Week 12

The 12 week old chicks are  all  flying with accuracy and confidence.  We have  already trimmed 3 primary flight feathers on each wing!   Even with this many feathers trimmed, our strong babies can glide long distances.  No doubt, they will be gaining altitude, soon, and more primary feathers will need to be trimmed!  The process takes several weeks to perfect and allow our birds strong lung and muscle development while keeping them safe. 

When the birds take flight, flying is all they concentrate on!  Other training gets put on the "back burner."  As we begin to trim wing feathers, the birds begin to focus more on the lessons we teach all our companion Congos!

As we count down the days till the chicks will be ready to go home with their families, we  plan lessons to reinforce and refine the basic skillls and commands that will be the foundation for more advanced training that will take place when the chicks are home with their families.

We continue to work with the step up command.  We teach our birds to step up onto a stick as an adjunct to stepping onto a hand.  The stick training is part of our "Safety Training" program.  A bird that will obediently step onto a stick will be easily and safely handled by anyone who need to move the bird.  This is a great skill for a bird to learn and much appreciated by bird "babysitters" and family members who may need to move the bird but are shy about handling him.  Other "safety" skills that our birds learn include towel training and basic bird commands including step up, step down, no and okay.  At delivery, we will demonstrate these and other handling techniques and have you work with your bird with our supervision so you have a degree of comfort in handling him/her when you take your new bird home. 

Weaning is going well.  The chicks are eating well on their own with 2 small formula supplimental feedings and 1 supplimental feedings of the Scenic hand weaning pellets.  All of our chicks have lost some of their "baby fat".  This is a  normal occurrence with fledging chicks.  They need to lighten their weight to facilitate learning to fly. 

All of our chicks are mumbling in the cadance of human language.  I can hear "hello" clearly, in the cadance of my voice.  This is a very "exciting" word for my beautiful babies, since it is  how I greet them with each interaction. 

The babies are traveling quite well in the "pet taxi" type bird carriers on both short and long car excursions.  They make quiet and charming travel companions.

We have tried to take advantage of the lovely late spring weather and have taken the opportunity to get our darling chicks outdoors on their harnesses and in the bird carriers for walks with us on several occasions.  The birds really seem to enjoy their "walks." 

Below, see the babies with their harnesses enjoying our beautiful wooded view from the patio.  L to R, Claude, Gloria, Sweetie!