One thing I have noticed in parrot books, websites and blogs is that nobody talks about disciplining or calming down parrots with the use of an eye hood, as falconers do in falconry. I have been scouring the internet for a month and cannot find anyone debating about this. Isn't the use of a hood, as a "positive punishment" (which I understand to be doing something with a view to eradicate an undesirable behaviour) the best way to teach a parrot not to bite? I remember expert parrot behaviourists saying that taking a parrot back to its cage is just too slow, because the process involves too many steps: first you have to say step up, then the step up, then the walk back to the cage, then putting the parrot onto a perch in the cage, then closing the opening, then switching off the lights. By then, the experts say, the parrot can hardly associate the bite with the time out. However, the putting on of the hood can be immediate and be accomplished in an instant, probably in not more than 2 seconds when a hood is strategically placed on standby. So why is this method never discussed, explored, experimented upon, rebutted, discredited and criticized? This phenomenon is truly puzzling?
Also, why nobody talks about the use of a hood to block out the occasional lights which may disturb sleep? In hot weather or countries, putting a dark cover over a cage overnight is probably undesirable, due to the sweltering heat and the stuffiness. So why not use a hood instead? A hood made of starched fabric (instead of leather used in falconry) is going to be much lighter and cooler. And if the back of the hood has a Dutch or Anglo-Indian opening design, which enables the greater dissipation of heat than an Arabic opening design, there is no danger of excess heat being generated. So why nobody even talks about it, or bothers to explain why this seemingly attractive solution is after all, unworkable or unsuitable.
Perhaps Mr Sazhin can shed some insight on these issues.