Toweling without stress

[Pajarita]

It's actually quite easy to train a bird to accept toweling as long as you take your time, are patient about it and you only start once you have bonded with your bird and the bird trusts you.

With the bird standing in front of you (he must be at the same level as your head and it's easier if the bird is standing on a flat surface but not absolutely necessary), play peekaboo with a specific towel (use always the same color -I have 'Mr Good Towel' and 'Mr Bad Towel') by lifting the towel up enough to cover your face (this will place the towel a bit above the bird's body) and saying something like: "Where's the birdie?" "Where is ......... (name here)?", lower it so the top edge of it is at your neck level and say "PEEKABOO!" with great enthusiasm and give a little treat. You need to do this a few times and keep on doing it every day (not more than three of four times in a row and not more than twice a day) until the bird recognizes the game - not necessarily saying Peekaboo himself but showing, with its body language, that he gets excited by it and enjoys it. Once this happens, start putting the towel right in front of his face, almost touching the tip of the beak and do the same thing lifting and lowering the towel and saying 'peekaboo'. Once you see the bird has no issues with your putting the towel real close, start gently allowing the towel to cover his body instead of just blocking it from view. You need to lift it real quick at the beginning until he gets used to having his body covered by it (and don't use a big towel on a little bird, either, it can't weigh it down, just cover). When you see the bird no longer gets startled or even bothered by your putting the towel on his body, start leaving it there a bit longer (I am talking two seconds, not really long but enough so the bird gets used to it). Once you have achieved this, you can quickly and loosely wrap the bird's body with the towel, give a few head scritches and a treat and make a big deal of it. If you continue playing peekaboo every now and then and do the 'wrapping' once a week or so, you will have no trouble toweling the bird for an emergency or medicating.

[Wolf]

Thank you for sharing this method of teaching a bird to accept being toweled in a stress free manner. I like it and to me it only makes sense that we all should teach our birds this useful skill, just in case we need to use it in an emergency as well as I think that it would help one to keep a sick bird warm without undue stress as well.
Thanks again for this.

[Wolf]

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