How to towel an aggressive BFA

We have had her about a month now. We have not picked her up or handled her. We were letting her out of her cage the first 3 weeks and she was fine until one day she heard the shower running and flew off her cage, ran us into the bathroom for 3 hours, and when we managed to get out (she paced the floor in front of the door saying 'what are you doing') she chased us around the house. Tail flaired and REaLLY angry (I think). Anyway she has been in the cage the last week because I'm frightened she will do a repeat. We are getting her a bigger cage Sunday and I don't know how to get her out of her old one and into a carrier. I heard to get a towel and get her forcefully. That's an awful small opening to pit my hands, arms, and a towel. I'm sure she's gonna freak! Any suggestions will be great. We do have a play gym I got her so even if I get her out I can put her on that instead of her carrier. But I still need suggestions on getting her out. Thanks.

Try to get her to step up on a stick . If that doesn't work ,open her cage door and see if she will climb out [then scoop her up with a towel ]. Your going to have to keep trying different things and learn your way with her. That's an awful long time in the bathroom

I had a very similar situation today in that I have a macaw that I have only had for a few weeks. She is a rescue and has been very badly abused and is in very poor shape. Because of this, I haven't handled her at all because she doesn't trust me or anyone as far as she can spit and can get quite ugly. I had an appointment to take her to the vet today and wondered how I would get her in the carrier (a modified large dog crate). I ultimately took a cheap little butterfly net that I use for my smaller birds and put that over her head which gave me a bit of control because of the handle. While she was trying to figure out what just happened I threw the towel over her head and quickly wrapped her up and bundled her into the carrier where I just lifted the net and towel off her. Easy peasy! She never knew what hit her. I got this little net at my local dollar store and it really comes in handy for all my birds. I hope this helps.

We had to towel Kiwi as a means of getting him back to his cage a few times when we first got him (he was also a aggressive rescue with behavioral issues). Basically, you get the towel over the bird, quickly grab them behind the head with one hand (so they cannot bite or get loose) and around the body with the other all while keeping the towel wrapped around them AND be ever mindful of their eyes and VERY delicate bodies/necks. I found it to be too traumatic (he looked like he was about to have a heart attack) and definitely NOT a good way to build trust with a new and frightened bird. I preferred using thick leather gloves he couldn't bite through and then moved onto stick training before working on stepping up to a bare hand. The whole process from untamed and vicious to stepping up on command to a bare hand took about a year. The stick training is ESSENTIAL with zons, as they tend to have very bad hormones. Even the sweetest, most bonded zon can get into a rage sometimes. Being able to get them on a stick is a very useful tool when they are in a foul mood. AFTER we had built trust and bonded with Kiwi, we did eventually towel-train him for the purpose of clipping his talons or if he ever needed to visit a vet who had to examine him or something, but I NEVER use the towel to get him when he's in a bad mood- I use the stick. We have made *positive* associations with the towel.

It was a VERY long time in the bathroom because I was stuck with my 1 yr old twins! Lol.

I love the idea of the net. I may try that as I'm just terrified of getting bit. She nipped me once and that was enough!

I have been trying to stick train her. The first couple of days were awesome. Then she nipped me on the 3rd day. Now she won't go near the stick- just goes to the other side of the cage. She is going to take a lot of work. And it is going to take a lot of time. I don't mind. I have lots of patience. I just need to transfer cages right now.

Thank you for the wonderful suggestions.

Crawls823 said:

I'm just terrified of getting bit. She nipped me once and that was enough!

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I know you are very new to birds, but you can guarantee at some point, they will inflict a bite. It's just a part of owning them. Of course it is ALWAYS better to be aware of your birds body language and prevent a bite, but it will happen eventually. Once she is more 'tame', many people do bite-pressure training with their birds. That way, when the bird does bite, it has been conditioned not to do so hard enough to break skin.

If you need to get her into another cage, why not just put the cage doors together, facing each other, both open? And just wait for her to move from one cage to the other?


After that, keep her in the cage! Don't let her out of the cage until you have her target trained to follow a target/stick/pen around the cage. Once she is target trained within the cage, you can then work on target training outside of the cage!