Taming under bedsheet?

[Galah]

I've read on another site that you could cover yourself and your parrot under a bedsheet to help tame it. Apparently it calms the bird and helps the bird concentrate more on you rather than the commotion in your house.
Do you think it wise? Or would it destroy whatever progress you've made?
I really want to try this because I'm getting nowhere fast but I don't want what little progress I've made to mean nothing because of this.

 

[MaraWentz]

It would destroy progress completely. I play under the bed sheets with my macaw, but rarely, as she has to be in an a VERY VERY specially playful mood for it, as 90% of the time (like my many other birds, cats, dogs, ferrets) being under sheets freaks them out- It's a tiny bit darker (assuming you're using a light sheet), so visibility is im[aired, it's very confining and such a small space, so there's no where to escape and run to. You're just trapped, and our pets don't know how to just flip off the sheets and just leave, so it's very frightening.

 

[Galah]

Ah, I thought so. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

[MaraWentz]

No problem, I thought it would be cute at first to play peek a boo with my pets under the blankets- turns out they were all pretty much horrified lol. But each pet is different, but I see it very unlikely.

 

[khaiqha]

It really could just depend on the bird. My IRN and Alexandrine love to go under the blanket. If I'm resting, they'll go under the blanket with me and take a nap. They've also learned that I tend to hide my phone from them under the blanket, so they'll dive under it looking for the phone. I took that opportunity to hide toys in the blanket occasionally, and they love it.

I've never trained either of them to be towled. When the vet did it for the first time, he was amazed that my IRN was completely calm and playful while towled...at least, until he started swabbing her mouth for samples anyway lol.

 

[MaraWentz]

We don't towel either, if we restrain her it's just bare hands- no towels or gloves. Every animal is different, but in my experience with all sorts of animals none have liked being under the blanket. Do you prop it open?

 

[Galah]

I imagine it also depends on how tame the bird is.

 

[MonicaMc]

My mitred conure loves to go underneath covers, however, it's not a behavior I enjoy allowing him to do... because he'll turn right around, charge and bite me! I figure this is more of a nesting behavior than anything else, and it's not good to encourage a pet bird to be hormonal and nesty.

When he requires beak trims, I don't use a towel! It's easier to retrain him with one hand and work on his beak than using a towel. In fact, he gets more upset and ends up getting too warm if I try using a towel to restrain him.

But then, I've come to prefer not using towels on any of my birds, tamed or not!

 

[lene1949]

My bird are all 'trained' to use a towel.... I simply use a towel after they have a shower to dry them off a bit... I have never used a towel as a restraint, but since they're not afraid of a towel, that would be possible..

 

[JerseyWendy]

If you want your bird's full attention, without many distractions, why not try a small room in your home/apartment?

Believe it or not, but I use our guest bathroom, which is TINY. Of course I close the commode (because I sit on it while holding the bird).

No place to fly in there, nothing to really look at - except me.

 

[MaraWentz]

Baha. If Erin goes in the bathroom with me she constantly licks the heater and runs her beak allover the door and floor. She's got a very short attention span sometimes

 

[JerseyWendy]

Baha. If Erin goes in the bathroom with me she constantly licks the heater and runs her beak allover the door and floor. She's got a very short attention span sometimes

LOL Mara!

My Niko tries to "read" all the good magazines in there, unless I put them out of sight. He's even learned how to unroll the toilet paper in a split second. :52:

 

[Sc0tt]

I think it depends on the bird. Casper loves running under covers. He makes 'talking' noises he doesn't usually make under there and really enjoys our games of 'hide and seek'. I'd maybe just see how they do under it and judge from there if it would be a good idea to train there or not.