How do you encourage Jasper to do his own flapping exercises?
He's been flapping in his cage hanging off a foraging toy that I put in the middle so it's inconvenient and wobbly enough that he winds up hanging from it. He's enough of a food hound that that did not put him off the toy at first. Now he'll hang off of it and flap for the heck of it (so far as I can tell, I'll come in and he's doing it anyway, and the food's long gone).
For our flapping exercises together, I have him perch on my arm and I run up and down the living room and kitchen. I'm sure it looks silly, but pride went out the window when I got a parrot, right? The first couple of times I just did one lap and he just hunkered down and held on tight. A few times later he flapped once or twice because he was off-balance and I threw a party for him (he loves it when I yell and sing excitedly) when he did so he knew that was the Best Thing Ever. Now he'll flap for two laps before he starts getting out of breath. I always tell him what an amazing boy he is when we stop and yell and laugh while we're running/flapping around.
I can only imagine what people might think if they saw me. Crazy lady running up and down her house yelling happily with a parrot flapping madly on her wrist...
Tonight he actually launched himself off my arm at one point while we were running. I don't think he actually meant to- he looked so surprised, but I shouted and yelled and made a huge deal about how brave and amazing he was. I think he just got so into the flapping, he forgot to hold on as tight as normal, but 'capturing' that behavior is something I want to do, so hopefully he'll eventually learn to launch himself on purpose.