Shoulder Cover

[charmedbyekkie]

Cairo quickly decided we are his humans before we could start basic potty training (just want to teach him to use selected areas - not on command). That meant several of my office clothes fell victim to his digestive system's timing. Since my partner (a guy with more fashion sense than me) also wanted to prevent his clothes from being constantly adorned with wet gifts, I couldn't go with the shoulder bibs of whacky designs that Amazon sells.

Cue me finding this solution.

A cape scarf seemed to be quite unisex to me (and I just love scarves). Plus the design made room for arm holes, so you can still use your arms and not worry about it slipping off or your bird stepping too far down off your shoulder. But then there are some other factors I think people should consider before making one themselves:

- Weather/Climate:

I love wool and plaid - they remind me of my childhood. That being said, I live in a hot and humid tropical country now. So I had to make sure the material was light and airy. If you want to make a summer scarf, you might want to consider natural fibres and other materials that allow your skin to breathe.​

- Your bird:

Cairo only recently started being comfortable landing on shoulders - he used to feel more comfortable landing on forearms before climbing up to a shoulder. In addition, we dremel his nails regularly, so his grip isn't as sharp. Because of these two factors, I needed a material that was not slippery, but rather had a large enough weave for him to grip and climb. At the same time, not something that he could get his nails caught on.​

- Your style:

I wanted something that matched most of the outfits in our wardrobes; also wanted something that could both disguise his droppings and make it visible when we needed to clean it. This led me to search for muted patterns - a pattern to distract the passing eye, but muted enough to cause the droppings to stand out when looked at just a little more closely.​

In the end, I went with a linen-cotton blend with beige stripes (see attached). A side-note and accompanying tip would be to iron your seams, which is what I was doing! It makes everything look so much more professional, and I'm a terrible amateur.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Just potty train him. It took me 24 hours for all 3 birds. Mine are Conures and Ekkies are supposed to be smarter than Conures so it shouldn't be too hard. Presumably you wouldn't need that scarf things if you just started now with the training.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Just potty train him. It took me 24 hours for all 3 birds. Mine are Conures and Ekkies are supposed to be smarter than Conures so it shouldn't be too hard. Presumably you wouldn't need that scarf things if you just started now with the training.

Yep, this is definitely a case of slow human, smart bird. I started potty training this past weekend, and he had the rough idea figured out within 24 hours. He happily sat on my shoulder during a long lunch, then did his thing the moment I put him in his cage. It's just that my partner isn't quite as consistent when I'm at work because he still can't see Cairo's poop squat.

At the same time, Cairo finds human skin a bit too slippery for his liking now that his nails are somewhat blunt, so he's more comfortable if I cover up more of my trapezoids. When my partner wears a singlet (muscle shirt?), Cairo tries to stand on the thin fabric strap. Since it is 24/7 hot and humid here, I understand where he's coming from - we're not the most grippable perches that chauffeur him around.

But yeah, Cairo just needs his humans to get up to speed