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Help with Escape Artist

Mrs Featherton

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Welp, many of you remember Murphy’s adventure when he escaped out the door. (He was outside for 24 heartbreaking hours before he finally flew back onto Momma’s head!)

Well as traumatic as that adventure was for him (he stayed inside his cage VOLUNTARILY for nearly 2 days after that!), he now seems DETERMINED to go back out into the big wide world!

It’s like he stalks the door just waiting to zoom out!

My house is small. It’s a tiny cape with an open kitchen/dining/livingroom on the first floor, and 2 beds and bath upstairs. Murphy’s cage is in the livingroom so he can, of course, be with his peeps.
I can’t put him alone in an upstairs room - what kind of life is that?
And though we are EXTREMELY cautious and aware of Murphy’s location anytime we open the door, you all know how fast a determined lovie can be! He’s like a guided missile!

So my question is - to clip or not to clip?

Because it’s not a question of IF he gets out again, but WHEN. We’ve had 2 near escapes in the past week!!!
We are in the country surrounded by tall trees, owls, hawks, racoons and other predators, so we simply CAN’T let him get out and up into the top of a tree again.

Any and all constructive advice welcome. And don’t suggest we catch him and put him in his cage any time someone opens the door because that’s not practical. Most of the time it’s just me here alone with him all day and that’s pretty managable, but now it’s summer and the grandkids are always visiting and staying over and going in and out and we are spending more time outside ourselves....

Murphy has a big cage - should I keep him in it for the bulk of the afternoon? He’ll HATE that and yell to come out all day...

Ugh.... what to do?
 

TikiMyn

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Could draw a little map of the area his cage is in? Perhaps you could do something with curtains.. not sure! But clipping won’t Solve the problem. He sounds very determined, one of my lovies was recently clipped after being able to fly when I adopted him. He was able to fly with his clipped wings within weeks though, if I took him outside with clipped wings(I now you are mot planning on doing that! But if he would get out the door with clipped wings) he would have flown away easily in the wind. And then because he didn’t fly normally he would likely attract the attention of predators...

Could you place a sort of extra door? In the Netherlands a lot of aviarys have extra Gates. I was thinking of perhaps doing something like that When I move out. You could use aviary panels.
I couldn’t Find a proper picture and my phone’s battery is almost empty:p
3C188D61-F7C1-4BCB-A900-0956D263AD79.png
 

lisaraby

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I'd try really actively training him. It taken an insane amount of time and effort (and seeds), but if you get him clicker-spot-trained and recall trained, you will trust him to come back to you even if he does get out. And, train the grandkids! Get them to be conscious of opening and closing doors.

The other thing - I'm SUPER excited to try this - I just bought Indie a leash and harness from Leathers4Feathers on Etsy so Indie can hang out with me outside and go on adventures. It's also going to take an insane amount of training to get her used to the harness, but I can't get over how cute the lovvie on the page is! Lovebird SNAP Back Leather Bird Harness Leash and Case

Best of luck!
 

MeganC

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TikiMyn

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I'd try really actively training him. It taken an insane amount of time and effort (and seeds), but if you get him clicker-spot-trained and recall trained, you will trust him to come back to you even if he does get out. And, train the grandkids! Get them to be conscious of opening and closing doors.
That is of course a good idea as well, but it really won’t work if someone opens the door by accident:) I just wanted to point out if Murphy sees the open door and flies out becausebecause no one told Him to go to his perch. Training him to go to a certain spot shouldn’t be too hard, I think you could teach most lovies in a day to a Week. You could try training him to go to that spot whenever the door opens, but should something scare him he could escape even if Murphy himself didn’t mean to. Training grandkids is the best idea of course:D
Recall training outdoors is very different then training indoors, it can defiantly help though. One of my lovies landed in an open window one time by accident, because they are recall trained very well I called him to me and he came. Thankfully! But outdoors there are many other factors like the wind which may prevent him from flying to you. Harness training is a great thing to do and might cut his disire to escape down a bit it.
I would also advice taking him outside in a secure(I would lock the door like normal and add an extra quick link or something) travel cage. That way he gets to know the neighborhood and should he escape again, he Will have a better idea of where his home is so he is likelier to stay close/find his way back.
 

Mrs Featherton

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To address comments so far:

An aviary is not possible as he is free roaming indoors, not possible to leash him all day or any time the door opens, the magnetic screen won’t fit. (We have a main door and a screen door.)

I AM working on recall training. He did come back to me when he escaped and we will keep working on that.

I am most interested in views on wing clipping. Has anyone clipped a previously flighted lovie? I am only thinking of his safety here.
 

TikiMyn

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P
To address comments so far:

An aviary is not possible as he is free roaming indoors, not possible to leash him all day or any time the door opens, the magnetic screen won’t fit. (We have a main door and a screen door.)

I AM working on recall training. He did come back to me when he escaped and we will keep working on that.

I am most interested in views on wing clipping. Has anyone clipped a previously flighted lovie? I am only thinking of his safety here.
I meant to add an aviary door to the normal door, that way your house would be the aviary! This is what I mean:
image.jpg

Fëanor was flighted and then clipped by his previous owners and as I Said he flew again in two weeks. In a bit of time he build enough muscles to do laps around the room with clipped wings.
 

Mrs Featherton

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I meant to add an aviary door to the normal door, that way your house would be the aviary! This is what I mean:
View attachment 278716

Fëanor was flighted and then clipped by his previous owners and as I Said he flew again in two weeks. In a bit of time he build enough muscles to do laps around the room with clipped wings.

Yeah... no room :( 783CA47A-EBD2-4475-B504-B6E1DF60CB8E.jpeg
 

Porter

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We went through this with Maiboch, I also live in a teeny tiny house.

We used a sheet or a curtain that went over the door on the inside. It sounds silly yes but we would bypass the curtain and leave it hanging even when the main door was open.
Its a little awkward but it stops a determined birdie from escaping for the few moments that it is needed to shut that screen door :p.

Also if he is DETERMINED to go back outside... make a game of it.
Set up a small travel cage and put him in it without explaining what is happening, THEN take him outside IN the cage.
BONUS safe space... SUNSHINE!

Give him loooots of treats.
Do this everyday. He'll soon associate the travel cage with going outside and when he wants out will likely fly to that instead.
Thats how we got Maiboch to stop and we don't have a screen door xD
 

Mizzely

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I have used the magnetic doors inbetween regular door and screen door before without issue.

I'd probably hang a rod between the stairs and the door from the ceiling, and suspend a curtain there.

curtain.jpg

Otherwise, the easiest solution would be to either put the cage in a room with a door and make sure that is closed, or put him in the cage before the door is opened.

 

Mrs Featherton

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Yeah... he can get right around that curtain unless it went all the way up the stairs which is pretty silly.

No room with door to put him in and putting him in his cage each time someone wants to open the door is impractical.

Thanks anyway
 

TikiMyn

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Yeah... he can get right around that curtain unless it went all the way up the stairs which is pretty silly.

No room with door to put him in and putting him in his cage each time someone wants to open the door is impractical.

Thanks anyway
Perhaps a curtain to separate part of the living room? Or another curtain in front os the stairs? That way there js also less draft:p
 

Mrs Featherton

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Perhaps a curtain to separate part of the living room? Or another curtain in front os the stairs? That way there js also less draft:p

I appreciate the ideas, but hubby won’t go for that. :)

We’ll figure it out.
 

Mizzely

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I also agree on not clipping, btw. My Mother in Law relied on clipping and she ended up with a cockatiel found several miles away dead. :( It definitely doesn't prevent them from getting far!
 

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Is there a back door or other access point to the house you can use instead of the front door?

Regardless of what you do, it may be slightly inconvenient or not aesthetically pleasing. My house is currently covered in a bunch of random curtains to keep my birds from escaping. Open floor plans are annoying! :lol:
 

greys4u

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Because Valentine is close to the front door I had her wings clipped for safetys sake. She does swoop down to the floor but no flying. We have eagles, buzzards, birds, etc here
 

Mrs Featherton

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Is there a back door or other access point to the house you can use instead of the front door?

Regardless of what you do, it may be slightly inconvenient or not aesthetically pleasing. My house is currently covered in a bunch of random curtains to keep my birds from escaping. Open floor plans are annoying! :lol:
Both doors are off of the same room.
 

Diesel13

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I would think a curtain over the door would be the best bet. Lovebirds are strong fliers with small bodies, so even with clipped wings, they can still fly relatively well. A proper clip is to prevent them from getting lift, they should still be able to flutter around which can still lead to an escape. The only way to ground a lovebird is to clip their wings so far they drop like a rock, which is VERY dangerous and often leads to injury.

On another point, I clipped my nanday when she was 6 months old. She went from being a young bird who loved to fly to suddenly being grounded. I remember the first time she took off and fell, it seemed to traumatize her. She became less playful and even some days didn't want to come out of her cage. Eventually she started overpreening and shredding the ends of her feathers. I had a lot of medical tests done, diet changes, she lived in a huge cage, had plenty of toys, but she still seemed to be psycologly damaged from one moment being able to fly easily to suddenly being grounded.

When her flights came back in, she slowly stopped overpreening. Sadly, the overpreening behavior took a few years to go away because it became habitual to her. She is now 5 years old, an amazing flyer, in perfect feather, and as happy as can be.
Now I'm not saying this will happen to Murphy, but it is something to consider.

I would think trying to come up with a structural change to the environment would be healthier in the long run (20~ yr lifespan) than directly altering Murphy.
 

fluffypoptarts

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Whether it’s impractical, inconvenient, or whatever, please keep him safe.
 
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