Aversion to wing handling

[Known Space]

Hiya.

So my tiny pacific parrotlet is a well-trained bird who is fine with me having my hand over her, or even being held when she's on a secure surface. She's not cage aggressive and I've trained many of the aggressive tendencies people associate with the species, in part through sheer luck and in part through determination.

But,

I would like to be able to handle her wings. In part for maintenance, in part for harness training. But my attempts so far seem to be going poorly.

What I tried to do is start off by just gently touching her wing, clicking, and rewarding. Subsequently, I would increase the duration that I touched her wing, and rewarded. I then moved on to slightly opening the wing and this went well for a while. But suddenly, she became averse to it and I'm back to square one. And this is about the third time now. And I'm not actually rushing this training either. I've always been mindful of her body language and I never pressured her into doing things she doesn't want me to do: she flees, or she warns, I stop.

Help?

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[JLcribber]

I think your pushing past their natural boundaries. Especially for a parrotlet. There isn't a bird out there that likes their wings messed with no matter how tame they are. JMO

 

[Known Space]

I think your pushing past their natural boundaries. Especially for a parrotlet. There isn't a bird out there that likes their wings messed with no matter how tame they are. JMO

I've seen many video of parrots being very receptive, through training to have theirs checked. Including parrotlets. Though I am aware that this is through training and some are more receptive to it than others. But the last thing I would do is force my girl into being handled in ways that she doesn't want to.