Petey Setting Records!

[CocosMomma]

Well, I have excellent news to report - Petey is no longer flying backward at all!:dance: Yeah!!!

I think he's made fast progress. Without any proof to back it up, I'd like to think that it has something to do with watching Sammy fly. Sammy is absolutely expert.

I'd say about 1/2 of the time Petey lands where he intends. The rest of the the time he lands on the radio, knicknacks, tv, etc. I have to keep a close eye because he has no fear, and will land on Coco's cage... just don't want to test Coco's friendliness-factor....:help:

Petey may not always goes where he intends, but he is super, duper fast. I guess either Sammy is not in a hurry to get where he's going, or just his age has slowed him down a bit. I didn't realize until I saw both of them flying how much faster Petey is. Petey will just fly in circles around the room for 5-10 repetitions before he stops, and he's so fast I can hardly keep track of where he is. His weight remains a constant 90 grams.

I am guessing he is about 6 months old now, so given the circumstances of his early, massive clip-job, I think he's doing very, very well. He adores the air Sammy flies in....!:wub:

[Sue]

:dance: Great news!!!!!:woot: :goodjob:

[Shirley]

:goodjob: Way to go!! :highfive: :clap:

[Jim]

Great news!!! I'm sure watching Sammy helped with him taking to the air.

It's been my experience, previously clipped birds fly really really fast when they start flying. It's what they had to do with less wing to stay in the air for as long as possible to get where they intended to go. It's all they know about flying -- go as fast as they can so they can stay in the air. Then we wonder why they run into things or seem like they are dangerous to their self flying in the house when their wings grow back. Like a plane that lost part of it's wings. It could still fly as long as it goes FAST. He'll soon learn his wings have plenty of lift (catch the air) and he'll slow down.:D

He'll slow down and learn the skills of flying with practice and encouragement from you. I'm sure you will, but be careful not to let him have any or too many bad experiences while he's leaning this flying stuff.

You brought me out of lurkdom with this post.:)

[tropiclegirl]

:clap: :dance: Yeahhhhh! Thats great! :beerchug:

[scotty]

You go guys,:heart: :heart: :heart: so happy that your fellows are up and flying :emot-danc

[Budgie]

Funny thing,
my elvis [cockatiel] is getting the hang of it too!
He has just learned the secret of getting where he wants to go, which is up. He has learned that if I put him on the floor, he can simply fly onto my shoulder with 3 or 4 flaps of his wings. Also learned that he can perch higher then my shoulder and that picture frames make excellent, high, perches which require his owner to get a ladder. lol

[Jean]

That's fantastic! You go Petry.:dance:

It's also great to hear Elvie is learning too. :dance:

[CocosMomma]

It's been my experience, previously clipped birds fly really really fast when they start flying....I'm sure you will, but be careful not to let him have any or too many bad experiences while he's leaning this flying stuff.

Jim, thank you SOOO much for this information. This makes sense, but had not occurred to me.

I have felt conflicted (but no longer) about strictly monitoring his flying exercises and him not being out of the cage without 100% supervision. But as you mention, I have not wanted him to have a bad experience, and I have not felt comfortable with where he is on the learning curve that I can leave him unsupervised at a time when the only thing on his mind is flying.

I started with just being a foot from the cage practicing flying to the cage (it was hardly flying at that point) and systemically working my way further away until we are now at 5-6 feet working with flying to the cage signals.

I must supervise constantly because I don't know at what point he will decide to see the world for himself and I want to be there to be sure it is a safe and positive experience. It reminds me of when my mom used to let my sister and I walk to school alone. We walked down a side street, and never knew until we were older that all along my mom was walking on a parallel street, and watching us to be sure we got to school and were ok, but we thought we were completely on our own.

I want to see him get flying to the cage down solid, and he's not there yet. Sometimes he will still will 'miss the cage' slightly, or land on the side and climb up. And when I let him circle the room, sometimes he will go back to the cage and other times not. He's made great progress just be flying forward all the time, but there is lots more to work on.

Thanks for the confidence boost that providing a safe and supervised learning environment for his flying lessons is not simply my being over protective.