Unwanted behaviour with a nervous birb!

[Lauren]

Hi everyone!

Man, I haven't been on here in... a very very VERY long time!!!!

I come seeking some advice for my little white cap pionus, Lily!

I've had her for a few years now and she is still, extremely flighty, which results in her crashing into some objects, ie: windows, walls, doors etc...

I am trying to figure out how to entice her to stay on her cage and hang out there for a bit, without flying immediately off her cage and upstairs. I've tried the whole method of: she flies upstairs, I bring her down and reward, repeat 100x. But 9/10 times she refuses to take a treat or reward from me and keeps flying.

Anyone have any thoughts? I've tried hanging a blanket in the stairway that leads upstairs to deter her, but I saw her eyeing up the uncovered areas and she managed to fly to the stairs on the side, pull herself up, and fly from there

 

[Mizzely]

What about a boing for her to fly to? Having multiple high up perches helps my flighty quaker

 

[Lauren]

I have window perches on 2 windows, she typically flies to the one in the kitchen and then to the fridge (Which I am 100% ok with her sitting on) but if anything startles her she will fly in a panic to an unwanted area or room.

OR she will constantly fly to my boyfriend, which is an annoyance and a bit unsafe if he's not expecting her to launch herself at him.

 

[Mizzely]

Bobber does that too... I do use hanging blankets to corral him. For the stairs maybe try hanging streamers or ribbon every 6 inches or so in the areas that are too hard to cover with a blanket. They tend to avoid them for some reason

 

[Lauren]

I will try the hanging blanket idea again and maybe be a bit more efficient with covering the openings!!

 

[Monica]

If she wont take treats from you directly, can you set up treat stations where you *do* want her to stay, then just dropping treats and foot toys in there?

 

[Lauren]

@Monica I was thinking of that too.

The window perches I have are PVC and I could probably drill holes to rig up a treat cup. Because she'll eat things if I put it on the perch but maybe 2 out of 10 treats will be taken from hand.

 

[Lauren]

SO!!!!!!! I've rigged up some ghetto sheer curtains blocking the stairwell from the basement.

They were out of their cages ALL weekend and while Lily has tried to fly into it, she's not able to get upstairs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so thrilled that they can just hang out without being a velcro-birb and flying around upstairs. I'll post photos soon!!!!

 

[Mizzely]

Woohoo!! So happy that its helped you out