how bad is grabbing my bird against his will

[chuckles]

my bird is making decent progress everyday , when i open my palm infront of him he would often hop on also he let me stroke him everywhere on his body though he growl when i stroke the area under his wings . but sometime he really pisses me of when he move away from me on his perch when i approach him or the fact he insist on keeping quiet for the 25th day and the lack of interaction with me so i grab him with both of my thumb and middle finger around his body and get him out of the cage , during this he bites my thumb really hard and try to slip from me but he hardly make any sound . my question is would my bird hate me if i do that? frankly i dont like doing this but he get me really frustrated.

[ellieelectrons]

Hi chuckles

I would not recommend grabbing your bird unless it is absolutely necessary.

The way I look at life with my birds is that when I bring them home and keep them in a cage in my home, I am taking on the responsibility to make as good a life as I can for them. They have very little choice other than to be here with me. They rely on me to make sure they have adequate food and water and a clean environment to live and they rely on me for their quality of life. I then have a choice. I can make their life happy or fearful and I don't want my birds to live in fear because that's not a good way to live. So, when it comes to interacting with my birds I try really hard to be patient and let their behaviour be my guide. And I must say, whilst all our interactions aren't always perfect, I am reaping the rewards of that relationship now. It is very satisfying but it has developed over a really long period of time.

So, let me encourage you to try to put yourself in your bird's place before losing your patience with him and also to think about whether you'd like a relationship based on mutual respect or fear and domination. I know they can be very frustrating sometimes but I believe that building a relationship based on mutual respect is well worth it in the long run. A little bit of kindness goes a long way. As I'm typing this, my lutino IRN Charlie shows me that this is true as he flies down to see what I'm doing and hops on my shoulder. I can't help remembering when we brought him home and (despite being handraised) he was completely freaked out by us. Sharing your life with an IRN is a privilege and I look forward to seeing how you and your little guy progress. Best wishes.

Ellie.

[dholari]

i agree with ellie on this count, every sunday we go to my parents house 25 kms away and tag mittu along in a small cage, last sunday i tried to forcibly take him out of the bigger cage and he was not willing to come out (they are very possessive of their homes- ie cages) .. in the process he injured one of his nails , didnt put down his leg for full day and in the evening on the return he bit off the nail and it started bleeding - by the time i reached home it was full flow - had to rush back and hold the nail with corn flour and arrest the bleeding - was fully fagged out after that tense workout .. will never force him anytime again - felt very very sad after this avoidable incident , poor thing suffered a lot becos of my immaturity , but still walks onto my fingers the moment i put my hand .

[ellieelectrons]

We all make mistakes with our birds. All we can do is learn from them! When I think of all the mistakes we made with Janey, it's a wonder she's not 50 times worse than she is!

Ellie.

[chuckles]

dont irn over time when they trust their owner stop resisting grabbing??

[ellieelectrons]

They may (or may not) stop resisting but if it's from you persistently grabbing against its will it's more likely that it is because it is resigned to it not because it likes it. Personally, I'd prefer to know that my bird is happy for me to interact with it rather than be resigned to it. However, I'm not trying to say that I've never forced my birds to do anything against their will because I have... but I do regret it on most occasions.

Ellie.