TTouch, anyone?

[StellaBlue]

Many years ago when I was working to rehabilitate Worf, a highly aggressive "junkyard dog" boxer (truth to tell, Worf was the love of my life), I worked with several trainers and behavioralists. One trainer taught me to use TTouch and Bach Flower Essences - Rescue Remedy and others. I'm pretty skeptical of anything new-agey, but I was desperate to save this dog from euthansia, so I tried it, and I was pretty pleasantly surprised by the results I got, especially with TTouch.

With springtime arriving soon and the macaws headed for another round of hormonal horrorshow, I'm considering adding these things back into my bag of tricks.

I found this link describing use of Bach Flower Essences to treak plucking, so I guess it is safe to use. And TTouch is certainly safe for any animal and can be used from a distance using a feather or other object if an animal is too aggressive to approach (like my macaws when they are in the hormone strut).

Has anyone tried either TTouch or Flower Essenses with problem parrots?

[krissyg1989]

not parrots but horses for me

[Buteo]

I've used Bach Flower, MT & many elements of T-touch on dogs & cats, but not on birds.

For TTouch to work, the animal needs to be at a certain level of comfort with close proximity of humans. Once that is attained, the gentleness of TTouch can go a long way to acclimatizing almost any animal to accept light physical contact.

The Bach Flower Remedies are a different story. Personally, since it's well known that avians can have severe sensitivities to airborne particles, I'd be very hesitant to use any fragrant oils around them.

[Freedomoflight]

Bach Flower Essences can be diluted into the drinking water as well- they are completly safe to ingest. And really you are only supposed to use about 3 drops for parrots, so there is no reason why the smell would be overpowering should you go the route of massaging it into the beak or feet.