Summer outdoor time — how do you do it safely?

Now that it's warming up, I want to take my cockatiel outside in Guelph but I'm terrified of them flying away. Do you use a harness? A travel cage on the patio? Have you done any recall training? I want Charlie to enjoy fresh air and sunshine safely.

I joined a bird owners meetup group in the GTA — great way to get in-person advice and let the birds socialize. Check Facebook groups!

I respectfully disagree. I think it depends heavily on the individual bird. My Mango is the total opposite.

LOVE this post! More of this energy please. The bird community needs more positive threads like this.

This is peak umbrella cockatoo behavior honestly. They wake up and choose chaos every single day and we love them for it.

I struggled with this too until I started spending at minimum 2 hours of supervised out-of-cage time daily. Now it's like a completely different bird.

LOVE this post! More of this energy please. The bird community needs more positive threads like this.

Welcome to the club! My canary trained ME in the first week. They're way smarter than they let on.

Great question! So in my experience with budgie, this usually comes down to a few things. First, introducing new foods by eating them in front of the bird — monkey see monkey do. Second, make sure they're getting enough sleep — 12 hours of uninterrupted dark sleep is crucial. And third, pay attention to a dietary deficiency, especially calcium or vitamin A because that was a huge factor for my Paco. Hope that helps!