(sighs)
- Oh, do you have stuff on your face?
'Cause I have stuff on my face?
Can we wipe your beak?
Oh yeah.
What is that?
That is like gloppy goodness.
Did you put in water first?
You make a soupy concoction out there,
'cause it's now on my neck.
(hands shuffling) That's delicious.
At least it's organic, we're all good.
All right, hi everybody,
Jamieleigh here from BirdTricks,
and today I'm doing a video
with my Congo African gray Cressi.
Although this applies to all previously clipped
or currently clipped birds
this video is gonna go over the do's and don'ts
of flight training your clipped parrot.
(upbeat music)
So I just wanna preface this video right out the gate
with we have free flight, successfully,
free flight trained birds that have been previously clipped
or currently clipped in our free flight
free cell fires course.
Now this comes with the exceptions.
Some birds are really set up to succeed
with this because they absolutely want to fly.
Some birds are better candidates than others.
Some birds really have the urge to want to fly
and to make it work while others could care less.
Maybe they've been clipped for 20 plus years.
Their muscles have all atrophied.
Anytime they do fly it's out of fear and it hurts
and it usually ends poorly with them getting hurt.
So they've just learned over time that flight equals pain
and they don't wanna give it a try anymore.
So I will say the number one thing
for getting into our free flight course
is your bird has to want to fly.
It can't just be the human wanting the bird to fly.
What are you doing?
Are you being good?
Are you getting hormonal?
You are getting hormonal.
Let's put you on a perch.
Okay.
On a perch with some toys.
See if that will distract her from being hormonal.
So she can still be in this video.
Maybe.
Do you wanna play with this?
No, just like, get it away.
How about this one?
This is some, oops, this one's really awesome.
You do get it.
Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it.
Not that, get this.
Are you really gonna be that hormonal?
Darn it.
Well,
can't really have that in the background of my video.
Doesn't make it totally kid appropriate.
So we're going to swap birds real quick.
All right.
I got my new filming buddy.
Yeah,
it's fine.
I match you better today anyway.
Great.
Joey, Angela.
Okay.
Now I made you fluffy.
So like I was saying
it really matters a lot that your bird actually wants to fly
and has an already associated it with pain.
A lot of older birds that have been clipped
for their entire lives do associate flight
with pain because they drop like rocks.
They end up hurting or breaking even their keel
or worse.
So it's just something that they've come to associate
with unsafe things.
So I'm just gonna go off of some of the
off the top of my head
do's and don'ts of flight training of a clipped bird.
Now none of my birds are clipped
so I couldn't really show these in demonstrations.
My birds have never been clipped.
And so it's a completely different mindset of the animal.
And it's,
it's just something that they've never
learned to be fearful of.
Although you are my laziest,
(murmurs) is my laziest prefers to walk everywhere flier.
You would think out of all my flock members
he maybe had been clipped,
but Nope,
that's just his means of transportation,
or what he prefers, walking.
Just easier right Dinosaur?
(upbeat music)
Okay.
So number one.
Do: Encourage your clipped bird to fly
through positive means.
So for example, flying to their favorite person
their favorite place,
to get their favorite thing
or to get their favorite treat.
So we want this to be positive interaction
as seen through your bird's eyes.
So do encourage your clipped bird to safely fly.
However, do not let your bird get hurt.
So this is really big and huge
because a lot of people go wrong in this
where they wanna encourage their clipped bird to fly
but they maybe are encouraging it
outside of what its abilities currently are.
So keep in mind what your bird can do.
If your bird can only hop,
then keep it to hops.
If your bird can go a couple feet
then keep it to a couple of feet.
But recognize what is outside your birds limitations,
and keep in mind that a clipped bird usually has
a harder time ascending
because they just can't get any lift
from the lack of wings there.
So just keep in mind what skill levels
you might be able to work on versus not.
What are you doing?
Are you listening?
Are you gonna (murmurs)?
How did you get out?
Did you slip under the door Blue?
Well, Blueberry was in her room.
Here's number two,
do provide padding
for your clipped bird.
So if you know that you're gonna be working
on flight training, please provide padding.
You wanna be in the video too?
Don't be mean to (murmurs). Okay?
So put pillows
or maybe yoga mats
or some sort of padding under places that you think
or know your bird is gonna try to fly to
and also try to beat them to it
so that you can either catch them intercept
or discourage going that far, which might be
beyond your bird skill level, if it is crashing.
So do provide padding.
Don't start high.
So with clipped birds
you really don't want them to fall and hit.
That's what we're trying to avoid.
We don't want them to associate flight with pain
because eventually their wings will come in
and they'll be more capable,
but in the very beginning, they're not
and they don't understand why their wings aren't working
when instinctively they're being told keep trying,
because baby birds are resilient
to an extent where they do keep trying.
Even if they get hurt,
even if they fall,
even if they crash
just like humans learning to walk
we don't just quit.
Once we fall down one time,
we learn,
"Oh maybe that wasn't quite the right way to do it."
Or we get better balance
or we get better speed
or we get better control.
It's the same thing with baby birds.
They're just learning,
or even clipped birds
and no matter the age.
So keep in mind
that you want to provide padding when you're working
on flight training with clipped birds
so they do not get hurt.
So maybe work over a couch
or just an area that you know is padded
and don't start super high up.
Okay, next is
do set your bird and yourself up for success.
Start small, build big.
So work within your birds means like I mentioned earlier
and then work up from there,
but be set up for success.
Have thought through your entire training plan
so that it'll go right
and go within what you were trying to accomplish.
The don't that comes along with this
is don't just have your bird out in the midst of chaos,
where it's likely to fly from fear
and likely not to end well
because you aren't all in and paying attention.
Keep in mind when you start reinforcing flight
from a clipped bird, it's a little bit out of control.
They don't have it down yet.
And they're gonna try to work on it randomly
when you may not intend to work on it.
So make sure that your bird's not out all the time
and able to work on it when you aren't ready to work on it,
because then it can get hurt,
and all the training and progress you would have made
could completely go down the drain
in just one learned session of getting hurt
because you were
out cooking and you couldn't attend to your bird.
So please keep those sessions in mind,
set up for success always when
intentionally working on flight training a clipped bird.
You guys are..
Oh, Barry, where'd you go?
Oh, you're there.
Just trying to get as close to (murmurs) as possible.
Oh my goodness.
At least you're being good.
My next do
is do desensitize your clipped bird.
A lot of the times clipped birds will not move
and will not fly unless it's out of fear.
We don't want only negative flights
which mean they happen because the bird is fearful.
So don't encourage flights that are chaotic
and out of fear because usually the birds are out of control
But do desensitize so that that's less likely to happen.
So the more you desensitize your bird
to noises, people, places, things,
the more adaptable it'll be
and the less likely it will be to fly uncontrollably
due to something that scares it.
Okay.
And my last do and don't is
do exercise your bird in other ways.
So foraging trees,
getting those muscles moving,
providing a big aviary
or enclosure where your bird can climb up.
Ropes,
climb on play stands,
climb on trees
all the things where it can just start using those muscles,
even if it isn't necessarily flying,
it should just be putting its wings out for balance
and just be utilizing its muscles.
So all those different little muscle groups
you wanna get going active.
What you don't wanna do is throw your bird down a hallway
or throw your bird to the other person in your household.
Your bird could have experienced major atrophy.
And just doing that simple flight
that you think is easy down a hallway
where the bird has no other choice but to just
go based on where you toss it,
could really be painful.
And then you've just associated flight negatively
and it's gonna be so much harder to rebuild trust
and everything else from there.
I know some of you are like
"who would throw her down the hallway?"
but
there's people.
So don't take shortcuts with flight training,
make sure that you're always keeping it fun and interesting,
and you're giving it almost as a way
of teaching your bird that
it's the easiest way to get what they want.
It's the easiest means of transportation
and how they can utilize it positively.
Don't think about how can I scare my bird into flight?
How can I put the,
the person that it doesn't like
behind it so that it goes somewhere.
Think about it in positive terms.
Like how can I encourage my bird to come to me?
Well, why isn't he okay doing it?
Maybe it's a lack of confidence.
Maybe it's just being so crazy fearful.
Maybe it's not being desensitized enough
or not having the right diet.
So your bird doesn't even feel good.
Just all these things can come into play.
So,
really make sure that
if you aren't quite ready to start the steps
of flight training necessarily,
make sure you're working on some form
of exercise where you're getting those muscles moving
and in motion for your bird.
But again, don't just hop the gun
and start tossing your bird into flight.
Okay. Good.
Kind of freaked out for a second
and thought my microphone wasn't on.
(chuckles)
All right.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
I hope these do's and don'ts
of flight training clipped bird
were really helpful to you.
If you have your own tips and tricks
of how you flight trained your clipped bird
please leave them in the comments below.
Sometimes it can really range
from small birds to large birds
to medium birds on how receptive they are to this.
I find that small birds when they were clipped
tend to bounce back a lot easier than the large ones.
So go ahead and leave your feedback in a comment below.
Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already
and I will see you in my next video.
Hey guys, one extra tip for fight training.
If you just feel incredibly stuck
with making progress for your bird,
and you're unable to find that one key motivator
that gets your bird to lift off and fly to you,
consider a one-on-one consultation.
My husband, Dave and I specialize in parrot training
and companionship,
and we absolutely love flight training
and do it on a one-on-one basis.
So consider doing either an indoor course with us
or our outdoor free flight course with us
and see if it's the right fit for you.
Well, thanks video helpers.
Wasn't expecting you use this (murmurs)
and you are so good.
Fluff.
So good.
(murmurs)
No,
No that's for Barry.
Just a little bit.
There's a little
okay,
baby Berry.
Okay.
Really proud of Blueberry
for being so nice to (murmurs) this entire time.
You are nice.
You were well behaved.
This is how you'd be a good friend, Barry.