Towling & Tears

Con's nails need to be clipped and I tried towling for the first time tonight. It was horrible and I feel like bursting into tears because I scared my baby. The Vet showed me how to trim his nails but she didn't show me anything about towling! It looks easier than it is!

Con and I are cuddling to wash away the scare and I think I'm forgiven by the way he's digging into my ear and preening my neck. I still feel horrible thought as I'm about to try again with the towel. He's gonna hate me tomorrow...

Any and all advice is desperately needed and welcomed! Thanks!

My advice would be to turn off the light, then towel him. Once he is toweled, you can turn the light back on, clip his nails as quickly as you can(don't rush yourself though) and then turn the light back off, let him out of the towel, then turn the light on and "rescue" him. I know it sounds silly, but birds can't see well in the dark, and it seems to keep them a bit calmer. Also, if he can't see that your the one toweling him, he may not get mad at you about it.
I don't know how others feel about this technique but I have been using light manipulation to my advantage for a few months now and it seems to be really effective. Sometimes billie is hard to get back into his cage, if I'm in a rush, I will just turn the light off and pick him up, put him in and give him a treat. The short period of darkness seems to be much less stressful on all parties involved than me chasing him around for twenty minutes, until he gets tired out and I get frustrated and usually bit. He generally comes when I call him but it's a different story when it's time to go back to the cage and he isn't ready. Then it's, lets fly to the highest points in the room until mommy gets so frustrated she wants to pull her hair out.

I don't think I'm holding him right when I do get him into the towel. I'm scared I'm hurting him and might not be holding tight enough or in the right spot. We'll work more on toweling tomorrow. It's bedtime now because we have an early vet appointment for a weigh in. He lost weight before I bought him and the Vet wants to make sure he doesn't lose more.

For a bird the size of a conure, I place the towel over their back, put my palm on their back with my index and middle finger on either side of their head. This allows you to keep them steady and still use your thumb to hold their wing out to trim or just check for any problems. Unless they have been severely traumatized from a towel, most birds seem to relax as long as you support them well.

I was holding his head wrong then. He was able to twist in my hand and get onto his belly when I had a grip on him.

Even after my failed attempts at toweling, he came up to my hand and tilted his head for scritches. That moment made me realize the bond that is forming between me and this little bird and what it means to have something so fragile trust and love you completely. I can't even begin to describe how it felt other than I'm awed and crying again but its a good kind of cry. Now I know what it's like to really be a parront

You really should have someone else holding while you do the trimming. It's better that way. BUT I do my Cockatiels, Parakeets, Finches, and Ekkies on my own without help cause they're pretty simple. As for my other ones, I have to go to the vet to do as my partner refuse to hold them....lol.....My ekkies surprised me when I used a towel on them and they were pretty calm.

I use my thumb and middle finger around the neck and let the back of the bird's head rest on my index finger.

((((Awwww)))) I know it sucks when you have to do something to your 'baby' and it freaks them out...but when it's for their own good????.....

Anyway, I know everyone has their opinions about toweling and most seem to consider it such an awful thing, but for me, silly as it is, I've incorporated into play time.

Our conure is especially inquisitive and he LOVES and I mean LOVES tunnels and exploring little caves, nooks and crannies. So I use this to my advantage and play with him on our bed A LOT. I pull up the blankets to make little tunnels and holes and he climbs in looks around, I play "peek a boo" with him, he darts in and out of the blankets, he also loves to roll on his back and play with his footie toys, so I make little "ditches" with the blanket in my hand and he just naturally rolls into them and I'll hold him on his back with the blanket, I'll pick him up this way, cover him like a baby all the way up to his "chin" and coddle and coo to him. I knew I was going to need to clip his nails, so I did a lot of playing 'tickle tickle' with his feet while holding him in the blanket on his back. He caught on quick and started rolling on his back and putting his feet up showing ME he wanted to play "tickle tickle."

Franklin just thinks it's fun, so when I had to recently towel him to clip his nails for the first time, he didn't think a thing of it because I'm always playing with him in "goofy" positions in the blankets.

If your guy has a natural curiosity this way, start using it to your advantage and hopefully your next toweling experience won't be so difficult.

Franklin is 9 months old and I've been playing like that with him since we brought him home at 2 months old.

Good Luck and it sounds like you already have a great relationship with your bird as he forgave you quickly.

Take care,

Toni

Oh, and I should mention that when I started playing with him like this, at first I let him get used to being under the blankets and on his back and things and I'd let him up and out anytime he wanted, then as he got comfortable, he'd naturally stay in his tunnels and ditches longer and longer and then I slowly started "restraining" him for a second or two like when he was on his back in a "ditch" he didn't know he was being restrained at first, and when he wanted up, I let him go then as we progressed and I wanted him to know I WAS actually holding him and not letting him leave at his will, I'd say something like...where do you think you're going? Or ...nooo silly boy, you aren't going anywhere and intice him to stay with a scritch or a kiss then I'd let him go and he'd be right back for more.

Now he'll easily sit with me, wrapped in a "blanket" for a good 5 - 10 minutes...waiting and wondering "what's next!?"

Toni

Nakiska, your advice is very helpful Unfortunately, Con isn't much for hiding under or in things and is scared to be on his back. He's an odd Conure lol But I will incorporate the towel into playtime so that he gets use to it and doesn't mind having it around.

Last night was a very stressful night for the both of us but the bonding opportunity that happened between him and I just cemented my fascination with this bird. I can't begin to explain how last night changed me when it comes to him. The blatant show of trust and love astonished me and nearly brought me to my knees. I just can't explain this awesome feeling and wish I could...

Awww...no need to explain, I know EXACTLY what you are trying to say.

As for Con and not having that "natural curiosity" I'd start by "hiding" a favorite treat inside a BIG cave made with your blanket and slowly make the "cave" smaller and deeper.

When I say BIG, let me try to explain, when you first pull up the blanket it should look like a wall with like an inset, so like a really shallow cave and put the treat or toy he might want to get there, at first he won't know he's going "inside" something, then as the days, weeks and months pass...you can make the cave deeper and smaller where he has to actually have the blanket touch his head and back when he goes in to get his treat and progress from there.

Franklin now just puts his head down and barges in the blankets making his own caves and tunnels. It's sooo funny to watch him dart in and out all over our bed.

Franklin is also a very good climber and it's his other favorite pass time, so I incorporated the blankets and being on his back into his love for climbing and being inside the "tunnels." I'd hold the blanket up high making like a big hill and he'd climb up the side of the hill...then when he'd be part way up, I'd start "dropping" the blanket and raise it up and drop it back down and raise it up...kind of like Franklin was on a bouncy ride...hahahaha...well, of course he thought that was the best, goofy bird...so then to get him more and more used to being on his back, when I'd lower the blanket I'd manipulate it so that he would "land" on his back holding onto the blanket, then I'd pick it back up and of course he'd still be holding onto the blanket, I'd pick up bottom of the "hill" of the blanket while he was trying to "climb to the top" so he'd be climbing on a "tight rope" upside down (his back facing the bed) and then I'd lower the blanket to the bed and pick it up and then eventually I'd leave the blanket down covering him while he was laying on his back, then he'd scoot out on his back. So funny to watch him. And I'd grandly praise him for showing me his new "trick" and then of course I just built on that.

He did naturally roll onto his back in the cage at the petstore, it's one of the reasons he sucked us into buying him! HAhahahahaa. So I knew he wasn't terrified of being on his back.

Anyway, as you can see, we use the blankets a lot when playing with Franklin and it's definitely helped in the "toweling" department. Now days, he never knows when he's being toweled. He just thinks we're playing.

Toni

I forgot to mention my lory goes to sleep if you put a towel on him...lol....he likes to go under your shirt then he goes to sleep....he likes to lay on his back too so I guess he would ne easy to trim....

Actually most birds are very curious about seeing a human playing under a towel or blanket. It usually doesn't take them long before they want to go in there with you, too. You can start with playing peak a boo. Hide under it, then stick you head out and say, "Peak!" This is a game I've played with all my birds to some extent. It also seems to be popular with a new bird in your house. It's a way you can begin interacting with the bird while it watches you be silly.

As a child our family had a budgie we would play hide and go seek with every night. We would have the bird on the kitchen table and then all of us would go under the table. At first we would pop up and say "Peak!" It didn't take long before he would run to the edge of the table and peer at us and yell, "Peak!"