Post by deebee on Jan 30, 2015 13:59:26 GMT -8
I cannot express how important I believe it is to teach your bird recall training. Whether you do it to free fly outside, or fly on a harness or whatever, it doesn't matter. As long as you can get your bird to recall indoors then if they ever do get out you have a very good way of finding them
To teach a bird to step up, simply follow these steps;
- Put your hand near the bird and the target in front of it. Get the bird comfortable with your hand around them by rewarding them for touching the target when your hand is close
- Gradually move the target over the top of your hand so that the bird is having to stretch over you to get to it. This will help get over their fear of your hand directly in front of them and will encourage them to make the big step
- Put the target just out of reach behind your hand. Fingers crossed your bird will understand that to reach the target, they have to put a foot on to you
- Again, move the target further away from your hand and the bird should be able to put both feet on you to get the reward
At this point you're going to be adding in your cue if you wish to use one. Most bird owners say 'step up'
- Once your bird has gotten the hang of stepping up on to your hand comfortably to reach the target, take it away. Hopefully your bird will now know that to step on to your hand (or arm, depending on the size of the bird) means an awesome reward will be coming their way
Keep it up from there! Teaching a bird to step up is important. You can get them out of situations you don't want them to be in, you can move them from A to B quickly and you can spend more time with your bird hanging out on you
Teaching recall is essentially the same. You just have to increase the distance from the perch to your hand/arm with the target behind it and get them to come further each time. Hopefully you will soon be able to do that without the target too
I highly recommend that you teach your bird to fly to other 'stations'. Before Clyde (orange winged Amazon parrot) flew to me, I taught him how to fly between cages. He would happily do that without having to worry about coming to me. This built his confidence up over time and allowed me to get through to him in the end
I just want to include here a little story about losing one of my birds, Kona. Kona (Alexandrine parakeet) was completely hands off when I got him but seemed to take a shining to myself immediately. He caught on with recall very fast and soon I was doing it with him all around the house. My intention was to get him a harness and start letting him explore the great outdoors. A few months into training, he managed to escape his cage AND get out of the house. I had absolutely no idea how... not one clue! But that's not the important part. As soon as I found out that he was missing I began ringing around, posting pictures and any information on the internet to get my baby back. He had been found within a VERY short period of time and I was able to collect him first thing in the morning! Do you know how I got him back? He flew to an older couple enjoying their time outside in the sun. He just went straight to them! Had it not been for the training, he wouldn't have known how to get to them. He had to go to the vets as soon as I got him back as I believe he was caught by a cat on the way to them, but at least they found him. He was put on antibiotics and had some subcutaneous fluids. Had I not have decided to train him recall, he would have probably just flown to some woods and would have been impossible to locate. I would absolutely love to free fly parrots in the (hopefully) near future and since losing my flock I haven't been able to carry on with that, but I will eventually try again
To teach a bird to step up, simply follow these steps;
- Put your hand near the bird and the target in front of it. Get the bird comfortable with your hand around them by rewarding them for touching the target when your hand is close
- Gradually move the target over the top of your hand so that the bird is having to stretch over you to get to it. This will help get over their fear of your hand directly in front of them and will encourage them to make the big step
- Put the target just out of reach behind your hand. Fingers crossed your bird will understand that to reach the target, they have to put a foot on to you
- Again, move the target further away from your hand and the bird should be able to put both feet on you to get the reward
At this point you're going to be adding in your cue if you wish to use one. Most bird owners say 'step up'
- Once your bird has gotten the hang of stepping up on to your hand comfortably to reach the target, take it away. Hopefully your bird will now know that to step on to your hand (or arm, depending on the size of the bird) means an awesome reward will be coming their way
Keep it up from there! Teaching a bird to step up is important. You can get them out of situations you don't want them to be in, you can move them from A to B quickly and you can spend more time with your bird hanging out on you
Teaching recall is essentially the same. You just have to increase the distance from the perch to your hand/arm with the target behind it and get them to come further each time. Hopefully you will soon be able to do that without the target too
I highly recommend that you teach your bird to fly to other 'stations'. Before Clyde (orange winged Amazon parrot) flew to me, I taught him how to fly between cages. He would happily do that without having to worry about coming to me. This built his confidence up over time and allowed me to get through to him in the end
I just want to include here a little story about losing one of my birds, Kona. Kona (Alexandrine parakeet) was completely hands off when I got him but seemed to take a shining to myself immediately. He caught on with recall very fast and soon I was doing it with him all around the house. My intention was to get him a harness and start letting him explore the great outdoors. A few months into training, he managed to escape his cage AND get out of the house. I had absolutely no idea how... not one clue! But that's not the important part. As soon as I found out that he was missing I began ringing around, posting pictures and any information on the internet to get my baby back. He had been found within a VERY short period of time and I was able to collect him first thing in the morning! Do you know how I got him back? He flew to an older couple enjoying their time outside in the sun. He just went straight to them! Had it not been for the training, he wouldn't have known how to get to them. He had to go to the vets as soon as I got him back as I believe he was caught by a cat on the way to them, but at least they found him. He was put on antibiotics and had some subcutaneous fluids. Had I not have decided to train him recall, he would have probably just flown to some woods and would have been impossible to locate. I would absolutely love to free fly parrots in the (hopefully) near future and since losing my flock I haven't been able to carry on with that, but I will eventually try again
