Learning to fly, prematurely?

[Clueless]

Watch your wood trim. They get to chewing on that.

I know of a family that lost their amazon to an unknown reason but they told me the bird had been recently chewing on wood trim in their home.

 

[Linwood]

Watch your wood trim. They get to chewing on that.

Yeah, so far I've retrieved her from anywhere not "approved" quickly. I am fortunate (though prior to a parrot annoyed) to have low ceilings so she cannot get out of easy reach.

What is even more worrisome is that I have big TV's hanging on walls that to me look like ideal perches. So far she has not tried to land on those, but that beak could destroy the OLED screen in an instant.

So I'm rewarding her anytime she lands on a real playstand or perch.

 

[merlinsmom13]

Yeah, so far I've retrieved her from anywhere not "approved" quickly. I am fortunate (though prior to a parrot annoyed) to have low ceilings so she cannot get out of easy reach.

What is even more worrisome is that I have big TV's hanging on walls that to me look like ideal perches. So far she has not tried to land on those, but that beak could destroy the OLED screen in an instant.

So I'm rewarding her anytime she lands on a real playstand or perch.

Not just the beaks, merlin has 5 tvs destroyed in 19 years. That stuff that falls from their arse is powerful

 

[Linwood]

Well, she has progressed. It's VERY slow getting her to fly to me, but by standing progressively far from the cage with a container of food shaking, she will now fly to me about 6' away from the cage. Sometimes. But no where else when asked. Last evening she took off from a perch, fly right by me and all the way to the other end of the house because that's her usual trek.

But there's some progress.

Now on the other hand, today I was eating chili and salad (after giving her some salad pieces which she was not very interested in) while she was about 10' away on a perch in front of the TV.

All of a sudden flapping wings and her aiming directly for my bowl of chili. I got my arm in front of her for a landing in time, but...

The period of food-covered amazon appears about to begin.

Otherwise she is still landing only on approved airports. So far. But is going back and forth a lot amongst them. I'm getting trained to duck when going down the hall and hear wings behind me.

But I'm sure the first plate landing will be tomato sauce and not something harmless. Fortunately red trim on green feathers can be nice looking. Just not having it spread all over the house.

 

[Linwood]

A brief update --

Long, long ago when we had a newly hatched child, we were anxious he learn to crawl. Then we found that once crawling, he had to be watched every second, as in 3 seconds he could vanish from a room and be getting into mischief either dangerous or annoying.

Well, the same is true of flight.

As I write this, my amazon is making pass after pass from a play stand in one corner, across the top of my head (just barely missing) to the cage. Stop, wait to see if I react. Fly back to the play stand and try again. Over and over.

Papers no longer can sit on my desk without weights on them.

If I go to the kitchen, shortly she appears on the play stand there to "help" me with screams and whistles.

If I go back to the office she often beats me there.

Another unexpected downside is that if I go to do something like trim her nails, it becomes a game. She used to sit mostly still and let me clip them, now as soon as I approach with the clippers she's airborne. Have not resorted to a towel wrap but I may have to.

She eats more and more, and has gained about 20g; I think mostly muscle (and probably a bit of feathers), and is more active generally. Flying clearly agrees with her.

So far I've kept her to landing only on approved stands. The occasional exception (e.g. landing across from me on the back of a chair while I eat) get met with a tossed napkin or towel; sorry, it's perhaps negative reinforcement but it's painless and it works.

But it's just like the crawling child -- there's a definite amount of regret when you get what you were waiting for.

 

[Linwood]

Well, since I was giving a tale of flight, another update after 2.5 more months.

Pesto now loves to fly. Flies a lot. Her main entertainment is enticing me to get near her so she can fly away. If I'm sitting a the computer working, I get regular (and increasingly lower) fly-by's and she then sits on the cage (a few feet away). If I move toward her she flies to the stand in the same room. If I move toward that just as I'm getting there, she flies to the other end of the house and a stand there. If I follow it keeps going, if I don't, a few minutes later she returns and starts the low pass flight again to get me engaged.

She's clearly not trying to avoid me, but effectively to get me to chase her.

The upside is we both get exercise (after gaining about 20g she's back to her purchase weight, I think not from change in diet but from a lot more exercise).

If I'm cooking she always comes to visit (stand in the kitchen area) but frequently she just spends 30 minutes or so flying back and forth to the other end of the house, with departures and arrivals every couple minutes.

Birds like to fly -- who knew?

The downside is if I actually want to do something with her - bath, lock her up, etc., she can't tell the difference and it becomes a bit of a chase, though I'm learning to get a hand up in front of her probable path and she cooperates. Or there's always food - she will do most anything for walnuts.

I have so far been successful in "approved airport landings only". She gets a cloth or something tossed at her instantly on the rare times she lands elsewhere, and has stopped trying. I'm sure I will regret saying this but weeks have gone by with only landings on stands or cages or outstretched arms.

Now the vet visit last week was interesting. Getting her to stand still for a weight check took MANY tries and then it was maybe 2 seconds. She more or less remembered the "approved landing spots only" and just flew in circles or back to me, though once landed right on the vet's head. But tries to get her to hold still to be touched just resulted in more flying in circles, so she got toweled for the exam, but it went reasonably well.

Vet says I need to train her better. Probably right, but I'm pretty happy she's learning to fly to/from approved places only. Enough so I generally leave her out when I go for groceries, etc.; so far she just picks a spot and takes a nap.

 

[Clueless]

Flying truly is a great exercise for them.

Secret just flaps her wings at excitement for medicine and I know that helps her muscles.

 

[TikiMyn]

Well, since I was giving a tale of flight, another update after 2.5 more months.

Pesto now loves to fly. Flies a lot. Her main entertainment is enticing me to get near her so she can fly away. If I'm sitting a the computer working, I get regular (and increasingly lower) fly-by's and she then sits on the cage (a few feet away). If I move toward her she flies to the stand in the same room. If I move toward that just as I'm getting there, she flies to the other end of the house and a stand there. If I follow it keeps going, if I don't, a few minutes later she returns and starts the low pass flight again to get me engaged.

She's clearly not trying to avoid me, but effectively to get me to chase her.

The upside is we both get exercise (after gaining about 20g she's back to her purchase weight, I think not from change in diet but from a lot more exercise).

If I'm cooking she always comes to visit (stand in the kitchen area) but frequently she just spends 30 minutes or so flying back and forth to the other end of the house, with departures and arrivals every couple minutes.

Birds like to fly -- who knew?

The downside is if I actually want to do something with her - bath, lock her up, etc., she can't tell the difference and it becomes a bit of a chase, though I'm learning to get a hand up in front of her probable path and she cooperates. Or there's always food - she will do most anything for walnuts.

I have so far been successful in "approved airport landings only". She gets a cloth or something tossed at her instantly on the rare times she lands elsewhere, and has stopped trying. I'm sure I will regret saying this but weeks have gone by with only landings on stands or cages or outstretched arms.

Now the vet visit last week was interesting. Getting her to stand still for a weight check took MANY tries and then it was maybe 2 seconds. She more or less remembered the "approved landing spots only" and just flew in circles or back to me, though once landed right on the vet's head. But tries to get her to hold still to be touched just resulted in more flying in circles, so she got toweled for the exam, but it went reasonably well.

Vet says I need to train her better. Probably right, but I'm pretty happy she's learning to fly to/from approved places only. Enough so I generally leave her out when I go for groceries, etc.; so far she just picks a spot and takes a nap.

Sounds like she ia doing amazing!!
I love the game she plays, great that she gets so much exercise like that.
Honestly if the vet could towel her when she was already out without a ton of trouble, Id consider that a win hahaha. I have one of my birds trained so I can check everything om him, but with the vet they have to catch him in the carrier because otherwise it would not go well. They let him escape twice during this, that was fun This goes for all my birds except 1, maybe 2.

 

[Linwood]

Honestly if the vet could towel her when she was already out without a ton of trouble, Id consider that a win hahaha.

I've got her where, with about 50% success, I can get her upside down and hanging on my fingers. From there to dropping into a towel it's largely a matter of timing.

But yes, that went a bit better than I thought. And she's not much of a biter -- she will make you think she is, but as amazon's go she's more of a vegeterian than a finger eater.

 

[TikiMyn]

I've got her where, with about 50% success, I can get her upside down and hanging on my fingers. From there to dropping into a towel it's largely a matter of timing.

But yes, that went a bit better than I thought. And she's not much of a biter -- she will make you think she is, but as amazon's go she's more of a vegeterian than a finger eater.

Thats really awesome!! Do you practice with treats or playfully as you handle her?
Your last comment made me really laugh

 

[Linwood]

Do you practice with treats or playfully as you handle her?

Mostly treats, though she actually likes to hang upside down especially since she learned to fly (i.e. not to fear dropping). She just doesn't like me to decide when it's time. But while upside down I'll open a container of nuts and let her (still upside down) pick one or two (it took me a while to realize she could hold more than one in her beak at a time).

While she's more comfortable inverted now that she flies, she also feels more in control so it's harder to get her to make the flip, often she just takes off. So it's a bit iffy on any given attempt whether she'll hang on, or just fly away. Once inverted she's usually good -- twisting the neck in some weird dance.

But it's far less traumatic to get her wrapped in a towel when lowered upside down into one than trying to throw it over her.