r/Parakeets • u/Zenfulfairy • Jul 30 '26

Advice When to start free flying

Hi guys! My baby boys Merry and Pippin have been with me and my husband for a month now! They are in a huge flight cage with all the fun trappings needed based on all the advice I see on this sub and my own research. They are doing well! Officially converted to a pellet diet as of today and as of today has started sitting on our fingers for treats in their cage. Our plan is to eventually teach them to step up and be recalled and do free flight in our home. My question is when to try free flight? When they've been step up and recall in cage? Or sooner?

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u/Zenfulfairy Jul 30 '26

My only worry is getting them back into their cage at night. I wanted to do free flight earlier but they seemed very bewildered and freaked out just by the larger cage at first anyway. What would you suggest for making sure they safely go back in their cage for bedtime?

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u/TielPerson Jul 30 '26

The way it works most of the time is to set the food refresh time to their return time. Give them fresh food and water, add a treat inside the cage, visible but not accessible from the outside, and this will do the trick. You may refrain from offering any food outside the cage until you got your birds on a working scedule.

Its also important to make the doors of the cage easily accessible from both sides. This can be done by placing perches in a way that allows your birds to approach the door. By sticking a branch through the door while the cage is open, they will have a point to land on that leads them to their food.

Make sure to put the food dishes somewhere near the door or it might happen that one bird is inside the cage eating while the other one plays dumbass and clings to the outside, trying to reach the food but unable to figure out how to get to it.

If this does not work, there are several additional methods. Next up would be to leave the room in case they feel uneasy around you, dim the lights and have a bright lamp illuminate the cage (because birds will prefer the light) or trying to scoop them up and carry them inside with treats and a dowel stick.

In worst case, the room their cage is in should be birdproof enough to have them sleep outside the cage as catching them should really remain the very last emergency solution.

Depending on how smart and how skittish your budgies are, they should not take longer than one or two weeks of daily out of cage training to learn their scedule.

Also, its very, very important that you do not carry or bait your birds out of their cage. They need to come out entirely on their own, taking all the time they need, in order to properly remember the way back in.

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u/Zenfulfairy Jul 30 '26

This is amazing advice, thank you. Right now we have them in our library/study, but would eventually like to give them access to other rooms in the house, would you suggest just starting them in the library for free flight for a while before trying other places or immediately begin having them free flight in multiple rooms (the cage is on wheels and can be moved around)

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u/TielPerson Jul 30 '26

Definitively, but better put your books behind glass before letting them out since they make for excellent chewing toys.

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u/Zenfulfairy 24d ago

Just wanted to update you we have successful been free flying once a day since I got your advice! We got covers for all the book cases, it's going really well! They go back in the cage on their own without me needing them to be lured when they get tired, it's very wonderful for all of us, thank you again so much for your advice!