My parrot thinks i'm a toy

[3alya]

This is not that big of an issue, but it makes it harder to interact. Our traditional dress in the UAE, which i wear everyday, has embroidery on the shoulders, neck, and forearms, and is filled with colorful beads, shiny crystals, and other such things.
Whenever i take Kiki, my 6 months old sun conure, he goes straight to my shoulders and starts playing with these things. At first i let him do what he wanted, but now whenever i try to take him off my shoulders he gets mad and bites a bit. I know i am encouraging him, but i have to get him off of my shoulders, so i offer him my forearm to play with the embroidery there. At least that way i can face him to interact directly, but i was wondering if i can teach him not to do that. I tried distracting him with food and toys, but my clothes are more interesting.
I really dont want him to keep on doing that because i'm afraid he swallows something, and if he broke it then swallowed it will be sharp. Also, he loses interest in everything else, which makes it harder to train him and interact with him. Aand he's ruining my wardrobe, because once you cut the string, the whole thing unravels.
And he's not just doing it to me. If anyone picks him up, he goes straight to the shoulders to try to find something to gnaw at.
Not to sound melodramatic or something, but it makes me feel invisible

[Wolf]

I really think that the best way to handle this type of problem is for you to get a few changes of clothing without all of the pretty beads and needlework, just something plain to wear while you are working with your bird. The parrot is only doing the things that it would naturally do, and so is not doing anything wrong. I don't have such fancy clothing, but I also have to have different clothing for wear with my birds if I want to have some clothing suitable to wear in the presence of other humans. Even without all of the fancy stuff they chew on my clothing as well.

[liz]

Myrtle spends a lot of time on my shoulder, hanging off my back, upside down in the front and pulling pins out of my hair. She also makes little holes in the shoulder of my T shirts. I can't wear button downs around the house because she removes buttons. This is mostly my fault. I get busy in the house and don't pay attention to what she is doing.

When I actually dress up to go out and she tries this I just tell her no and push her off my shoulder. That is a great thing about a flighted bird. You can push them off when correcting them and they won't get hurt. With Rambo I tell him no and put him on the floor to find his own way back to his toys.

[3alya]

Ok then i guess ill find something else to wear when im with Kiki...

[Pajarita]

Chewing and picking at attractive things is part of been a parrot and, with parrots, it's no use trying to train them out of a natural behavior, it's always best to avoid or re-direct so, when it comes to chewing clothes, I've pretty much resigned myself to this fact of life and simply wear my 'parrots clothes' (old Tshirts or jogging outfits full of holes) all day long. Just as an interesting note and to exemplify the problem we go through, I've recently cut my hair short because my cockatoo had chewed up chunks halfway down the length (I wore it in a ponytail to work around the house and he thought the band holding it together and the hair itself was his own personal chewing toy )

[3alya]

So we simply cannot look pretty with our parrots, but i don't think it matters to them anyways

[Wolf]

I couldn't win or really even compete with a parrot in a beauty contest anyway.

[Pajarita]

Oh, don't sell yourself short, Wolf!

[Harpmaker]

Someone said "No one parrots like us. We dress in toys for their amusement. Glasses, watches, rings, earrings,..."

Heaven help you if you have pierced ears and large earrings around a parrot!

[Wolf]

With this fad of body piercing , I keep getting a mental picture of a large parrot pulling on one of those studs that some people put in their tongue.