Someone recently told me about a method of taming that focuses mainly on eye contact. They called it the Eye Method and I've been trying it out with Winston the past few days and I think it is a very useful tool and will be very helpful in taming him. I am not a believer in forcefully toweling an untamed bird, and this eye method will go right along with my slow, step by step approach of taming Winston.

The eye contact is most important. Do not smile at the untamed/afraid bird because a smile can be mistaken as a snarl from a predator. Once eye contact is established, begin to slowly wink at your parrot. Squinting your eyes is also effective - the slow winking/blinking/squinting shows the parrot that you are not a threat to him. The parrot should soon start to wink and/or squint back at you, meaning he feels comfortable enough to close his eyes in front of you (something a prey animal would not feel comfortable doing in front of a predator!).

I've done little 5 minute sessions of this with Winston the past 2 nights and it's going great. Once I get his attention and he's looking at me, I slowly begin to wink. He focuses on me very intently. He soon begins to slowly blink back at me and then we take turns slowly blinking back and forth at each other. He is very relaxed and comfortable, based on his body language, but also very focused on me. I can do this with my hand in his cage and touching his foot.

Sometimes when I am having a session with him and he's more anxious, I will bow my head and look down. I was told early on not to stare at an untamed bird for too long because that can be mistaken as a predator behavior as well. So if he's anxious during a taming session, I will occasionally bow my head and not look at him for a minute. This seems to calm him a bit.

Does anyone else use techniques like these, or have you in the past? I'd like to hear others' input or experience.

yes, ive used it with a pair of foster parakeets. i know it as the blinking game. it does seems to really calm them down. their breathing became less labored, they even started to groom themselves and fluff out contentedly with their eyes slightly closed. i didn't have them long, but i was able to put my hand in their cage and get within a few inches of their body.

I've used it when first bringing birds home - and do it now with them - mostly for fun. I've heard it called the blinking game also.

Only recently learned about it myself. Fascinating, isn't it? I wonder if it has a hypnotic effect? I can see where a long direct stare is seen as threatening because that's just how predators behave when stalking.

I think I've heard of it as the Blinking Game too, but I never thought much about it or really looked into it until I just heard about it recently and I now have Winston to begin to bond with and tame.

I didn't know about the blinking game. Make sense as i was fascinated watching Laker's little eyelids blinking away.

When i was working with my Mom's Tiels I used the not direct stare with Mo especially. He was very afraid of people because of some bad experiences with my brother toweling him to trim his nails - the only contact he got from humans. It only took a few tries & he was much more relaxed in my presence. I would look at him, say something - make eye contacts and slowly look away - even looked at something else & then back to him with or without words. Now after a year [with small visits from me] he is still calm around me & will even tolerate toweling without having a heart attack & try to kill me.

I've used this method even with my Dad's cattle - they're such inquisitive animals but fearful of humans they don't know. If you hang with them & are as non threatening as possible, the next thing you know one's giving you a lick.

It works well with my gang as well, but the only problem is:


The greys stare BACK at ya, and look at ya like "yeah, right!"

Very interesting Sarah. I have always used calming signals with my dogs, blinking, closing eyes, and yawning. Yawning is a huge calming signal to dogs. When my dogs are tense, I can yawn at them and they will yawn back and you literally can see them start to calm. I wonder if that would work with the birds as well?

Use one eye once and see how they react, turn your head and use but one eye.
You will notice a difference in there responce.

Very interesting. Amazing, you learn somethig new every day! Keep us posted on how Winston does. What is it with blinking that makes the bird feel you are not a predator? Is this a sign of vulnerability to the bird?