Bird Handling Training?

Hello everyone! I'm new here but have been reading this forum for a while before making an account and getting my first parrot Sunburst (a sun conure, I will post pictures of her in the Conure thread when I get the chance).

She is doing very well and enjoys training, we are trying to get her used to being grabbed/wrapped in a towel so she doesn't stress so much during her vet visits and if there is an emergency. She will do anything for a sunflower seed, so currently I am holding the sunflower seed in view and as she reaches for it I slowly place my hand on her wing (not around the back yet) and hold it there for a little bit before clicking and letting her grab the seed. Over time I hope to extend the length my hand in on her and where my hand is placed before applying pressure.

She does take a side step when my hand first moves towards her but doesn't freak out or appear scared once she realises that it isn't moving first. She's usually too busy trying to get the sunflower seed to fly away.

Is my method okay to do and does anyone have any methods that worked for them?

Some info about Sunburst in case its needed:
- 7 months old
- Had her since she was 5 months
- DNA female
- hand-raised
- fully flighted
- hates hands behind her even if they're far away
- knows step-up already and is good at recall

(on a related note, how do I do bite-pressure training when she keeps flying back to me if I try to put her down somewhere?)

Thank you

It's really good that you're training practical useful behaviors like this, and I hope all goes well!
Your method sounds good. It's a pretty unnatural behavior and position for them to do or be in, so having it take a lot of time is to be expected!
Sometimes, they'll be more comfortable being grabbed and held if they still have something to hold onto with their feet - so another approach might be to have her perch on your finger and just tilt her backwards, your other hand on her back "catching" her carefully if you get how I mean, and reward after just the slightest movement in the beginning, gradually rewarding further and further tilts, until she's laying on her back in one of your hands, feet still holding onto your other hand, and then work the feet out as a final step.
This might be a bit easier on her comfort levels, though would probably require some innovative clicker holding techniques, what with using both hands for holding the bird and all

Mitchan said:

It's really good that you're training practical useful behaviors like this, and I hope all goes well!
Your method sounds good. It's a pretty unnatural behavior and position for them to do or be in, so having it take a lot of time is to be expected!
Sometimes, they'll be more comfortable being grabbed and held if they still have something to hold onto with their feet - so another approach might be to have her perch on your finger and just tilt her backwards, your other hand on her back "catching" her carefully if you get how I mean, and reward after just the slightest movement in the beginning, gradually rewarding further and further tilts, until she's laying on her back in one of your hands, feet still holding onto your other hand, and then work the feet out as a final step.
This might be a bit easier on her comfort levels, though would probably require some innovative clicker holding techniques, what with using both hands for holding the bird and all

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! I will give that a go and see how she reacts to it

What everyou are training your parrot to do or react to or say; one of the key parts of training is consistency. Requests should be done the same way from each member of the family. Lack of consistency will only confuse your parrot and make doing the trick take longer to learn.

For a good idea of what is possible to teach your Sunnie with just a little training every night, check out some of Salty's videos, link below. Good Luck !!!

wrench13 said:

What everyou are training your parrot to do or react to or say; one of the key parts of training is consistency. Requests should be done the same way from each member of the family. Lack of consistency will only confuse your parrot and make doing the trick take longer to learn.

For a good idea of what is possible to teach your Sunnie with just a little training every night, check out some of Salty's videos, link below. Good Luck !!!

Click to expand...

Thank you I'll check out the videos when I'm not on data. It's only my boyfriend and I who do the official training and we let each other know what we're doing so when our turns swap we do the same things. We also make sure everyone in the household knows what's up but it's a different matter when they put it into practice and do the opposite on accident.