One of my favorite ways to bond with Tango is to sit together and snuggle – it is peaceful and relaxing for both of us. Tango wasn’t always like this, he was hesitant, and it took time but now it’s become our everyday. In this blog, I’ll cover how we worked from an at a distance relationship to Tango snuggling in my shirts or hoodies.
Table of Contents
Steps to Get Your Parrot to Snuggle
When it comes to parrots, the key advice for many tricks or habits is to start small and do it often. Baby steps and consistency is what will help you both work towards a desired behavior. For Tango and I, this process of snuggling took about 2 years before it became a habit.
Tango has always been the type to want to be near you or on the shoulder, but that’s nothing compared to how he is today. I swear… T is probably sleeping or snuggling 95% of the time he’s on me. I don’t even see him preen much anymore, he seems to save that for when I’m away. 😂
Alright onto step 1:
Start with Shoulder Time
If shoulder time is not something your parrot is comfortable with, you must start with this. You’ll know a parrot is comfortable on your shoulder when they either fall asleep or start to preen. Being a little fluffed up and preening is one of the clearest signs that they are comfortable.
Lean In & Snuggle
When your parrot is comfortable with shoulder time, now you can experiment with closing the distance between you and the parrot. Some birds are not going to like this, so be wary and watch for lunges. However, if you slowly lean your neck towards them you will start to see over time the distance close.
With enough time and practice, your parrot will be very comfortable being up close to you and eventually you might see that you can even lay your head gently on them. This is the goal and a great milestone!
Tip: Each time your parrot is on you, switch the shoulder. Your neck will thank you!
Get them Comfy
Parrots are so predictable, once they like something they latch on. Soon enough you’ll be trying your best to prevent it. That said, knowing this about parrot behavior means that we can leverage it as part of the training.
If you’re able to lean your head on your parrot and they are relaxed (or even better, sleeping), stay there and do nothing; continue to do this until it is a habit. I found that with Tango, he really enjoyed my presence and the warmth from my hair and body heat. After he discovered this was a possibility he was hooked.
Snuggle to Your Neck (On Their Terms)
Once your parrot learns that snuggling and being close is super comfortable, start to inch away. If they want to snuggle some more, they will naturally start to move towards you. They want to get back to that coziness. Soon enough, they’ll be leaning into you and hopefully falling asleep like Tango below.
How to Snuggle in Hoodies
If you and your parrot are now super comfortable snuggling with each other, the next level up in cuteness is snuggling in hoodies! I think it is adorable and I can tell that Tango is obsessed with it (nowadays, he nibbles near my neck to let him into the hoodie)
Introducing A New Object – The Hoodie
Your parrot might not even be comfortable with a hoodie (as an object) since its different from a t-shirt for instance. Start by getting your parrot comfortable with being near the hoodie, then wear the hoodie and have your bird on it.
In order to tell if your parrot is now comfortable with the hoodie, you should be your parrot on you and freely move the hoodie around you without them flinching. Example, hold it in your hand and just move it around your head. Your parrot is going to be confused to what you are doing, but they should not be defensive or show signs of nervousness.
Tip: I recommend wearing the same hoodie so that they can recognize it as something non-threatening.
Acclimating to Inside the Hoodie
Once they are familiar with the hoodie and not afraid of it. Now is the time to slowly push their comfort zones a little. I’ll share below how Tango and I did this, but if you have a better method please share in the community.
With Tango, once I got him comfortable with the hoodie. I then started to “wrap” him in it. To do this, I had the hoodie off to start and I’d try to get Tango to be sitting nearer to my chest.
Then I put the hoodie on my head and really really slowly started to lower the hoodie over him. At first he was definitely confused, like “wtf is going on?!”. He’d be in the hoodie for like 2 seconds and then start to show agitation, at that point I would lift the hoodie off of him (almost like playing peekaboo). I then repeated the process – Cover him in the hoodie, then lift it off.
After awhile repeating that motion, one day I covered him up and let him sit. In the beginning, he would get antsy and then crawl towards the light near my neck. Slowly after doing this for months, I think he finally realized that it was super comfortable in there. Then, the rest of history.
Now Tango sits in my hoodie or shirt for an hour at a time. Even if he’s overheating and panting he won’t come out, I have to nudge him out of the hoodie. He takes naps, preens, watches me work and sometimes joins me for meetings.
Useful Tips & Need to Knows
Need to Know – Risk of Hormones
One thing I learnt through this process is that hoodie sitting can trigger hormones. The darkness of the hoodie did help Tango sleep for longer periods of the day, but playing in my hoodie and chewing it up must’ve been very similar to nesting behavior. There were times that I would need to ban hoodie time because it was starting to show an impact on his behavior.
Pro Tip – Choosing the Right Time of Day
Parrots have a repeatable energy cycle. For Tango is super agitated and excited in the morning when he has the most energy- he bats his wings for attention, he typically calls more, and tears up his toys. By the time its 5p, he is more mellow and tired. It’s at this time, he’s most interested in snuggling.
Observing your birds circadian rhythm could be very helpful in this process. Try to identify the time when they are more sleepy and might be more open to chilling out and cuddle. This is the best opportunity to train the habit and work with their moods.
Need to Know – Once they learn… you can’t take it back
These parrot babies are super smart, and once they learn something they really don’t forget. So be careful what you decide to teach them, there are a lot of parrots on the internet that learn a swear word for instance and won’t stop. It’s really challenging to untrain certain behaviors.
With snuggling on you or in a hoodie, please keep that in mind. Once they learn that they like to do that, it could become something they insist on. Like I shared earlier, now that Tango loves to snuggle in the hoodie he nibbles at my collar or my neck to signal he wants to be let in. If I refuse or push him away, he starts to throw a little hissy fit.
Pro Tip – Use your Environment
I wouldn’t say this is a pro-tip, I don’t think this is something I would’ve done intentionally but it is a consideration. When I taught Tango to do this, I lived in Boston. And for those who have been there, you know it is super cold. We always had heater in the house, but it wasn’t that warm (in the 66-67*F range).
Tango and I developed the habit of snuggling realtively easily because we both enjoyed the extra warmth. The majority of the two years was training him to get into the hoodie. Perhaps training a bird in the coldest room in the house might be something to leverage.
Final Thoughts
Hope it helped to share the journey that Tango and I went on, and that you might be able to work up to having a snuggly bird. This was one way to approach the training, but if you did it differently let us know in the community. Also, join to share all sorts of cute photos. See you there!
