5 Foragers using 1 Towel | DIY

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[@AjDAngeles]

Update: day 3 and Sophie is now foraging like a pro! I keep a small amount of her daily pellet allowance by in the morning then at noon I put her mat down and sprinkle pellets and the seeds (that used to just go on my flat carpet) and she was right in there without any hesitation.
I'm always amazed at how brave she is for someone only 5 inches tall, it took her just three days to start venturing into the unknown to hunt!
Thanks Flocktalk 😁
Oh ps - bonus, this distracts her while I feed the guinea pigs so I no longer have to fear death from above!

[@AjDAngeles]

So today Sophie and I tried this, I spent most of the day sat on the floor rummaging through the mat to find pellets and seeds to hand-feed Sophie as she observed from the safety of my shoulder.
She has successfully trained me in foraging 😂

[@anthropomorphicpeanut6160]

All of these are great ideas and very original! Thank you

[@wendycottingham8011]

fun ideas! This would be great for my disabled quaker. She came to me with a severely broken wing and a few other breaks that weren't addressed. So she doesn't perch real well so she can't play with hanging toys and toys still make her nervous.

[@anthropomorphicpeanut6160]

Poor bird! How is she doing now?

[@LoGi26]

Great idea!! I'll try it 🤩👍

[@connied8507]

My birds are nervous around towels but I have attempted these with just paper ❤

[@zwicknagel]

7k to go 👏🏼

[@mehere8038]

I'm undecided if this is a really good, or really bad idea for my birds. Mine are both scared of towels, especially blue towels, cause if I have to handle them, I wave the towel (face washer actually) around first & then use it to catch them, therefore, if I don't have a towel, they know they won't be handled & so have lost their fear of hands that they strongly had when I rescued them. Whenever they see any kind of towel though, they freak out, this would be good at teaching them not to fear towels, but not sure if that might not actually be a good thing because of how I use them. I could get them to do the first one if I wanted to, with small bumps, really undecided. As always though, great video, with great ideas for lots of birds in it :)

[@livi6886]

Check out Flock-Talk's videos on cooperative care! If you follow those videos, eventually you won't need to restrain them with the towel anymore. Once they are no longer having negative experiences with towels, it will be much easier to desensitize them to towels.

[@mehere8038]

​@@livi6886 unfortunately mine are very badly abused rescues so that's really not an option :( My boy in particular I can't even touch without him getting upset about it & biting. After 2.5 years with him, he will occasionally now let me touch his beak & I have managed to get him to lick my nose, but that's the most physical contact we can do, so things like nails can't be done without holding him & I'm still getting them down in length, due to how messed up they were when I got them. He is actually pretty good, he doesn't bite me while being held, just cries & whinges, so I don't actually cover him with the towel, I just use the towel as a signal that I'm going to pick him up, so that he knows he's safe if there's no towel. Things like weighing we can do without touching, but nails need holding.
I'm currently working really hard on step up, I originally managed with Flock Talk's "shimmy" across from perch to hand positioned as an extension to it, but even that took months to achieve & then I moved my hand (like a cm) with bird on it & completely undid all the training. She gave me some AWESOME advice/info on how to progress in the comments a while back though, so hopefully with daily work we'll be able to do step ups within a year or so & if we can do that, then I'm hoping other stuff will follow & there will be more trust, but until then, the co-operative care for things like nails really isn't in the realm of possibility for us :(
For me right now it's more a case of should I even try to desensitise them to towels, or keep it how it is, because of the flip side of that, with no towels meaning they can feel completely safe. Would desensitising to towels between holding events actually cause them more stress at other times due to reducing the cue that handling is about to happen? I mean it was good that even at the vet, they could feel relaxed with the vet being close to them & looking at them as they both sat on the top of their carrier looking around curiously & therefore let the vet see them really well, therefore minimising the amount of time where they needed to be held to be examined, with towels acting as the cue to let them know they're going to be picked up & towel gone = relax, you won't be picked up again. Vet assistant at one visit, when taking my girl in for surgery actually even offered her hand & said "step up", cause she tried to catch girl without a towel before this & girl just moved around to avoid the hand, while still remaining cms from the grabbing hand, not retreating back into her carrier, cause she didn't see it as a threat when not accompanied by a towel, just didn't want to be touched by it. VERY different to when I got them & a hand anywhere near her cage, even changing food or water, would cause her to grip for dear life onto the top of the cage wall, as far from the door as possible & cry & scream & shake & rock during & for at least half an hour straight after it (and most of the day everyday)
I do like your way of thinking though & think it's very good advice for anyone that hasn't watched that video or considered that approach to handling