Facial and ear piercings

[Ta2Matt]

Ok so first off, if this should be in any other section feel free to move this mods

So, for those of you that have read my introduction you already know I'm a tattoo artist.
What I HAVN'T mentioned is that both my girlfriend and I have facial piercings along with our ears.
NO I AM NOT COVERED LOL
for the curious we both have both ears, lip and nose.

I still remember the days i spent around my friends cockatiel, (not nearly trained mind you)
he LOVED to play with my single earing I had at that age.
So my question is, do any of you here have piercings, and how do you cope with having your parrot pulling at them?
Is there any training you may suggest to rid of this habit should it ever arise when we get our hyper little caiques.

Once again,
thanks in advance to all of you!

Matt

[zazanomore]

My ears, nose and monroe were pierced.

My birds would go get to them and start playing with them.

I had heard of birds ripping out piercings, so I just thought 'screw it'.

I took them out. My nose and monroe have grown over. My ears were pierced when I was a baby, and I don't think they will ever close ever.

[kaylayuh]

I don't currently have any piercings, but did have my eyebrow and nose done when I had budgies previously and have been around other birds. It was never really a problem for me because I always used tiny, very understated facial jewelry. In fact, if you didn't know I had them pierced, you probably wouldn't have ever noticed them.

If it happens to be a problem, I'd just change the jewelry to something the birds can't grab. Or use one of those bird toy necklaces to distract them from the jewelry.

[patdbunny]

I don't have facial piercings, but I have a few earrings. Yes, they yank them out and the big parrots sometimes get really fast and sneaky about it (my prior cockatoo). I was more concerns w/ her accidentally ingesting the earrrings/earrring backings than w/ my ears. They get smart and put the item under their tongue so it's hard to get out of their mouths.

My current parrots are smaller - sun conure size and smaller. With them I my hand up and brush them off the piercing gently. If they don't catch the clue to leave the piercing alone, I remove them from my shoulder on the third time. The 1, 2, 3 - brush, brush, off needs to be close in time to make the association that the removing from the shoulder is due to messing with the piercing - I'd say maybe 30 seconds total elapsed time.

And some of the more tenacious parrots just can't be put where they ever get access to the piercings. Once they figure out they're not allowed, then the first thing they do is yank the piercing out when given access because they know the pattern.

[Michael]

How can a parrot help it if you're a walking play toy with more bells and whistles then they have in their cage?

Prevention is key. Playing with something forbidden is reinforcing. That only leaves the owner to punish and you definitely don't want to be doing that with a new and/or flighted parrot. So not giving them the chance to find out it's fun is the best way to prevent it from being learned and repeated.

[GlassOnion]

I have a nose piercing that Apple will try to 'play' with everyday. Usually when he leans for the nose, I can see that and I pull back quickly. But piercings are definitely annoying to have with birds.

[Ta2Matt]

I guess I'm going to just have to wait and see.
I do NOT want to punish them for it because it is not their fault, and I want to make sure that
be around me is a positive experience not a punishing one.
My lip I'm not worried about because it is REALLY not a sensitive location, my ears I can always just put plugs in instead of rings.
The nose though, forget about a stud. I really can't picture myself with one. XD
WORSE case senario, I take them out when I interact with them
At least they can't pick away at tattoos

Thanks all for the feedback!

Matt

[kaylayuh]

At least they can't pick away at tattoos

Not quite true! My bird is fascinated by mine and will try to bite at them. While he can't pull them off, it sure does hurt and often bleeds.

My boyfriend is heavily tattooed and he doesn't know this yet. So we'll just keep this our little secret.

[Ta2Matt]

hahah! I hope for his sake it's black and gray work!
So far the birds I've interacted with didn't seem to pay any attention to any of mine.
(I have both hands quite colorful,wich was the only things visible at the time)
Maybe they we're to pre occupied by the fact that I was a new person all together.

[kaylayuh]

They're all different. Some black and grey, some color. I'm just not going to tell him about my bird's fascination and let him find out on his own. My GCC is a rescue and from what I'm told has an issue with men, so I'll just tell him it's that!