Flighted Parrots/ Not Clipping Wings

I was recently asked by someone who is wanting a parrot that can fly if I ever have any trouble with my birds flying into things and getting into trouble. This was my response....

Hi there,
We haven't really had many problems with having flighted parrots. Though, you wont want to run the ceiling fan when your bird is out of its cage and occasionally when I need them to go back into their cage they will fly up to our ceiling fan where I cannot reach them because they want to stay out longer. Usually, they go back into their cage really easy when I give them peanuts and treats, but if I give them lots of treats when they are out with me then they are less motivated to go back into their cage.
One important thing you will want to teach your bird right away is to fly to you. Pretty much you just call for it to come and give it a treat when it does. So if it were ever to fly up in a tree or something, you should easily be able to call for it and it come back to you. My birds can go outside with me and not fly away, if they get spooked or scared they try to go under my hair or down my shirt. However, I don't recommend taking your bird outside without lots of training inside 1st and even after training it would be a big risk. A great place to fly your bird might be a church gym, big building, or just at your house. So your bird is safe from hawks and other outside hazards.
I have never had problems with them flying into windows or toilets or boiling pots on the stove, nothing like that. I took my birds to the windows when they were younger and let them tap on it with their beaks and see that they can't go through it, and I even taught my female about the stove being hot by heating it up (not hot enough to burn) and having her feel it. But you might want to use more caution than I did with stove stuff and just keep your bird away from a hot stove when its out of its cage. And make sure to always keep an eye on it when it is out of its cage. Sometimes my birds escape out of their cage, but they always find me wherever I am in the house. The link at the bottom has some good info-
The 5th article down deals with flighted parrots. A great thing about flighted parrots is that you can potty train them to fly to their cage to go potty. yay :) enjoy

http://theparrotuniversity.com/articles.php

Sunkiss and Pyro below

How to tell if your bird is going to lay an egg :) ?

Sunkiss below is a single factor, red factor sun conure and she is about to lay an egg!

Notice the big round egg looking bottom of the bird, and the wings are held slightly down. Sunkiss always holds her wings lower when she is about to lay, maybe its the discomfort of having such a large egg in a small space.

(Here is a tip video on how to get your parrot to stop biting for anyone who is struggling. Its not my video, but I occasionally get asked about the subject. So here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbXHrqqEIp4 )

Babies and Parrots

I had mentioned that I would post on this topic after seeing how life goes with having two sun conures and a baby. My daughter is now 1 year old and loves the birds. With any pet you want to be very cautious and always supervise your pets around your children especially if they are babies.

My daughter heard Sunkiss and Pyro when she was still in my womb and after she was born I nursed her near the cage. She could easily sleep through their screaming and after a few months she would giggle if they screamed.

My male Pyro showed a lot of aggression and would lunge at the cage if I held her up to the cage and Sunkiss showed no aggression. Since Pyro seemed to be upset about having a baby close to his cage I began to ask him to do a trick and then I would give him a treat. Several things have happened over the past few months. We left the birds for a couple weeks with my in-laws when my husband and I went to Colombia, and we moved into a new house. So, with those 3 factors - treating him when my daughter is near, moving to a new house, and leaving him at the sitters - he has not shown any aggression towards my baby anymore. I'm thinking it mostly has to do with giving him treats, but who knows maybe he thinks we will take him back to my in-laws if he doesn't behave Haha.

Anyways, when my daughter was 11 months old I let her start giving them treats through the cage herself. I have only let her give them millet because that creates a lot of distance between her hand and the birds. I will try to upload a video to show her feeding them.

Since my female Sunkiss has never shown any aggression towards my baby I let her out of the cage today and took their picture together.

Usually I let both birds out of their cage when my daughter takes her nap. Occasionally I let them out when she is in her walker or crawling around, and they always seem to want to stay away from her, which I think is a good sign (I'd rather they ignore her than fly at her). I'm always with them when I let them out and I'm very cautious not to let my daughter touch them at this age since she's at the 'grab everything and put it in your mouth' stage. When Sunkiss was around 10 weeks old my little Niece could hold her and gently pet her with supervision and Sunkiss was too young to think about biting. Now that Sunkiss is older I wouldn't trust a baby petting her quite yet, maybe in a few more years when my daughter can pet nicely.

Tips-

When introducing your baby to your parrot...

*Read your birds signs -If your bird has shown any aggression when he's inside of his cage don't let him outside of his cage with your baby near it.

* Give it time- let their be a few weeks of your bird showing good signs toward your baby before letting them near eachother.

*Give your bird treats when your baby is near.

*Babies fling their arms around a lot so make sure your baby doesn't hit or grab your parrot.

*Take your parrot out of its comfort zone. -time for family pictures- We took Sunkiss and Pyro to our church to have family photos done. Pyro was not cage protective because he wasn't around his cage. He did great around the baby and showed no signs of aggression. The only down fall was that one of my birds pooped on an usher's head :O

*If your bird bites you, don't chance it with your baby. You need to deal with your bird trusting you before letting it around your child.

*The younger the bird is the easier it is to introduce them to your kids.

*Never leave your baby alone with your bird.

*Try to never yell at your bird or your child. If your baby or kid touches the bird cage and you respond in a negative way, your bird will pick up on that and maybe become even more aggressive when your kid gets near the cage. Vice-versa if your yelling or mean toward your bird, your child will most likely follow your example.

BEST WAY IS TO BE VERY POSITIVE. If your baby touches the bird cage - pick your baby up and give your birds a treat together, and soon both baby and birds will be happy and get excited when they see each other.