I need some advice on picking up eclectus parrots

[eckie awesome!2732]

I need some advice on ways to pick up my eclectus (female). I currently pick her up with my hands around her wings a then slowly put her on my chest. picking her up that way must make her a bit cranky because about 75% apox of the time she bites my fingers untill she gets to my chest. Any advice until I teach her to step up

[cml]

Yes, stop doing it this way! You are using flooding atm which can backfire!

Instead, start with target training and continue with step up.

[Pajarita]

My dear, you are never suppose to grab a bird by its body. You are not even supposed to touch their backs at all! You need to learn how to train your bird to step up the proper way. Please follow Michael's instructions on targeting so you can learn.

[Yarrow]

I agree that you're better off working on getting her to step up. If she's tame enough to let you pick her up then I'm sure it won't take her too long to get the idea. Good luck.

My dear, you are never suppose to grab a bird by its body. You are not even supposed to touch their backs at all! You need to learn how to train your bird to step up the proper way. Please follow Michael's instructions on targeting so you can learn.

My dear, I think that you mean 'parrot' not 'bird' and even occasionally grabbing a parrot by its body doesn't do any harm. My aviary birds won't step up so if I need to do something with them, the small ones get 'ringer's gripped' and it does them no harm. You're just supposed to avoid touching a parrot's back/wings too much so that it doesn't think that you're chatting it up. It would be impossible to put a harness on if you couldn't touch the back/wings at all.

[Pajarita]

Well, of course you have no choice but to grab a bird by its body if it doesn't step up but aviary birds (I have canaries and finches and keep my tiels and budgies as aviary birds, too) hardly ever need to be grabbed so doing it once a year to check on the level of breeding condition and clip nails preparing for breeding (passerines) is not going to arouse the bird. Parrots are companion birds and imprinted on people (usually) so the situation is different, especially if this is something done every day.

As to needing to touch or grab the bird in order to put on a harness, I guess it all depends on how well you train it because, as far as I can tell, the human doesn't need to touch the back of the bird. You put the harness over the bird's head, open one wing and slip it on, open the other wing, slip it on, buckle it. Voila! Bird on a harness and the back was not touched.

[eckie awesome!2732]

Thank you guys. I now realise I was doing it completely wrong. All I had to do was put my hand up to her chest and she stepped up.

[LisaB]

That's great! If she was biting you, that's a good indication that she didn't like the scoop method. LOL! I have one little Quaker who actually prefers being scooped. It's very odd. He is a wild caught bird and was in a "rescue" for over 9 years in a bottom stacker cage before I brought him home. It's been 3 1/2 years and he never has learned to "step up". I have found, however, that he will either back into my cupped hands and let me carry him like a baby chick, or he likes to be picked up with my hand over his back and his little feet hanging straight down. I call this the crane method because it looks like he's being lifted by a crane. He'll let you carry him like that all day if you want. He's quite old and doesn't see well anymore, so maybe having a shadowy hand come up in front of him is disconcerting. I've tried to adapt to him rather than forcing him to adapt to me. He's never tried to bite me with the scoop or crane method the way he will if I put my hand in front of him. He's a fiesty little Quaker and pretty clear about what he likes and what he doesn't. In the case of your Ekkie, however, I'd say that she was letting you know she didn't want to be scooped. And female Ekkies are also pretty dang clear about what they do and don't like!

[zohaa]

Very good question. I don't know the answer for sure but I do believe that it applies to both genders. I would also think that this would only be a problem during breeding season. I do not think that it creates that big of a problem anyway, if it is just an occasional thing such as you mention.