Exercising your bird...

[parrotntn]

I have recently started exercising Cleo. It was accidental to be honest. She was sitting on my hand and started flapping. I moved my hand up and down and she seemed to really enjoy it. I cue her to "wanna fly?" Starting out is only like about 2 or 3 minutes of it. I have to turn her towards me or she'll flutter off.
I can definatly see a difference in her afterward:
-She's more focused and attentive.
-Not as jumpy and nervous.
-A little less aggressive, not a whole lot, but somewhat.
-She's more tired. I can tell that by how she sits. Of course she hasn't had exercise since she's been clipped last fall. (I hope to let her become flighted again, but that was necessary at that time. I think she'll recall train ok).

Do you exercise your bird? If so, how? and how often?

[greencinacheeks]

well that is funny...i will have to give that one a try.

i have taught a few of my birds to fly on command to me(the 3 flighted birds i have) . so i have a them fly back and forth on queue.

but that seems like it would work well for clipped birds.

~N

[svolk]

I don't believe that I can give my birds better exercise compared to when they fly. They all do laps around the house at full speed and they all fly often (the budgies fly more than my tiel, but she still gets quite a flight workout every day). By the end of the evening they are happily worn out.

On Sunday I showered the budgies and after their shower I told them to go into the living room to play. Winston wanted to go into my bedroom though, to wake up my husband who was still sleeping He would fly from the bathroom to the bedroom and do 8 or 10 laps around the bedroom, then come back to the bathroom. He did this circuit 3 or 4 times. And when he was finished I went over to him and he wasn't even winded. When I first brought him home and he didn't have the strength to fly he would literally be winded from flying from one end of the room to the other.

Ways that we encourage flight and interact with them when flying:
1) We do informal recall training with the budgies. I hope to do this with Lulu someday too, but she's not super motivated like the budgies are.

2) We play "Throw the budgie/tiel" and we launch them up in the air and they do amazingly graceful swan dives and then pull up after the dive.

3) Snack time is ALWAYS a motivator and when they see me head to the kitchen to get their veggies out, they all swarm and hound me and buzz all about me until their food is ready (usually I thaw a frozen veggie mix that I've made). That usually turns into games of launching them away and they fly to the window sill and back to me about a dozen times each

[Zoe's Mom]

Its funny that a post like this should come up at this time. I just read a very interesting article in January's Bird Talk magazine about exercising your bird. In fact almost the entire issue was on diet and fitness. I started with my conures last night. I tried the exercise where you run with them and they flap flap flap but I think it was me that got the better work out .

[parrotntn]

Holly, yes that was a great article..I read it as well.
I guess because I teach diet and exercise, it really brings it home to me. Also, the article on wing clipping I posted from Pam Clark touches on it. That same nite, after I read the article is when I stumbled on Cleo flapping on my wrist. It was funny. She LOVED it! And, as I said, she acted differently later.
Glad you pointed out the BirdTalk mag article.

[KDK241]

Zeke and Sophie and the keets exercise themselves. They will sit on their perch and flap their wings as fast as they can. They do this a couple times a day and then when I take them out of the cage they fly a bit then. They are clipped though so they don't get to go too fast or too far. When they are sitting on my hand I will also raise my hand up and lower it kind of fast, this will make them start flapping.

[sunnyshine]

Both Sunny and Skittles were clipped when I got them so neither of them have gotten their flight feathers back yet. Whenever Sunny attempts to jump off the top of his cage, he sadly lands with a thud. Even though Skittles is clipped, he can still go across the room with a launch or if something startles him! Anyway, after reading the article in Bird Talk, I've started to try incorporating more exercise in their lives. With Sunny perched on my hand, I glide him up and down like a toy plane while he flaps like crazy! Skittles will do this also but he usually ends up letting go and flying across the room. Lately I give him a little launch towards his cage and he can make it there from quite a few feet away. And when I tell Skittles "fly" he flaps his wings. Since they are in a safe outdoor area, I think I may let them grow out their wings when their new flight feathers come in. Oh, and when Sunny is on top of his (playtop) cage, I hide where he can't see me on the opposite side, then pop up and say "peekaboo!" That always gets him to run across the top of the cage to come get me!

[Alexp]

Matey always flaps his wing when he gis on my hand, he loves it!

[Tinker]

Lucki sometimes sits on his perch and flaps and flaps and flaps. It must be exercise because there's nothing there to frighten him at the time.