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Newbie, question on taming / clipping

Zara

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Nice to hear you are making some progress;

There's a toy just above that, with 3 bells, that he jingles constantly. I imagine he'll get bored with it at some point.
You could swap it for a different toy every other week. Keep things interesting :)
 

EmZee

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I might need to swap it out - he's really *obsessed* with the thing.

It attaches to the side of the cage, with a flat platform sticking out, and on that a vertical pole that has the bells attached via short arms. He'll spend large amounts of time standing on the flat platform, between the cage and the vertical pole. I wonder if he thinks we can't see him there :D.

Some progress: he's definitely flying. Not gracefully, and not a lot - seems to have trouble controlling his direction etc. Early this week, the cleaning lady was here. I went over to Morty's cage to fix the exit ladder (I'd moved it when cleaning the cage) and he bolted. I asked the cleaner if she saw where he went - and apparently held gone about 25 feet into the dining room. I was worried he wouldn't be able to find his way back. The cleaner finally caught him, and brought him back near his cage; at that point he knew where to go.

A day or so later, he flew around the famiy room, bounced into a wall, then stood there on the table beside my husband - and stood there, clearly thinking "Oooookay, NOW what have I gotten into?". I approached with some spray millet and a perch, which got him to bolt again - but at least this time, to his play tree.

Earlier today, he flew from his cage to the kitchen counter. I had to go to the bathroom, and while I was in there I heard Morty flapping off somewhere. I couldn't find him for a while - but he turned up not far from his cage. So, clearly he can find his way home at least from the kitchen. Everyone in the house now knows, SHUT THAT TOILET LID.

We've quit leaving millet hanging from his play tree, as he doesn't need that incentive any more. Instead, I'm holding a piece near him, and he'll now eat as long as I don't try to get my fingers too close, as that tends to require a nip from him. I'm using a perch now to get close to him; he's actually been maneuvered into stepping on the perch a time or two. I also try to chant "Birdie Crack" every time he's taking millet from, hoping that he'll become conditioned to associating that phrase with goodies.
 

Lady Jane

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Since he is familiar with a ladder you can use that to for him to step up on. I think it works better than a perch held in your hand.
 

EmZee

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That's a good idea!!

I've had some luck with placing the millet just the other side of the perch, and he'll step up on it. I was able to move the perch from one spot to another on his play tree - just a few inches, but even that's a victory - without his fluttering off in a panic, though I'm sure he was quite confused.

Naughty birdie does NOT like having my hand near. Yesterday when he was on his tree, I placed millet on a lower level where he evidently saw it - he was clearly eyeing it and debating whether to risk going near me to get to it. I put my hand on a railing an inch or two away from him, and he bit me several times. Not too hard, but still! I was actually not making any attempt to touch him, just trying to see if he could get used to my hand being nearby. I did say a loud "No!" the first time, but then just left my hand there for a minute or so without saying or doing anything else, as i didn't want him to learn that biting makes hand go away.
 

Monica

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as i didn't want him to learn that biting makes hand go away.
On the contrary, leaving your hand there and "allowing" him to bite you is teaching him to bite you.... so really, if you don't want him to learn to bite, remove your hand! Don't put him in a position where he feels the need, or desire, to bite, and he will not learn to bite. If you do get bit, don't ignore him. Instead, remove yourself from the situation, even if it means prying his beak off of your flesh and give yourself some time to think it over and how you can avoid that situation in the future.
 

EmZee

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Good point. I still think that leaving my hand there *that time only* was the right thing to do, but in the future, I'll avoid putting my hand where he's been known to bite in the past.

Still proceeding with the hand-offering millet while saying "birdie crack". I took one long piece and cut it up into shorter (1-2 inch) lengths so I could manage it better; my thinking is that **at some point** I might try resting my hand in such a way that the millet is on top of the flattened hand, just to see if he approaches. I've been able to hold one of those pieces in my fingertips, near him in the cage, and he goes for it willingly as long as there's no finger closer than the munchies. Aside from that, I'm trying to avoid putting my hand in his cage at all except when changing his dishes, as I really want him to forget about the bad associations from when he first arrived (chasing / grabbing).

He really likes hanging out on a bell toy I have fastened to the outside of his cage. Obsessively so, I'm beginning to think - may be time to change that out. Earlier today I walked over to grab a spray of millet and offer it to him; normally he'd bolt from that toy to his nearby bird tree when I approach, but today he didn't; in fact when he scrambled to avoid me, he wound up standing on the millet. I carefully moved the spray to the tree, about 8 inches away, and he didn't panic and flutter off until the very last inch. That's progress, I guess.

I had to laugh today: his bird tree has several flat surfaces, and I had left a spare perch (used when offering millet, to encourage him to step onto that). He was trying to get to a piece of dried fruit, and wound up standing on the perch - which rolled a bit as he stood there. If a bird can look confused, he did - but he persisted in going after that tidbit!

He's making sporadic attempts to fly. Yesterday and again today, he was standing on one of his out-of-cage rope perches, flapping frantically and going nowhere. I wondered if he forget to let go with his feet. He finally took off today, and flew about 15 feet to the kitchen floor. Then he made a pretty good vertical takeoff, swooped back to the family room, swung a hard right to avoid one of the half-round windows, passed by the other half-round, and bounced into the wall - OUCH!! He definitely squawked when he hit. He plopped down to the ground (fortunately there is a blanket folded up below where he hit), and he quickly took off again to his tree then his cage, so I guess he's OK!! His wing-flapping is always really loud, which surprises me; is that typical or just because he can't control things well yet?
 

Kiwi & Co.

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His wing-flapping is always really loud, which surprises me; is that typical or just because he can't control things well yet?
Kiwi's wings are loud too and he's clipped.
 

EmZee

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So another question on bird safety. We're keeping toilet lids down. We generally come and go through the garage which opens into a tiny laundry room with a door into the garage and a door into the rest of the house. The "week" point, entry-wise, would be the front door but that's around the corner from where Morty hangs out and we would be able to do a visual before opening the door to make sure he was not nearby. There's a screen on the kitchen window (the only window we routinely open). We're using a towel to cover dishes in the drying rack (in case he lands on those - to protect the dishes vs the bird). We are learning new habits re using the stove / leaving things unsupervised (e.g. simmering soup overnight is only done when he's closed in his cage).

A friend who lives with us is really pushing me to set up some kind of enclosed area for him. He's currently in our family room, which is one of those open spaces that continues on to the kitchen, and beyond that through two archways are the dining room (straight ahead) and a hallway that leads to the front door and upstairs (to the left).

1) A wall of sheer fabric hanging from the ceiling, to divide the family room from the kitchen. I'm not one to dwell on appearances but I think this would look horrible enough that even I would hate it.
2) Using a mosquito-netting holder or similar to make a sort of "flight tent" for him in the family room (though honestly there's no way it could take up more space than his play tree, so really not much flight room)
3) we have a little used "office" near the front door which we could in theory add a door to - this would require several thousand dollars of work and would require me to work in there to keep him company - vs the family room, where he and I are in the thick of things. On the other hand, it'd be something like an 8x8 foot room, with tons of flight space.

I think all of these ideas are overkill. The house isn't designed for birds, obviously; if I were designing a place from scratch maybe I'd try to set up something bird-friendly from day 1, like a screened-in porch, but that's not my reality.

Am I being irresponsible in refusing to consider any of these? #1 would be the best combination of large safe space, affordability and social interaction. I could put a storm door on the front door, which would provide one extra barrier to a surprise escape, but that's a relatively minor part of keeping him safe.

As a side note: there will be a dog visiting for about 2 weeks starting this weekend. We will definitely have to be extra vigilant to make sure Morty is safely in his cage whenever the dog is around.
 

Kiwi & Co.

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we have a little used "office" near the front door which we could in theory add a door to - this would require several thousand dollars of work and would require me to work in there to keep him company - vs the family room, where he and I are in the thick of things. On the other hand, it'd be something like an 8x8 foot room, with tons of flight space.
I think you should keep him where he is because he could get lonely in another room if he doesn't have a budgie-buddy.

As a side note: there will be a dog visiting for about 2 weeks starting this weekend. We will definitely have to be extra vigilant to make sure Morty is safely in his cage whenever the dog is around.
I have two dogs and I just keep a spray bottle full of water near Kiwi's cage just in case. My dogs got bored of Kiwi after a week, and now only one of them gets interested if I start talking to Kiwi while she's nearby. What kind of dog is it? If it's a Rat Terrier or some other high prey-drive breed then you'll have to be extra careful.
 

EmZee

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Is Kiwi out of her (his?) cage when the dogs are around? The dog in question is pretty high energy and very much a terrier, so unless he were to be here permanently vs a visit, I doubt we'd be able to acclimate him sufficiently that the bird would be safe.

A funny story from a friend: she has conures, and cats. I asked once if the cats tried to eat the birds. She said that they learned fairly quickly that the birds were also part of the family and not toys / snacks. Then she had me in stitches telling me of the time the *bird* chased the *cat*, screaming his own name the whole time.
 

Kiwi & Co.

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Is Kiwi out of her (his?) cage when the dogs are around? The dog in question is pretty high energy and very much a terrier, so unless he were to be here permanently vs a visit, I doubt we'd be able to acclimate him sufficiently that the bird would be safe.
I only take Kiwi (Him) out while the dogs are either outside or in their kennels. The interested dog (Indi) is part Austrailian Cattle Dog and I don't trust myself to be able to get to Kiwi in time if Indi tried to jump at him. The spray bottle is for protecting Kiwi when he's in the cage. I also have a gate/fence around his cage for extra protection.

Cage with gate:
IMG_4286.JPG
(Sorry for bad quality on this one)

Indi in the snow outside: (She was still very young in this photo, she's a little bigger now)
IMG_8702.jpg
 

Kiwi & Co.

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Both photos were found on google image seach.
I found this cart to explain indi's size:

She's in the small category.

Photo of Austailian Cattle Dog with person:
 

EmZee

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Indi's beautiful!! I love those pale blue eyes; I'm always startled to see a dog with eyes like that (have seen Huskies and Aussie shepherds with light eyes).
 

Kiwi & Co.

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Indi's beautiful!! I love those pale blue eyes; I'm always startled to see a dog with eyes like that (have seen Huskies and Aussie shepherds with light eyes).
She has one blue eye and one brown eye, so sometimes when you look at her in dim light she looks like she only has one eye!

Photo of Indi's face:
IMG_8805.jpg
 

Monica

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With a previous dog and a cat (both since passed), my house was a little backwards.... my conure chased the cat... the cat chased/harassed the dog. Mind you, the dog was half akita, possibly half pit and 75 lbs! (akita for sure!) I didn't actually allow birds to interact with cats/dog, but it was one time I had conure out. He's one of the bigger species, so not as big of a concern as if he was smaller. (still concern, mind you!)

My birds are actually in a bedroom. This keeps the cat and dog away from them. They come out either when the others are out/away or if I take them in carriers. My current dog is a husky mix (i.e. malalute/siberian - brown eyes) and could care less about large, sedentary parrots. Small flighty ones on the other hand? Very interesting! And I have some birds who aren't fond of predators, so I keep them separate. Personally though, I would love to have all the birds cage free in the room, but it's too small for my liking for all of them. I've done it before in a previous house in a larger room. The budgies I had at the time ended up basically being flying mice! Chewed on *EVERYTHING*!!!! I'd actually rather prefer to have a room with outdoor access so they could have an indoor and outdoor area and plenty of room to fly!
 

Gribouille

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Personally though, I would love to have all the birds cage free in the room, but it's too small for my liking for all of them. I've done it before in a previous house in a larger room. The budgies I had at the time ended up basically being flying mice! Chewed on *EVERYTHING*!!!! I'd actually rather prefer to have a room with outdoor access so they could have an indoor and outdoor area and plenty of room to fly!

67490072_1247203395439292_6846131492767137792_n.jpg
 

EmZee

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Love that house design!! Anyone ever seen that show on Animal Planet where they remodel homes to have animal habitats? I saw one where the couple rescued parrots, and there was an outdoor aviary as well as a lot of fantastic indoor facilities. I was jealous and I didn't even have a budgie yet.

That full face photo of Indi is one of the best pet photos I've ever seen - as in, professional quality. Beautiful puppy, perfect head angle, perfect background.
 

Gribouille

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Love that house design!! Anyone ever seen that show on Animal Planet where they remodel homes to have animal habitats? I saw one where the couple rescued parrots, and there was an outdoor aviary as well as a lot of fantastic indoor facilities. I was jealous and I didn't even have a budgie yet.
That's my dream... Actually I have had a real dream about living in a house with a gigantic green house like this one, where I had tunnels and grass for the guinea pigs, a little stream running through and many birds flying around. When I woke up in my apartment, I was depressed for at least 3 days...
 
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