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How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Discuss indoor freeflight and managing freeflighted birds around the house. How to live with a flighted parrot.

Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Michael » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:53 pm

I'll post some videos of this process in case anyone else is looking at this topic and wants to see how refledge training (or initial flight training) works.









If you're just doing this very casually, sure you can use chair backs or whatever. However, if you're serious about getting the parrot flying or you want to teach indoor flight recall, I really really recommend training perches (or other self standing perches). I'm not even doing this just to market my own product. The whole reason I came up with these in the first place was to solve this same flight problem with Kili.

Here are a few reasons I don't think chair backs are particularly good for this:

-Some are round or polished which can make them difficult or slippery to land on
-Parrot might start chewing them which could be a problem
-Parrot is likely to poop on the part you sit on
-The parrot becomes accustomed to landing on them and will land on them all the time
-Parrots usually poop on the place they land so if you really want to stick to using chairs, I suggest finding some at a junk sale or that you don't need.

The beautiful thing about doing the initial flight training on special parrot training perches is that the parrot becomes very accustomed to landing on them. They are unique to the parrot and become the parrot's place. It knows them as a safe place and will gravitate toward them under panic or distress. Since they look like nothing else in your home, you won't be inadvertently teaching your parrot to land on your own stuff. Seriously, this is what my parrots spend the majority of their time on when they are out of the cage (ok, Truman is bad and still flys up into my blinds but he is getting better to staying on the perches). I bought climbing trees for each bird that cost more than my training perches and yet the birds insist on spending all their time on the training perches anyway.

If I have guests over and Kili gets scared or just about any situation when Kili needs a "place to go" she tends to fly to one of her training perches. She knows where they are situated and she feels safe on them. It's much better for your parrot's hangouts and safeplaces to be parrot specific stuff and not like on top of your cupboards, on your kitchen table, etc. By having these parrot only places and doing a lot of training on them, my parrots have become accustomed to them as their place. I gotta tell you it works out great. Did I mention that 95%+ of Kili's out of cage pooping ends up on a newspaper under her training perch?

Even if you find the stands I make too expensive (or unavailable where you live), I still recommend following the concept in having a parrot specific set of perches for doing all training so the parrot doesn't get too used to hogging your own chairs or places for perching. You really don't want to encourage parrots to land on your stuff because where flighted parrots go, little butt nuggets follow.
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Michael
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Azure Hanyo » Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:55 pm

Very compelling points... I hadn't considered this. I have been looking into perches, and plan on using them in the future. Great videos! Thank you for the advice!!! I hope to be able to claim my birds are fully flighted some day! :)
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Kim S » Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:10 am

Thanks Michael. Those video's are very helpfull. Kika has finally started to pick up the clicker (or maybe I finally picked up how to teach it) and I an working my way through the 'easy' stuff like target and wave.
By the way he is clipped (cut down as far as the scissor would go :shock: ) I am pretty sure we will have to work very hard to get him to fly again.
Kika: Senegal Parrot.
Guus: Cockatiel, Yellowcheek, cinnamon, pearl, pied.
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Titanius » Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:36 am

Thanks Michael I'm gonna try this out with Jasper. Funny I asked a similar question should have searched before I posted. Lesson learned.
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Vikki » Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:30 pm

All of our birds are clipped, but both my Jardine's and Hahns can fly regardless of clip or not. The Jardines can't fly more than 10 feet, but he can fly. The Hahns is so small and strong that they can fly no matter what, just not so high. Our Catalina and Harlequin are both clipped, but have been flighted and don't fly much with all their feathers in tact. When we adopted the Catalina (Merlyn) he was so overweight that when he did try to fly, he did so like a rock. :D Now that he lost the excess weight and is allowed out for flight often, he doesn't bother even when we encourage it. Our birds are what I call "couch social", just like to hang out with the humans, play with their toys and that's about all. When given the flight option, they never do much of it.

We have them clipped now because we live in the country where one door or window accidentially left open would be disasterous.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. - Aesop
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby chapter » Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:07 am

Hi every one, I got a green cheek conure a month ago.He is now 3 months old, he was clipped when i got him. I want him to fly asap. How long will it take him to grow his flying feathers.I read it on net that the clipped wings can be plucked to get the flying feather fast.i don't know, can any one help me?
Thanks in advance.
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Michael » Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:12 am

It can take anywhere from 3 months to an entire year. They may never grow back if they were clipped or plucked improperly. Don't get them plucked because that can lead to follicle damage and the feathers may never regrow. The bird will probably turn out a bit retarded in regards to flight having missed the proper window for fledging but nothing you can do really but wait (or not clip in the first place).
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Michael
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby ghostrider1964 » Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:10 pm

I have ceiling fans and just brought a timenh grey home that was not clipped. She had been wild and very aggressive, so clipping seemed to have helped calmed her down. Should I expect her to become more aggressive if I allow her to regain flight at some point? I am seriously contemplating a large aviary to allow my birds the chance of flight. I know the cockatoo will fly if I let him. Part of my reason for joining this forum is to learn how to get the birds to return if I ever allow free flight them. I take them outside in their cages and on perches so as to get them as much fresh air as possible. However, I feel like a jailer sometime :roll:
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ghostrider1964
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Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby Michael » Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:00 pm

If you're looking to do outdoor freeflight, this is definitely NOT the place to consult about it. We do not have any members qualified to be giving beginners advice about this. Also it's not a good idea to be doing that with previously clipped house-parrots either. If you're looking for advice about indoor flight training and indoor freeflight, I think we can help you out. I think with proper training, your grey should be more cooperative regardless if clipped or not.
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Michael
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Types of Birds Owned: Senegal Parrot, Cape Parrot, Green-Winged Macaw
Flight: Yes

Re: How to get clipped parrot to start flying again

Postby ghostrider1964 » Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:21 am

Michael wrote:If you're looking to do outdoor freeflight, this is definitely NOT the place to consult about it. We do not have any members qualified to be giving beginners advice about this. Also it's not a good idea to be doing that with previously clipped house-parrots either. If you're looking for advice about indoor flight training and indoor freeflight, I think we can help you out. I think with proper training, your grey should be more cooperative regardless if clipped or not.

Michael, I am not sure I would allow any of my birds have outdoor freeflight anytime soon. My Timneh and Cockatoo were the mostly recently clipped and still try to fludder about sometime. My macaw is so large she would need to grow substantial more feather to have enough lift for much flight. The older amazon does not even attempt to fly and I have not clipped her in a year. Any flying would be kept to sometime of aviary. We have alot of owls and red tailed hawks. To put any of these birds out in free flight would be putting them at severe risk. Heaven knows, the hawks have killed plenty of my smaller chickens. I have a large chicken coupe that is 20'by 20' and 10' high. I have 3 large coups so I could free the one up for my house birds to fly in. The Timneh and the cockatoo seem to be the two that want to fly the most. I was letting the Cockatoo fly at first until a near miss with a ceiling fan.
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ghostrider1964
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