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Post by JennyB on Jan 11, 2015 23:11:30 GMT
I have tried the "Hezz hold" as I refer to it. Both Merry and pippin hop up onto my little finger and within a split second further up onto my index finger where they're happy to settle or they hop off onto another perch. I think I need to angle my hand so the way up is blocked. It's a work in progress... Great news on Munchy Ira
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Apr 26, 2024 7:28:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2015 17:07:55 GMT
JennyB with my first hand I tend to end up with just the rump and tail, Munchy perched on my index or middle finger, and have to hope I can hold him long enough to get my other hand around him. If he's on the bars I just pluck him off from behind. Today he's a bit nippy with me. Too many late nights I think, but he was very cute cwtched up on my laptop yesterday evening. I should know trouble is coming when he's so friendly and takes an interest in what I'm doing (this time buttons)! Fortunately, I don't have to hold him much. What I do most days is just close my hand around him loosely whilst he remains standing on the perch, and don't try to force him off, which might be why his grip on my fingers was relaxed enough for me to trim without holding his foot. Normally he clings tight to my fingers so that I have to hold his tarsus and then struggle to keep him from clenching his foot i to a ball... Yeah, this was a very relaxing experience compared to what we've been through in the past.
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Post by Hezz on Jan 12, 2015 23:33:37 GMT
JennyB, a work in progress is still achievement, believe me. My little guys would revert to not being caught if I went weeks without doing so.
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May 7, 2015 8:57:40 GMT
fluffball
Normal Violet
Shakira makes me shake my tail feather!
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Post by fluffball on Jun 22, 2015 15:30:19 GMT
Hezz thanks so much for this video - just tried this with Teddy - and although not quite a slick as you, we did pretty well :-) Thought I would start preparing him for when I have to apply his mite drop to the back of his neck. Thanks!!!
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Post by FFG on Jun 22, 2015 17:11:04 GMT
Hezz is the budgie whisperer! Great video
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Post by Hezz on Jun 23, 2015 0:36:13 GMT
fluffball, you will get there if you practice with him ...... and it is the birds who make it easy by stepping onto the little finger. I can't convince mine to let me do it much out of the cage, very little if at all, most of them, and I do still get the run around sometimes, more as a protest than a serious attempt to get away. It really does take the stress out of being caught at home and vet visits. I wish, FFG, but Thanks anyway.
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Post by milliej on Dec 23, 2015 16:48:10 GMT
I've just re-read this thread and will make a point of trying this more frequently, I'd hate them to be terrified of me forever! My others were a lot 'calmer' Bonnie and Tyler are a lot more skittish!
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Apr 26, 2024 7:28:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2015 20:00:18 GMT
I'm quite fortunate that Munchy has a fairly 'aggressive' (or perhaps dominant would be a nicer word) personality. So usually when I try to pick him up he just stands his ground rather than running away. Works outside the cage sometimes, too, as long as I don't give him a clear escape route. It's definitely worth doing, milliej!
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Post by Hezz on Dec 23, 2015 23:24:22 GMT
It is definitely worth doing. I usually only enforce the training in their cage, but on occasions Misty (because he is the lazy one) and Mango (she is a hen so who we will never know why ) will allow me to catch them like this outside the cage. With all the to-ing and fro-ing I have had to be doing with them over the last 12 months, it would have been a nightmare if they weren't compliant in the catch-and-removal procedure.
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Post by milliej on Dec 24, 2015 11:03:06 GMT
Just re-enforces their little personalities, Tyler must be the feistiest little budgie I've ever had and he's so tiny compared to the others I've had, bless him I used some light cardboard to block of the opening between the cages to make it 'easier' (haha) to catch him but after much fluttering and skwarking noise he managed to find a little gap I'd left and made his way through that! He then 'hid' behind Bonnie who is much calmer, so that was our adventure for the time being
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Post by Hezz on Dec 24, 2015 11:30:42 GMT
See, there is a major difference straight away; my birds have always been trained not to come out until I open the door, get them individually onto my finger, be given a kiss good morning, put them onto my shoulder and then they are free to go about their morning. Call me a control freak, but this has worked well for me every since ....... and has probably even saved the odd escaped with a door not being properly latched by mistake. On occasion one will slip past, but I then follow them around until they sit on my finger and get that kiss! So they learn to wait their turn, and although I do try not to tease them, sometimes they are made to wait while I give one special treatment on occasion.
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Apr 26, 2024 7:28:35 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2015 13:37:36 GMT
Hezz I'd love to be able to teach that! Munchy was so eager to come out this morning that every time I stuck my finger through to get the latch he had plastered himself to the door! Eventually he realised that he wasn't coming out until he stayed away from the door until I opened it.
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Post by OP on Dec 24, 2015 15:01:15 GMT
Ha Ha I love the way they plaster themselves to the bars. Whiskers is a master. He will be on the perch when I approach the cage then in a flash he is plastered against th bars. He has startled me a few times. As for a coming out routine, Whiskers is first boy is he fast!. Joey will wait now until I get him to step up, even Edward is now stepping up to come out. No kisses though I need my lips for eating. There is only Whiskers that I dare to offer my lips to. Joey has no enthusiasm and Edward well, although she has stopped biting totally. I wouldn't leave my lips near just in case.
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Post by jujubiiird on Jun 1, 2016 1:21:33 GMT
Great video, Hezz. Lots and lots of practice I imagine! Are my fears that; if I start to practice this with my bud, he will distrust me, valid? When did you start doing it with your buds? When they were babies?
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Post by Hezz on Jun 1, 2016 10:13:37 GMT
No, most I didn't have as babies, so it was not then. If I weren't such a techno-dunce I could show you a vid of Mango, who I have had since she was five and a bit weeks old; she will hop into my hand as easily as hop onto a finger ..... but with these guys, I really didn't start until they were older, anyway ..... the little white and blue one, Smudge, was the only one there that I had had from quite young. The other two, Sparky and Misty, were older when I got them. It is a matter of doing small amounts often, and not so much rewarding, but them getting to know that nothing bad is going to happen when I do. So I would get them into my hand, give them a kiss and them put them back onto a perch, which is quite important, rather than just letting them go. A little bribery in the form of millet is always allowed. I will also add that if you go into it half hearted and tentative, Juju will pick up on this, so be sure, but make it short. I offer them my little finger to step onto, instead of my forefinger, then once they have stepped up I wrap my thumb over the top and the other fingers are sort of in front of the bird so they think twice about going forward. They will try to wriggle backwards, but work out your own way of stopping this; I usually now just tip my hand up or down so the my fingers are more or less in front of their face. I don't wish to down-play that it is an easy thing to do; most don't do this, or have tried and given up, but I have had many trips to the vets what with one thing or another and this sort of training really does make a vet visit so much less traumatic. Birds have been known to have heart failure at the vets; mine, I am pleased to say have, been rather calm and rather chirpy, and not bitey, as a result. To me, it is well worth the effort to start with, and then once the birds are used to it, it becomes a kind of ritual, a cuddle kind off ..... I am sure Mango sees it as that, the way she snuggles in.
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