Poor Charlie

[Vampiric_Conure]

Tis the season for pin feathers! Charlie is NOT tame and hates hands with a passion. Other than bathing, what can I do to help ease his molting discomfort? I've had mostly bonded birds until recently, so I never had to worry about this.

and charlie pic for tax:

 

[Jcas]

Aww poor Charlie! My budgies have a ladder with rough, calcium coated rungs that they rub their heads on during molting season. My Quaker lets me help him out a little ( though he’ll nail me if I hit a sensitive spot!) but he also has a toy hung at just the right height to get his head under so that he can use it scratch those itchy pin feathers! I don’t know if you could add in a rough perch or a toy that Charlie would use to help scratch his pin feathers?

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Aww poor Charlie! My budgies have a ladder with rough, calcium coated rungs that they rub their heads on during molting season. My Quaker lets me help him out a little ( though he’ll nail me if I hit a sensitive spot!) but he also has a toy hung at just the right height to get his head under so that he can use it scratch those itchy pin feathers! I don’t know if you could add in a rough perch or a toy that Charlie would use to help scratch his pin feathers?

EXCELLENT IDEAS! I have several rough perchs.. I should move it so charlie can rub his head!

 

[Maya The Ringneck]

Tis the season for pin feathers! Charlie is NOT tame and hates hands with a passion. Other than bathing, what can I do to help ease his molting discomfort? I've had mostly bonded birds until recently, so I never had to worry about this.

and charlie pic for tax:

View attachment 58576

Misting down your bird with a soothing spray like Aloe Vera will soothe irritated feather follicles and encourage appropriate preening while moisturizing the skin.
So maybe try and get some spray for charlie and see if that helps.

 

[kme3388]

Have you ever tried clicker based training with a stick (I used chop sticks)? A parrot may bite down hard on the stick to start. It’ll be a really rough start depending on your parrots exposure to humans, and their hands. Does Charlie eat pellets? If you don’t feed him seed they really are incentives to at least my parrots. Nico my Ekkie “hated” clicker based training to start. It looked a lot more brutal than it was. Whenever he lunged at the stick, and touched it with his beak I clicked the clicker, and gave him a treat. I always remained calm (yes, I had to prepare for this beforehand because I had no experience with larger parrots, and to be quite honest Nico’s huge beak was intimidating). After awhile he actually appeared to get excited for his training. He appropriately grabs the stick with his beak for pine nuts. It’s how I started to handle Nico with my hands. Baby steps! I do the same training with my conures. They both had prior exposure to hands, and humans before me.

I hope something in here helps! Hopefully you find a way to help your conure that doesn’t especially care for hands.