# Throwing bird to fly



## IAmStarby (Aug 23, 2016)

Magnus is doing well, he plays with his toys and occasionally (though definitely not as often as I'd like) visits his bird stand to play. I'm doing some really relaxed flight recall training, getting him to fly to me on command. I'm still teaching it though, and he's not very consistent. I'm trying to get him more active, because even though I have the door open to his cage probably 70 percent of the time, he rarely utilizes the opportunity to explore. He goes to his bird stand for maybe 20 minutes a day, and back to cage. His cage is fairly small. What I really wanted to ask, is that I've seen people kind of throw their budgies from their hands to get them to fly. How do you go about teaching this behavior? Or do you just...do it. And will my bird hate me if I do it? I see some people do that as a form of indoor flight-training, where they throw their bird and then let them fly around until they put their hand up for recall. I want to start, but I'm scared that Magnus will hate me. Sorry if this post is all over the place, but do you guys have any tips? If not about the throwing thing, do you have any tips to get him more active/inquisitive/willing to explore?


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## Budget baby (Jan 1, 2013)

Hi Abby, I think you should perhaps slow down a touch with Magnus trying to teach hi too many things at once can get him confused and not know what you actually want.
As far as throwing him to encourage flight I would not recommend it. A budgie is a very fragile, nervous flight response bird. If he is having free flight sessions, playing ,walking around this is good. I encourage my budgies to fly to me by tapping my shoulder and saying "Come" they have learned this and know what it means.:flowers:
Remember also Magnus may not be a inquisitive type of budgie they all are different in personality.


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## IAmStarby (Aug 23, 2016)

Pretty boy said:


> Hi Abby, I think you should perhaps slow down a touch with Magnus trying to teach hi too many things at once can get him confused and not know what you actually want.
> 
> As far as throwing him to encourage flight I would not recommend it. A budgie is a very fragile, nervous flight response bird. If he is having free flight sessions, playing ,walking around this is good. I encourage my budgies to fly to me by tapping my shoulder and saying "Come" they have learned this and know what it means.:flowers:
> 
> Remember also Magnus may not be a inquisitive type of budgie they all are different in personality.


Thanks for your response! He's pretty confident with what I've taught him so far, I'm actually not teaching him a lot. Just step-up, touch-training, and then I'm now teaching him to fly to me on command (but he's getting distracted too easily). And the flying training only lasts for about 5 minutes a day. I'm just worried that it's not natural for him to be so cage bound, and that he needs more stimulation or he will be bored and overweight.

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## aluz (Jul 24, 2011)

I agree with Cathy. By doing what you have described, the chances of the budgie to fly out of control and to crash land are higher, this is due to the unexpectedness of the act. The pet bird is the one who should be in control when deciding to take off to fly, instead of being forced by the owner to do so.
Another aspect to consider is the implications on the trusting department, by throwing the bird and forcing them to fly against their will and without giving a choice, the owner is setting the grounds for a setback in the bond shared with the bird.


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Forcing a budgie to do anything - fly, step-up, bathe, etc. is not considered to be consistent with Best Practices.

"Throwing" a budgie to get it to fly can injure the budgie as well as destroy any trust it may have developed in you.

It is most important you realize that taming is about making things fun for the budgie so it wants to spend time doing with you.
Bonding it allowing it to choose to be with you.*


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