Hi...we recently got Chicken (about 6 weeks ago) and he's (I think it's a he...fairly young still) already happy with me putting my hand on the cage, will step up if I lightly touch his belly and will swap to another finger several times without flying off. He chirps when we come into the room as well which is very cute in deed! (I'm trying to get him to wolf whistle when my partner walks in eh he he). He's just started eating broccoli too which is good (been taking loads of advice form these forums

 

Anyway, we've just started letting him come out of the cage and have a bit of a fly around. He's quite happy to come out sitting on my finger...and will also go back into the cage without any trouble. Will also step up when I want to catch him, so no troubles there. At the moment we let him out in a room where all the windows have curtains. He flaps arund a lot, hits his wings on the ceiling and isn't too good at landing yet, but I think he's doing okay. The main problem is that we want him to be able to fly anywhere in the house, but we have some windows that don't have curtains. When we tried to let him out in one of those rooms he smacked straight into one of the windows and got a little bit of a bloody beak Needless to say we haven't let him out in that room again.

 

How do we get him to realise what a window is without him breaking his neck???

 

Cheers,

 

Meeks

 

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/uploads/photo-1598.jpg

 

eh he he...chicken is cute!!!

Hi! Chicken is adorable!!! Beautiful colour!!!

My budgies never really had a problem with windows - it was more the walls... :-S

It sounds to me that he hasn't quite mastered the flying thing yet... and so I think if you kept him in just one room for now, until he can land and not hit walls, then gradually open the curtains, a little at a time... and hopefully he'll get used to it...

As for letting him fly around the whole house, for me that means the danger factor to him goes up considerably! Not only do you then have to check that every window in the whole house is closed every time he's out... and no-one leaves a door to outside open, it'll make it harder for you to find him if you need to... and there's all the other usual hazards for budgies... and we all know how they love to get themselves into trouble!!!

The other problem that you may have at least initially is lack of orientation for the bird that is allowed to fly around the whole house... for example, my budgies are only allowed to fly around my room, the fact that I can leave my bedroom door open and they show no interest at all in what is outside the room gives me peace of mind... but Storm one day managed to fly around me as I was moving towards the door and in his fright at my sudden movement, ended up flying out of the door at which point he was out in the landing; somewhere he'd never been before and was just circling around madly because there are very few places to land... I was very worried in case he tired while flying over the stairs and would have had a long drop, putting him in yet another strange place... fortunately he decided that I made a good landing site and I was able to take him back into my room again. My point is that budgies view things such as doors (and windows) differently to us and therefore may struggle with finding their way from one room to another even with a door wide open... and although eventually I expect a budgie would get to know the run of the house, it would probably be important to at least introduce him to rooms one at a time and leave food and water for him in these rooms... I personally wouldnt give my birds the run of the house... but maybe there are people out there that do and can give you better advice!

I also tend to have curtaind shut with just a PLEASE BAN ME!! of light coming through when a new bird is learning to navigate the room. Like Allycat, I gradually open the curtains as the bird gets more confident and aware of his surroundings. I agree with all of what Alycat says actually, some good advice there. Also, beware of mirrors, birds do tend to fly towards that lovely bird flying towards them..... BUMP!I got round this by dangling a couple of pairs of ladies tights over the mirror at first, looked quite a sight, but it did the trick

The only fully flighted bird of mine that I will take round the house is my Teapot, because he will litteraly return to me on command everytime. Its not that often you can get a budgie to be so 'recall obedient' though, I guess I struck lucky with cheeky Teapot!

Also, if your bird has freedom of the whole house, it can be sooo easy to forget that just ONE small window may be open, and that could be the last you see of your precious friend.

It sounds like you are doing wonderfully with little Chicken, what a gorgeous bird!

Looking at the picture of Chicken reminds me of my Missie. She was killed by a jack russel who opened up the nest box and ate her. was terrebly upset. miss by missie. luve the sky blue colour budgies. Just bred a few of them including a violet sky blue brown wing budgie.

 

You know they say a dirty window if a safe windo. If it is clean the think nothing is there and fly into it. But if there is something there to let them know it's a window they usually wont fly into it.

 

I had a bird who loved sitting of fans and every time she'd come out it was straight to the fan. once she got a fright and flew behind the tv wall unit and we had to coach her out. everything failed, the treat, the bell, the cage, the mirror. so we got the fan out and just like that she came out and streight onto the fan.

 

But yeah curtains are the safest right now. the most the bird will do is climb up onto them. But soon you are going to have to introduce the bird to the window. When it can control it's flying better.

 

Once again beautiful bird.

I start off by covering the windows with newspaper but leave about a foot without at the bottom. If your budgie will walk on the windowsill he can then walk up to the window and learn what it is that way especially if you tap on it and maybe even take him right up to it so his beak can touch the glass a few times.I just gradually put less and less paper on working from the bottom up and I also spend a lot of time with the bird on my shoulder,close to the glass so that if he does suddenly fly towards it he is too close to be flying at full speed.

Thanks everyone. Will keep chicken just in the one room for a while...he's already gotten better at flying nad landing since yesterday though...I think he's a smarty pants And just keeps getting cuter every day

 

Might try the newspaper thing as well...all the windows in our house have flyscreens so no worries about open ones...but we have a parition wall in the loungeroom made up of a series of small windows. Very confusing for poor chicken!

 

Will chicken stay his light blue colour or will that darken???

 

Cheers,

 

Meeks

He should keep the light blue colour. The blue he is is actually called sky blue. It is I think the prettiest out of the blue series. We bred Missie the one that chicken so remindes me of and she was that colour right from the time she grew feathers to the day she died. She was 5 when she died.

 

I think he will stay that colour.