Hello and thanks

[joiner]

Hi guys
I became the owner of a young galah (Phoenix) a few days before Christmas and it has been an amazing journey. He/she is a wonderful bird and a great personality. He was either lost (and not reclaimed) or dumped, and was close to dying of thirst and exposure when we found him. He's as fit as a mallee bull now.

Thanks to the admin team for making this site possible: it has helped me several times as I learn to work and play with Phoenix. A special thanks to Mike who seems to be omnipresent, and a great source of help and inspiration.

I posted a pic of Phoenix with my daughter.

At the moment we are trying to get him (maybe her) harness trained, but it is taking a while (tips are welcome). Meanwhile he gets an hour on the lawn in the morning and another in the evening, with long middle-of-the-day sessions when I have a day off. They are the best because he's all sort of cuddly and prefers a scratch to grazing and biting our toes!

He has flown off a few times, usually after a fright (cat twice; a dove being startled once and chasing me as I went out of the yard) but he has always called out until we found him. Fingers crossed we don't lose him again.

Any advice from galah owners is welcome. And again ... many thanks for the site and the input!
Cheers
Joiner

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[avinet]

Glad to hear the Galah has settled in OK - they are great birds. Harness training is a matter of patience, and by no means all birds will accept a harness even after a long time trying.

However if you are going to keep up the dangerous practice of letting him loose on the lawn then you will either have to get him to accept a harness or else clip his wings so he can't fly off. If you don't you WILL end up losing him for good.

For the correct way to clip wings see my article at scas.org.au/html/wing_clipping.html The aim is for him to be able to fly to the ground but not be able to take off. However in windy weather he may well still succeed in flying away so don't take him out if it is at all windy.

cheers,

Mike

[joiner]

THanks Mike,
And yeah I realise its not a great idea to have him outside and able to fly, but - for a little while longer - I'm between a rock and a hard place! My wife doesn't want him inside, and whoever owned him before us did a terrible job with his wings by clipping the parachute feathers and leaving the flight feathers. So I'm waiting for a new set to grow (and they are coming through now) before I have him clipped properly. I really want him to have a good life, so even though he has a spacious and fun cage (which he loves), I think he needs time grazing the lawn. I'm always nervous ... but never leave him!
Cheers, and as always, thanks for the advice.
Joiner