Toweling/Holding Tips?

[Eric&Rebecca]

Forget the towel. It's pointless. Just hold the bird with your hand. If you grab the bird right, you will be able to easily hold it in one hand, restrain the head, not get bit, and do what you gotta do. I hate recommending this in a non-positive reinforcement based approach but if you haven't already tamed your bird, it's not gonna happen in time for medication. So for now just do it and then reconcile your relationship later by doing it right.

http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... ab+Methods

Meanwhile let this serve as a warning to everyone else to get off your butts and train your birds NOW before you actually need to make use of it. You never know so having a very tame bird that you can handle in every way in advance is the best defense.

http://TrainedParrot.com/Taming

As Michael points out that's correct it's a good idea to tame beforehand although no one plans their bird getting sick. We don't have to towel our current birds. We can just grab him and use the hold I described. Once he is recovered you can start taming, as you were trying to already so don't worry.

[marie83]

Michael - I've only had him about 4 weeks now, but thankfully he knows his step commands already. That part is easy. Working on the grabbing may take a bit more time given he already has the negative associations with the drops. I'll give it a try without the towel when I have to give him his medication later today.
Erik&Rebecca - He's calmed down a bit this afternoon. Letting me scratch him again. He's still a little jittery, but hopefully that'll pass once I get the hang of holding him.

Everyone, thanks again for the well wishes and advice! As a noob to the forum, I'm glad to see everyone's so friendly and that it's active.

Welcome to the forums

Michael does make everything sound so easy sometimes but there will always be individual circumstances on the whole though he is right. In your case your bird is still very much new to you and sometimes it can take that long or longer just to get the bird to settle in adequately to begin training.

Another thing is you are actually less likely to hurt him with using your hands rather than a towel as you get a better sense on if your holding correctly, its easier to make adjustments with your hands position/pressure etc. I'm not against the use of towels, far from it, if thats what makes you feel more comfortable restraining your bird but i feel that this along with everything else require training and regular maintenance training to get the bird accustomed to it. It will be much harder to do this if the bird only has negative experiences with it, whereas with your hands he already has positive experiences to remember and will likely settle down again faster after the treatment ends.

I'm glad he has calmed down a bit, just try to keep everything else nice and positive and dont push to hard at this stage to try to limit any damage to the trustbut remember you can and will build it up again after, just concentrate on getting him well for the time being.

As for the medicating itself, I find it much easier if I sit down with the bird on my lap, gently pushed against my body, this means I only have to worry about restraining one wing and holding the head securely enough to give the meds. I'm not sure if this will work well for you regarding the eye and nasel drops however but will help with the oral meds.

Hope your bird recovers quickly and please keep us updated

[healthyaddict]

So I went ahead and tried holding him without the towel last night and this morning. It wasn't as hard to grab him from behind as I thought it would be, but I did still have a hard time holding his wings down and his head still at the same time. I think it's a mixture of 1.) me having tiny hands, & 2.) just getting the hang of it. Last night I did it completely without the towel, but this morning I was only able to get half of them in without the towel. Going to try and avoid the towel again later tonight though.

All that being said he was much more vocal today than he has been the last few days. Hopefully that means the antibiotics are kicking in and that he's on the road to recovery.

Thanks again everyone!

[janetafloat]

After reading this thread I tried giving Alfie his meds without towelling him. My bf (who Alfie loves) just turned him over and held Alfie cupped in his hands on his back while I gave Alfie his meds. Alive was really calm & it went well but I don't think I could have held him and given him the meds on my own. Apart from anything else he clamps his beak shut tight & it's quite a tussle getting it open enough to get anything down him! How are you getting on with Doctor?

[healthyaddict]

After reading this thread I tried giving Alfie his meds without towelling him. My bf (who Alfie loves) just turned him over and held Alfie cupped in his hands on his back while I gave Alfie his meds. Alive was really calm & it went well but I don't think I could have held him and given him the meds on my own. Apart from anything else he clamps his beak shut tight & it's quite a tussle getting it open enough to get anything down him! How are you getting on with Doctor?

I'm trying to use my hands only unless it's taking too long. So I think I'm going towel-less a little over half the time now. A friend asked me to make a video of putting the drops in, so I did that here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlucUsTUYjk). I did have to towel once that day, as you can see in the video. If I'm doing something glaringly wrong please feel free to let me know. I only get ahold of him at about 40 seconds in, and then can't seem to grab him/hold him still enough there on and use the towel.

That being said, he's doing wayyy better health wise already. Still have about two weeks of antibiotics though.

Glad to hear that Alfie took to it well with no towel. I think I/we just need more practice holding him. He's gotten pretty good at wiggling around. Seems I can only hold his head or wings on my own.... but not both. Once he's not sick anymore I do plan on trying to train him to be more comfortable on his back. Oh Doctor.

[marie83]

. Seems I can only hold his head or wings on my own.... but not both.

This is my issue and why I use my body to restrain the other wing, then when your holding the head your arm naturally rests against (there shouldn't be any pressure there) the other wing making it harder for them to try to flap, it makes it easier if you only have tiny hands like I do. Doesn't help that Harlies on the larger end of the scale for a 'tiel. Ollie isn't bad being a lot smaller I can restrain him one handed.

[janetafloat]

I think it can be harder with tiels because it's just not natural for them to be on their back - you never see it do you? - whereas some other breeds of birds go on their back of their own accord. My Sennie, for example, does somersaults on the floor of his cage, or will roll down mine or bf's arm and lie in the crook of your arm on his back for a moment waving his feet in the air. I've never seen my tiel voluntarily go on his back for any reason

[Michael]

I've held and taught tiels and budgies to be held on their back. It's doable, just a bit of work.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Yeah they will do it. Edmund does it, but we really had to work on it and he will only let us do it. Although for tiel's it isn't natural for them they like to have their feet planted as Janetafloat says. It's why they will run with their feet and cling to you.

If you can train them to do it or at least get them comfortable enough with it, it is useful for nail trimming and vet visits.