I think so. A predator would stare intently and not slowly close his eyes on his prey. What we've been doing is a very slow and squinty blink back and forth. And once they close their eyes slowly, that is a sign of trust as they would never be comfortable enough to close their eyes in front of a predator.

And Arty, I will try that today.

That's pretty cool Sarah. I have never heard of the blinking before. I have done the eye contact and look away so they don't think I'm a threat and have closed my eyes so they know that I am comfortable around them but never the blinking.

This is very interesting! I never thought about smiling being mistaken for a snarl. I guess Ollie knows my smile isn't a threat by now. I'm going to try this blinking thing with her and see what she does!

I've found this blinking and winking thing to very interesting with Winston. It captures his attention and he's very calm all the while - sometimes it's hard to get his full attention because he's so attached to his mirror toy. The AV recommended not weaning him off the mirror for a few weeks, and I agree that it's still too soon for that.

I tried it on Buster, my newest tiel who isn't terrified of me but isn't all that keen on me yet either. He started singing to me! That's never happened before.

~ Smiling is something that almost all animals don't understand unless they're domesticated. Best not to smile at any animal that doesn't know you - or at the very least, don't show your teeth.

~ The subtle addition of blinking is a nice touch that will really improve our communication skills. Why should the animal do all the work?

That's wonderful - congrats!

I tried this today with Prinny and Danny. Prinny was asleep in a matter of seconds grinding her beak. It really calmed her!

Danny stared at me like I had lost my mind, but he seemed to relax to. I kept closing my eyes for a longer period of time everytime. Well normally Danny's favorite thing to do is look at himself in his food bowl and make this noise that sounds like a car honking twice. Well he looked in the bowl and mouthed like he was making the sound, but no noise. LOL! He wasn't going to disturb me during my nap.

LOL Tiffany. I've been doing the blinking game with Ziggy (new parrotlet). Yesterday he started closing his eyes as soon as I would open mine. Then I was keeping my eyes closed longer and I would peak and he would have his eyes closed. Then he would kind of open 1 eye - like he was looking to see if I was watching or not. How are things going with Winston?

LOL at Princess falling asleep!

Winston and I have had a few more good blinking sessions. Sometimes I'll have my hand in his cage next to his foot and other times I will just do it sitting next to his cage. He isn't to the point where he's ready to step up though. I can touch his foot but if I move my hand or try to stroke his foot, he gets nervous and runs away. Although last night I was able to move my finger from next to one of his feet to in between his feet and he was ok with that.

And I can't even find a treat to help bribe him with - he won't even eat millet. In his pet store cage I noticed an empty sprig of millet but it was buried under poop so who knows how long that had been there. I've tried leaving a little in his dish, it goes untouched, no way will he eat any from my hand. I've had a small sprig hanging in his cage since Saturday night and he still won't touch it - he will sit right next to it, but he has expressed no interest in it.