So as most of you know Eve, my vasa, is fullflight. Well for a while Eve has decided to ignore the rules about landing in places other than the ones that are birdie approved. He has ignored the "go back" flight command, and waits untill I get up and walk over to him to go back to his stand. What pain! So I have this laser cat pointer toy...

Every time Eve lands where he is not supposed to I flash the light on the wall next to him and he immediately fly back to his stand. I must admit I kinda feel bad about it. But it works so well! Now Eve has stopped landing where he is not supposed to and has gone back to following the rules! The light kinda conditioned him to not landing on the bad places because the outcome was the scary light.

I can't see anything wrong with this as it is working, other than I feel that it is kinda mean. Any thoughts?

How creative! I don't know of a reason why this would/could be detremental to a bird's eyesight. Does anyone else know if there is a reason?
My guess is that it's not the actual light but the suddenness of it that startles him. Of course, if he has witnessed you playing with the light with the cat, the bird may see that as part of a cat-world. I dunno.
But if it works and nobody is pointing it directly at the bird and the bird's eyesight isn't harmed,I'd think occasionally it's ok.
Sounds good to me!
Mark

I think it is a good plan.

Kimba, if it works for you, go for it. It sounds to me he is responding to it positively and going back to playing by the rules! I'm sure he'll go back to sticking to the rules and eventually you won't have to use the light anymore.

I think this was a great idea!

Thanks! It has worked so well, and it is the sudden appearance of the red dot that scares her, I just didn't know if anybody had a bad experience doing this or not. But I have to remember to only do it when Eve's lands up high! I accidentally used it when she landed on the chair with the cat on the floor next to the chair! Up went kitty after the light with Eve right there. I am lucky that the cat is petrified of Eve and just freaked out and ran upon see Eve there. Don't need to accidentally train the cat to after Eve!