing the behavior, they will just drop it, not wanting to actually eat it but merely earn it and having that positive interaction with you. Rienforcers should be an event (you're so happy, you both have a fun moment together as they get the food/toy/touching or praise from you etc) instead of just the physical reinforcer being given and then moving on. They LOVE the excitement and drama so that social bonding moment really gets them motivated versus a boring "hand treat, eat, repeat" moment. You can also free feed (leave food in the cage all the time at this point and it won't affect trainability or motivation). My girl has gotten to this point and many free flyers I know also experience and work off of the appetitive aspect of motivation versus consummatory. After a big tasty breakfast to fill up their tanks, they all hit the sky for fly time!

Not saying these concepts are "my way" the only way etc, they're just a scientifically proven way supported by many well-known and successful bird and other animal trainers/behaviorists. When new proven concepts are discovered and presented, have an open mind and follow if you can. Truth and evidence outweigh tradition and emotions. Sorry, long boring BIRD NERD moment over.

 

[TikiMyn]

That was not boring at all, I loved Reading that and learned a few new things as well! Thank you!

 

[Sarah13]

That was not boring at all, I loved Reading that and learned a few new things as well! Thank you!

Daw, thanks. I've gotten my hand slapped pretty hard in the past for giving training advice so I'm a bit gun shy. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

 

[TikiMyn]

Daw, thanks. I've gotten my hand slapped pretty hard in the past for giving training advice so I'm a bit gun shy. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

Ahw I understand not every one wants to do free flight, but I admire everyone who does do it(responsible, I had a friend who just opened the door and her untamed lovebird flew outside, the third time she never came back)! I am not sure I Will ever do it with my lovies though as they are so small and light, but who knows if I find a good training and flying on the harness outside Goes well

 

[Sarah13]

Ahw I understand not every one wants to do free flight, but I admire everyone who does do it(responsible, I had a friend who just opened the door and her untamed lovebird flew outside, the third time she never came back)! I am not sure I Will ever do it with my lovies though as they are so small and light, but who knows if I find a good training and flying on the harness outside Goes well

That's great that you can get your bird out and sorry about the lovie that left for good.
A major bonus to the concepts I stated above is that they apply to any interaction with any animal instead of just flight training. All owners can use them with thier birds even if they will never fly or any animal for that matter...their dog, horse, cat, reptiles etc even applies to people.

 

[TikiMyn]

That is why I love it so much! I had Something like that with Max(cat) before I became a bird lady he would do quite Some tricks and in the beginning, he only did it for the treats but then later he would do it for fun! I try to get my birds motivated that way, we are in full progress, Some days they drop 50% of their treats and other days they are not really up for a lot of training, so we Will just keep building on that untill our bond becomes like the one you described

 

[SeverelySweet]

That was a GREAT read, Sarah13! Thank you!

 

[GIL KARNI]

my Ginger still eating formula and the new solid food fruit 'nuts etc. she is not eating all the time so it happened i try to call her with pecan nuts and she ignore it. also started to show her the outside, she was with the harness and suddenly to fly up /// till the end of the rope . and land not so peacefully. i mean when she is out she has the instinct to fly/// how would you do that ?

 

[Sarah13]

That is why I love it so much! I had Something like that with Max(cat) before I became a bird lady he would do quite Some tricks and in the beginning, he only did it for the treats but then later he would do it for fun! I try to get my birds motivated that way, we are in full progress, Some days they drop 50% of their treats and other days they are not really up for a lot of training, so we Will just keep building on that untill our bond becomes like the one you described

That's epic! Have fun!

 

[Sarah13]

That was a GREAT read, Sarah13! Thank you!

No biggie and thank you!

 

[Sarah13]

my Ginger still eating formula and the new solid food fruit 'nuts etc. she is not eating all the time so it happened i try to call her with pecan nuts and she ignore it. also started to show her the outside, she was with the harness and suddenly to fly up /// till the end of the rope . and land not so peacefully. i mean when she is out she has the instinct to fly/// how would you do that ?

You can totally have her fly for her formula.
Spooking outside is very natural so safety skills for how to reduce that or for the bird to have the appropriate reaction (where to fly, how to come back, evasion of predators etc etc) all need to be taught indoors first and then some are refined outdoors when enough progress has been made inside. You then learn how to select locations for outdoor flight that cater to the bird's development level, your training level, and recovery potential. I do not feel certified to teach all of this information as, although I have a certificate in completing and intensive free flight course with a certified free flight instructor, I don't have enough experience to feel comfortable giving more than general advice and training concepts. If you're curious, a time line most free flyers I have observed usually start flying the bird outdoors at approximately 100 days old (3-4months).

 

[GIL KARNI]

thank you for all that information. she is 4 month . in the house she is flying ,and making circles. coming to me and flying back. it seems that she needs more space like the yard outside.

 

[faislaq]

How is Miss Ginger doing?

 

[Sweet Louise]

might want to watch this

 

[faislaq]

That was terrifying for me! So many horrible things could have happened to him. It's very hard for me to watch videos of birds outside, even on harnesses, ever since Pistachio was taken.

 

[aooratrix]

While she is so young do you have a way to keep her out of the kitchen? Even tacking a curtain up to deter her?

My young ones would fly everywhere, it was constant moving them. They would land on the TV and I would put them back on their playstand.....Repeat Repeat Repeat sometimes 30 repeats a day. Think of your bird like your human child. How many times did you have to repeat yourself to your son?

Yes you need a stand. It's needs to be entertaining with toys and treats. This is where my babies played.

Show off! LIKE.

 

[GIL KARNI]

How is Miss Ginger doing?

SHE IS WONDERFUL. Start practice flying outdoor.