Goodnight Manzi

Before, Manzi had only told us "Goodnight" after we would cover him. Lately, when it begins to get late Manzi starts saying, "Goodnight" showing that he wants to go to bed. Usually, when he says goodnight, he will go inside his cage and stand on his sleeping perch waiting for us to cover him. I don't know why he started doing that these past two weeks. That makes it easier because before he would mildly protest going to bed and would want to stay up as long as we are awake.

Here is Manzi doing his flight/recall training yesterday. He did about 6 flights. I stopped him before he got too bored. I am very pleased with the progress. It might have helped that today I found our pine nuts which is one of his favorite treats.

Back to Business

Today we got back to business and continued on the quest: Manzi becoming a free flighted parrot. So, I previously decided to switch my training to recall training. He wasn't interested this morning, so I took away his treats and just left him a morning meal of pellets. This evening he was very interested and came to me each time I called taking off immediately after I called him. Tomorrow I will try recalling him from the other room forcing him to maneuver through the doorways. Manzi is very good at recall training and maybe we can try the auditorium soon.

Unfortunately, on Friday I am leaving again for 10 days, but after that I am full speed ahead with training. Judging by the point of where Manzi is and what we have ahead I think that by the end of this summer he might be ready to begin free flights.

I am working on a potential schedule so if anyone has ideas please share. So far it is this:
-Get him to recall every time without hesitation in the same room.
-Recall from any room in the apartment.
-Fly to cage on command and then recall when given the cue.
-Recall in a large auditorium from a longer distance and flying upwards and downwards (do this by standing up on bleachers).
-Go outside and begin very short distances using the recall.
-Do training to help him learn to maneuver through trees.
-Do longer flights outside with harness.
-Do long flights outside without harness.

Sleeping like a baby

We went to Julie's house for the weekend. Manzi was quite comfortable at her house and even tucked his beak/head in for a nap. I rarely catch him doing this, but he must have been tired. When I first saw him sleeping, I went to get out the camera and he stood up right away. After a minute or so he tucked his beak back in. So, over the next few minutes I moved slowly (with him opening his eye after each sound). Finally I got the picture I wanted.


We went to Julie's to see her.

I'm Back

I arrived back yesterday afternoon. Manzi was very happy to see me. We took some pictures together:I went through Manzi's old tricks and he still remembers all of them. He is also flying very well. He was able to maneuver through the doorways today wanting to fly to me from another room. Since I arrived yesterday, he is calling my name every time I leave the room. Cesar said he only said my name occasionally while I was gone, but since I'm back, he knows he can call me and get a response. In fact, Cesar said he wasn't talking much at all while I was gone, but he is talking non-stop since I've been back. Manzi is also way over due for a shower. He is so dusty.

It is freezing here! Yesterday it was 62 inside and only 48 outside around 2pm. Manzi isn't shaking from the cold at all since he was slowly acclimated. Hopefully it warms up soon so we can resume flight practice. I have high hopes for him this summer. While it is still cold, I am going to buy a whistle and began recall training. I am going to hate the sound of the whistle after Manzi repeats it, but it will be loud enough (I can't whistle very good myself) so that he can hear it from far away outside.

A funny thing happened this morning. Manzi was being loud quite early, so when I got up I was about to scold him. All I got out was, "MANZI!" when I was quickly interrupted by him saying, "That's too loud Manzi!" He knew exactly what he was doing wrong. It just made me laugh.