Feathered beasties...

[kittyhazelton]

Since about 3yrs ago, I've been training Chica my B&G macaw female for educational programs.
She has been doing fantastically and we are now at a point with her that she can visit schools, birthday parties, and public events like a pro.

However, he flight training has been inconsistent... lack of space for indoors "open-air" work has been a bit of a hold-back, but she happily swoops through my house with ease on command. For outside training she has a flight harness which she tolerates & gets excited about putting on since it means we're going "out". It took our neighbors a few looks to realize we were flying an actual bird outside and not a kite at first. hahaha!
She spends any moment that I'm home "out" of the cage, wether it means following me around the house while I do chores, or sitting in her favorite window. When I'm not home and she needs to be "contained" she resides in her giant octagonal macaw cage where she spends most of her day napping, snacking on her healthy pellet & fresh veggie/fruit mix, gnawing on her toys, or playing with her bell.

 

[kittyhazelton]

WOOPS! I posted this in the wrong "other pets" section... can an admin please move it to the cats/dog/bird portion? Sorry about that.

 

[Chub_by]

That is just amazing! Rarely seen a parrot that was taken care of so well

 

[creativityasaweapon]

Beautiful bird! How long did it take to get comfortable with the harness? (i have a grey, so I'll triple that time ha)

 

[kittyhazelton]

Beautiful bird! How long did it take to get comfortable with the harness? (i have a grey, so I'll triple that time ha)

Not long at all! She's a great bird to work with & tolerate poking/handling/whatever so all I really had to do to get her "used" to the harness was just distract her from gnawing on it. With a little positive reinforcement it was a piece of cake.
For me, I see no point in having a bird that cannot fly, being able to get her harness trained was a priority for safety when out in public & I was lucky that it went so well. There is some info on the website about how to introduce your bird to the harness which may help: http://theparrotuniversity.com/aviator_harness_inst

 

[creativityasaweapon]

My wife and I rescued ours about a year ago. He's still recovering from a botched wing clip, but as soon as those primaries grow back, he's going to learn how to use them.
I also believe that a bird should fly. Why modify the bird when you can modify its surroundings to accommodate the birds natural ability!

 

[doomiedee]

Wow that's cool. I wish my cockatoo was still here. I miss doing thing like that with her. It toke a really long time and dedication but I manged to teach her how to whistle words and a few tricks. Her favorite was riding on my rc car around the house. Not sure what it was about the car but she loved it and would ride on it at will


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[TheNewSeverum]

Such a beautiful bird. I have always wanted a blue and gold macaw. I worked with a few of them and they are such incredible birds.