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at Cleo's CornerWhy Cleo is Flighted
Early on in my relationship with Cleo I could see a desire in her to go from point A to point B. She could hop up to the end table (point A) that sits next to our couch. From there she wanted to go to the back of the chair (point B). She would look at the chair... she would hunch down and forward like she was going to take off and fly to the back of the chair; but she always gave up. She knew she could not fly the one-foot distance from table to chair. There are several point As and point Bs in the house, so this was played out daily. For her to be so limited in how mobile she was put an ache in my heart. This beautiful creature with wings was limited to the object she was standing on. To me this was akin to cutting the feet off of my dogs and making them crawl on their bellies wherever they wanted to go; would this not keep them from running away if the gate or front door was left open? I felt that in taking away her bility to fly I was taking away a large part of what it is for her to be a bird.
Prior to her flight feathers coming in we had to take Cleo to the vet to have a tail feather pulled. It was a blood feather and she had broken it. She only had about 3 feathers left on her tail, having broken all of the others previously. As we spoke to the vet he told us that the feathers were breaking because of her hard landings. He said that when a bird that is not flighted 'falls', the first thing to hit the ground is their tail. He told us that they can split their tails, and that he had already sewn up three split tails in the last several months. He advised us to let her flight feathers grow in if we had the house to allow it. Meaning if we did not have ceiling fans, picture windows, etc. This was such a relief seeing as how we had already decided she would be flighted. He informed us that the avian society was slowly moving away from clipping.
Once her flight feathers grew back in it was wonderful to watch as she slowly gained confidence in her ability to fly. She would never fly more than about 3 to 4 feet even though she had the ability to fly as far as she wished. Finally one day she got startled and flew over 18 feet to where I was standing. After that, ever so slowly, she has begun to fly to her desired destinations. Click here to see the story of the first flight.
One benefit for me is Cleo's ability to show her affection. Yes, before she was clipped if I took her out of her cage or off of her stand and sat down to have quality time with her I could see that she was affectionate to me. But something that brings joy to my heart now is when Cleo flies from her stand, (which is in the same room as my computer) to my shoulder. She sits there cuddling me and I know she wanted to be with me, be near me, love me. She had a desire to show me affection and she was able to act on it. I love it! The reason these times are so precious to me is because the majority of the time that she flies over to me, she actually flies over and lands on the desk. She does this because she wants to scavenge around for pencils, pens, and other wonderful things to destroy. When she flies to my shoulder, and immediately sits quietly (making her little soft content sounds), or starts preening my ear, I know she is there for the love.
In choosing to allow Cleo to retain her natural ability to fly I acknowledge that I have to be more vigilant in keeping her safe. She is never allowed out of her cage while we are cooking. If she takes it upon herself to become too explorative she has to go into her cage. This is not much different than before she could fly because caiques have a natural ability for finding mischief. We must also be more aware of the doors being open when Cleo is out of her cage. And I am teaching her to fly to me on command.
In closing I would state something I read. The author said something to the affect of 'what makes us think that a bird would not return to us if it was able to?" This hits so close to home for me for two reasons. The fist reason deals with an experience we had with our Brittany spaniel, Chance. When we adopted Chance he was 4 years old. He got out of the house twice and ran away. We had to search for him both times and we were lucky enough to find him in the neighborhood. He would not come to us. We had to coax him to come near and then grab him and give him love (so he wouldn't associate coming to us with something negative). Things are different today. We can let him out the front door to go get into the car and he does not run away. Also, a neighborhood child let Chance out of the backyard about a month ago. We had no clue until we opened the front door and their sat Chance waiting to get back into the house. We have a lock on the back gate now. I feel this demonstrates that a pet that knows love in the home will return to that home. If dogs will return, why would our bird, who knows love, not return? I know birds and dogs are different creatures and that the outside must seem a lot scarier for a bird who is always in the house than a dog who is familiar with being in the backyard. And perhaps a bird would be much more disoriented than a dog. But I would hope that if Cleo made it to a nearby tree that she would fly down to me rather than doing as I have read of so many other birds doing; sitting there out of reach only to be startled and fly off forever. Nevertheless, I choose to allow Cleo to fly, and with that choice I accept that I must insure that she not have access to the outdoors.
The second reason deals with my experience with Cleo before and after she could fly. When Cleo couldn't fly she was afraid to attempt a flight of less than a one-foot distance. Once she attained her ability to fly she would not go more than 4 feet. It wasn't until she flew a great distance several times that she gained the confidence to go where she pleased. It is well known that most lost birds are clipped. The warnings are everywhere telling us not to assume our birds cannot fly just because they are clipped. We are told that even the slightest breeze can allow them to attain lift and fly away. After seeing Cleo's behavior I feel that birds that find themselves flying away with their clipped wings are too scared to come back. They land and are afraid to take flight again because it is something new, and because they have learned from experience that when their feet leave the surface their destination is straight down. I have no evidence to support any of my theories, but they are what I am basing my decision on to allow Cleo her ability to fly. If for some reason she does ever fly away I know she will have the ability and the confidence to be able to fly back home. Now I just wish I knew, for a fact, that birds have the same drive, location sense, etc., that dogs do to return home.
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at Cleo's Corner