One of the biggest problems we face when treating birds is how stressed out they get in the clinic.  When birds become stressed, there is a chance for overheating and some can even pass away from stress.  Sick birds are at an even higher risk for this problem.  The following behaviors can really help birds calm down in the clinic and can even help with medicating your birds at home.  Train them early and your bird (and you!) will be better off during your yearly vet visits and when medical problems arise.  Remember to go slow and work at your bird's pace.  Save favorite treats for training and make it an enjoyable experience for both you and your bird!

Every bird we handle here in our clinic gets restrained with a towel.  This is to help prevent the bird from injuring itself (with wings, feet, or beak) and allows our technicians to hold the bird comfortably for a variety of procedures.  Unfortunately, this is often the only time a bird gets exposed to a towel, so they begin to associate the towel with stressful events.  Teach your bird at home that the towel is a fun toy - play peekaboo, wrap your bird in a towel while giving it treats, and expose your bird to different colors of towel and sizes as well.  Birds that play with towels at home are much less stressed when held in the clinic.

Lots of birds come to the clinic to get wing and nail trims.  One trick you can teach at home is the "high five" or "handshake" where you play with your bird's feet and get him or her used to having toes handled.  A similar trick called "flap" can train them to flap their wings.  Over time you can teach your bird to allow touching when they flap and this will get them used to having their wings handled for trims.

Even though we flavor our medications with berry flavoring, a large number of birds hate taking medication.  Here is a great procedure you can teach them far in advance of when they need to take medication.  Get a syringe and give something your bird will like (apple juice or weakly brewed chamomile tea works well) and teach them to accept the liquid from the syringe.  Do this at random times and they will realize that the syringe offers yummy stuff!  Then when you finally do have to give medication, they are willing to take it from the syringe.  You still have to alternate the good liquids with the medications (always in a random pattern - they are smart enough to figure out when they are getting medicine if not!).  This is a valuable tool that will make giving medications much easier.

We have small scales that we place a perch on to weigh our birds.  If your bird is not trained with the "step down" command onto a perch, training him or her to do so will be helpful when they come and visit the clinic.