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>>Another thing I failed to note...I only have experience with this with parrots. I have no idea if this would work with song birds or anything other than hook beaked birds.
One thing that bears mentioing is to watch for signs of distress. When birds stress thier little heart races toward stopping and you will need to back off and put them back in their 'safe' place (cage) and cover it up for a little while to let them calm down. Rapid raspy breathing, jerking eye movement, constant screaming that is becoming weaker, all these can signal an onslaught that will kill the bird. So if you see any of this in the animal, put them back in their cage immediately and cover all but one corner so that you can keep an eye on them...
The towel method doesn't work well with Amazons, but I do have to use it to clip Francine's wings and toenails, without that and welding gloves to hold her, an extremely tame bird turns into a finger removing vise in a few seconds flat! LOL She'll let me handle her wings any way I want so long as I don't have scissors! I can stretch them, pet her underneath them, heck I can rub her belly, feet, legs, tail feathers, anything, but get out the scissors and she becomes a demon with wings, claws and a beak that can literally bite off a finger!. Another method you can try is perch training with a short piece of perch. You coax the bird onto the perch and then slowly lower it until they are on your hand or arm, before they realize it, they've found a comforable place to perch and the psychological trick to this, is that birds always want to be at the highest point, so keep the perch handy to keep them off your shoulders and head until you have formed a relationship with the bird and are past worrying about them tagging you mouth, nose, ears or eyes with that beak. After all, some of these birds are carrying around beaks that can supply 800+ lbs of pressure per square inch! That WILL take off a finger.
Sorry I haven't posted more here, I used to breed birds as I said in a former post and I think I'm still disgruntled over having had to give it up due to health! I miss babies in the kitchen and squalling little ones at three a.m. if you can believe that! But I really do miss that!
Tay
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