 Hello, my fellow snippers and welcome to Parent Tip Tuesday. I knew once I started talking she would leave, that's just what she does. My name is Marlene McCohen and this is Jersey, my umbrella cockatoo. And here is my lovely mustache parakeet Picasso today for this episode in light of Halloween. I am going to show you guys how to make Jersey's sock costume. Now, I thought this would be a great video for today because if you want, you could not only make this sock costume for plucking issues or so your bird is not bare, but also you can dress your bird up for Halloween. So I thought I would show you guys exactly how I make this today. Jersey must know that this video is about her and like it because I've never seen her stay here. Usually she just jumps off. Oh, look at that. I swear I had the camera on a break for like a minute and she just sat there the whole time. And once I started talking, she was like, I'm out. Hey Jersey, we're going to talk about you today. Actually, I have a surprise for you guys. Before we do the Engage Knot cage parrot, let me do a couple of shout outs. Now these shout outs are going to be from Parrot Station because I saw these two posts today and they really made me feel something and I thought that I should give you guys a shout out. So here it goes. The first shout out is to Brandy Metcalf on Parrot Station. You were thinking about rescuing George the McCaw. He's 50 years old. I was just so impressed. I really hope you're able to rescue George. You guys know I have an insane sensitivity to Parrots named George. The picture of George and your story just really got to my heart. I hope that you do bring home George and keep me updated on that. It's really nice to have Parrot Station and be able to see everything that you all do for birds. It really makes me feel good to be able to see into the lives of all the Parrots around the world. So thank you Brandy for considering getting George. I really hope you do that. Tag me on Parrot Station. If you do keep us all updated because I think we are looking forward to it. And my next shout out goes to Alexis Lukowitz. I loved your post today about Rue. I saw that you went to the pet store and you adopted Rue. I know that you recently lost your bird willow and I'm really sorry about that. But I hope that Rue brings you a lot of love and a lot more joy back into your life because I know that when I lost George that feeling was there so strong until I got Cody. So I totally understand you. And I hope that Rue does bring you the happiness that you deserve. And thank you for saving another bird. And now for the Engage Not Caged feature. These, by the way, guys, I choose from Instagram only. So if you follow me on Instagram and tag me and also follow Engage Not Caged and hashtag Engage Not Caged, do whatever you can to get my attention. This is where I choose the birds. By the way, I have 4,999 Instagram followers. It's like one more. And they'll have 5,000, which is kind of an exciting number, I think, right? So today's Engage Not Caged bird is Shabadu. Oh my God, you guys. Shabadu's profile says he is a tiny charismatic cockatiel from New Jersey. OK, I had to choose Shabadu. Let me tell you why. One, gorgeous bird. Two, I'm from New Jersey and my first bird was a yellow cockatiel named Dooley. What a cute name. I love that name. So Shabadu and his profile just it just Shabadu stole my heart. And he has cute videos up there and the whole profile is about Shabadu. So check out Shabadu the bird. You will love it. I will put the link below. My goal is to give you other cool birds to follow on Instagram. And I hope you guys do go follow them because birdies deserve our support and love in a world of dogs and cats. Don't you guys agree? So I hope you really enjoy following Shabadu. Oh my God, Shabadu, you're just gorgeous. You're just a gorgeous bird with a lot of character. I will agree. I have seen some of Shabadu's videos. I'm in love. So go follow Shabadu and now we are going to move on to our video. First, let's talk about the items that you are going to need to make your bird sock sweater. First things first is the sock itself. Now this is a good quality sock. I used to make them out of any kind of sock. I like the ones with the one inch neck because it's good for Jersey to cover up her neck. This is a Ralph Lauren sock. The quality of the sock does make a difference. It's super soft. So it's very comfortable for her. When I used to use other socks that weren't Ralph Lauren, just something I got at Target, she was able to pull them apart and stretch them a lot and then get under there and chew her feathers. So I suggest a really good quality sock. I got this from TJ Maxx. If you feel like your bird is a plucker, then the one inch neck so it will cover your bird's neck. But if you're just trying to dress your bird up for Halloween, then go ahead and get any kind of sock that you like. Right, Jersey? Also, you'll want to make sure that the sock is approximate size of your bird. It will stretch, but you want your bird to be comfortable. This is about Jersey's size. She's making that noise because she's like, this better not be one of those days where we change my sock. So that's the first item you'll need. Second item, this is Jay. This Jay is for Jersey. You could put anything on your bird. This is an iron on. I actually used to make her wear Superman and Batman logos, which is a lot of fun and really cute. I didn't find any iron on logos like that. So what I used to do was buy a boy's underwear. I'm not kidding you and cut out the Batman logo and then sew it on. But this is a lot easier. I'm going to show you today how to iron this onto the sock and where you would want to iron it on. So that is the other item you'll need. The next item you will need is a scissors. Self-explanatory, you're going to have to cut the sock. And here's another thing you have to have on hand. To get this sock on Jersey, I have to have a nice soft blanket. Make her relax and they're petter because I don't want to traumatize her when I'm taking on or off the sock. That's why I don't do it often. Fun fact about me, one of my compulsions is collecting soft blankets. So if I go into a blanket aisle anywhere, I have to really try to help myself not to buy the blanket. And I like all different colors. I choose at night which one I'm going to sleep with or which three. And then this one I just opened last night so I'm really excited about it still bouncing. I don't know, the colors make me feel different. Anyway, moving on. We start with our sock. Now the sock is flat this way, but you are actually going to flatten it the opposite way, right? And here's something to note, if you have a large cockatoo especially, this part, the heel of the sock, is going to fit your bird's crop perfectly. So when your bird gets full, this is going to get filled out a little bit more. So first thing you're going to do is fold the sock. And the next thing you're going to do is cut the sock. Look, you'll see it's on the side. And don't worry too much about where you cut it right now because you can improve upon it when your bird is in the sock. First thing we're going to do is cut across here. So now I have two pieces, this part and this. We don't need this. This is not going to do anything. We can put our sock back this way. The next thing we're going to do is make wing holes. Now here's something very important to know about the sock. If you want this neck part to go up really high on your bird, let me show you Jersey. I feel like this time around, Jersey's neck is a little too low. I could totally make it higher. And in order to do that, you want to make the wing holes lower on the sock. So let me show you what I mean by that. That means that last time I probably made the wing holes high, whereas now I got to make them a little lower and then the neck part will go up higher. So how do you make the wing holes? Very simple. So simple. You just cut a little cut like that and then you can do it. I always think I'm doing things lower than I am. And I really think I already made that too high. I think I made this too high because if you see it's in the middle of the crop, I need to make it lower. So let's do another one. I make this mistake all the time and then I'm like, damn, I should have made that higher. All right. So I made a wing hole here and here. These are very, very small right now and they're temporary. The next thing we're going to do is open up our emblem. Why don't we do the blue one for Jersey right now? I have to iron this. Where are you, mom? I need you to iron this for me. The dog got a little excited when I did that. This is a job for a mother. Okay. So how do you iron these things on? I swear mom did this for me last time. So I have the iron ready. It literally smells like something's burning. So you peel this off. Oh no, Jersey has been alerted of something. And you stick it to the area you want it to be. What's the matter, Jersey? That might be a little bit low on Jersey right now. So I'm going to put it higher. I'm going to put it right on the crop. And now I am going to iron it. Now the measurements may come out a little bit off. That happens. And that's why the great thing is you only need one sock out of a pack of, let's say 12, because you know, let's say it's a six pack. You get 12 socks. That's what's good about it. So you get a lot of tries to figure it out. So now we are going to iron this on. Wish me luck. The last time I ironed anything, I was probably about 10 when my mom was obsessed with teaching us things. I mean, I don't even have an ironing board. I should have read the directions. Jersey, stay over there. This is an iron. Why is it not hot? I put it on cotton. Those of you who use irons, you probably know this part better than me. Do not use glues and things like that because there's a great chance that your bird is going to chew it. I'm very surprised that Jersey didn't chew her J. She's chewed a lot of other things that I've put on, but I think she's very proud. I think she knows this is J for Jersey. And I think she likes it because her red J is holding up. But you wouldn't believe red is a hard color to get. So now we're doing blue. Oh, well, this blanket is getting ironed. Don't try this at home the way I'm doing it. I bet you have to let it cool because things like this, you always have to let them cool before you move on. I'll give it one more iron. So I found the instructions and it said to also iron the back. I think that's what it meant. So I'm gonna iron the back. I put Picasso in a safe place. What do you think, Jersey? By the way, my iron is on a cotton setting. I put the iron in a safe place where none of the birds can get at it. I have ironed this and let's turn it inside out and see what it looks like. It looks pretty good. So this is how you make the costume. You're gonna wanna make these holes a lot bigger. Where this hole is, you're gonna cut up towards the neck a little and then on the other side. And believe me, this is going to stretch when you put it on the bird and it's gonna become bigger as you put it on the bird. So I'm gonna show you how to do that and I'm gonna show you how to tweak it so you don't give your bird too tight of a fabric feeling over here because they can get blisters and stuff from that. So it's gotta be really nice and soft and perfect. Let's see if Jersey will let me do this. Usually my sister helps me with this actually. Let me ask her if she wants to help me. You have a tension because she's gonna get sick. I don't know if she's gonna get sick. Harry, come here. Harry, come here. Oh, she's gonna get mad if you give her a tension. She's not gonna come. Oh, dude. Marla, where is he? Literally turned around and was like, hey. Picasso, you scared Jenna? She didn't know you were in here the whole time. I had no idea. I was wondering, I heard him go, kush, kush, kush, and I was like, when is she gonna notice? You're like, Marla, what is that? Oh, please be the commander. Come. Okay, so Jersey is cuddling me and I think the last time I put her sweater on, she was like this. Yeah, cause we wanna make it like a nice, cool, calm environment. Just make her think that she's getting cuddles. Cause even when she like sees the sweater, she gets nervous, although she wears it all day. It's like she needs to get used to it. And I just kinda like trick her and pet her and make her think it's like, you know, a little love time. And then like, I'll slowly take a wing out. I think she knows the sweatshirt switching is happening. So she's a little overwhelmed. There's some birds that just take to it right away. And the best thing to do is to like, get them in a comfortable position. Right, baby? I don't even think we'll need the blanket with the way you do it. Sometimes if I cuddle her and massage her head the right way and then like, I'll put my hand over, I'll show you guys. Step one was making it. Step two, if you already made one, is to take it off. And then step three is putting it on. But if you don't have a sweatshirt on, then you just skip step two and go straight to step three. Fun fact, yeah. Harry might have the sock, cause I can't find it. Like it hit me. Okay. Where, is that it? No. That's like when I made it up. Oh, there it is. I found it, I found it. Oh, this is perfect. Okay, so let's see. The first thing you guys need to know is that hole doesn't just go around the wing, it goes around the foot. So let's see if Jenna's able to get this off. Oh, let's put this, okay, nothing's happening. What are you? I'll keep petting her. You know, whatever you gotta do to make your bird feel comfortable. Oh, wow. Cause these kind of things can be traumatic for birds, harnesses, outfits, all that. See, she got one leg out. One foot. Dang, your leg looks like Angelina Jolie in that one dress. Oh, good girl, relax. You know what? I'll tell you what, she's not looking right? Right. I'm gonna get the other foot on the other side. You get the other foot? Oh, I see. And then I'll just cut it off. You're not gonna even know. Make sure if you do this, you don't cut any of their feathers. Be really careful with the scissors. This is like the least amount of resistance. So, you know, it's just gonna come off easier. And I won't have to pull it over her head. Look at this two ply. Look at this two ply, okay. So she's fine. You see, and she's fine right now. That's easy, and I can even do the other leg. We have the whole thing off? Yeah, we have the whole thing off. Let's compare. Old one, definitely needed a new one. You'll see if you look up close how tattered it was, but she still left that J intact, which I'm pretty impressed about. Yep, show the new one. Yeah. I'm gonna be matching. Yeah, you're gonna match Jenna. Oh, she sees the sock. Nothing's happening. There's no sock. There's no sock. There's no sock. Keep boo boo's. So what I like doing, so while she's cuddling here, she's like, she can't see. I like putting my hand, what, the J would go on her chest. What are you doing? Put my hand through it like this, okay? So then I can just like grab her head so it looks like my sleeve. Okay. So let me do this. Oh, that's nice. And then I'll pet her. Yeah, and then I go through like that. Yeah, I'm petting her. And then from there, it's pretty easy. It's really stretchy material. I know this looks like not the best thing, but I mean, I think most birds actually tend to be okay with it. It's just, jerseys are a little princess. You wanna get the wing through, but here's the other thing you guys need to know after the wing. You gotta get the leg through. Get your sexy leg through there. And then we put this side through. Oh, she's naturally putting her foot through. You guys probably can't even see. Oh, here. And then you get the leg through. Oh, baby. So all in all, not too bad, but we're gonna show you now how to tweak it because there's something important that you need to know here. What you need to do is, let's show them this tightness. Actually, this side is good, but this side's tight. So, okay, let's show them that tightness if we can. You always wanna check this section of the wing. There's too much material there. I'm gonna have to cut that material. You don't want it tight on the wing or it could cause some blisters here. So we're just gonna adjust. I'm gonna adjust it by simply cutting it right here. It's okay, Jersey. Make sure you don't get any feathers. Just cutting it so she has some room. And then just tweak it all around. Make sure it's not tight. She looks traumatized. Happy, let's see you. Let's see this side. And then you can cut off extra material. She actually never minds me doing the cuts. You could cut them off just so it's a little bit smoother. Okay, stop pretending you're such an actress. I know, it's just for extra attention. So like, literally it would like have a child who is scared of shirts and then forgets it's wearing a shirt. And then when you put a new shirt on it, huh, you look so pretty one. Oh, this one looks a little awkward. But isn't it the same brand? What do you do? And then she just gotta get adjusted. It always looks awkward at first though, I feel like. Yeah, it does. Okay, let's see. Jersey, let's see how we could tweak this. Is the neck thing too long? But isn't it the same brand? Yeah, but if I made the hole too low then what I gotta do is cut up here. You see, like here, so that I could pull the neck down a little. Oh, I see, yeah. Okay. So you guys see, I'm making the neck a little shorter by giving the wing hole more room. That means we can just pull it down a little bit more, make her more comfortable. Let's see if you're pretty. She's not gonna wanna show this to the camera. I know her. Oh, you look beautiful. And guess what? I think it's just her, cause she's ducking, it makes her, like she's ducking for me. Oh, it's so cute. So that is the making of this costume. There's a few things to note about this. If you wanna make it for a bird that plucks, especially a bird that plucks this area, it can be a great idea, but you have to keep your eye out for, if then they start plucking the rest of their feathers, that's something that could happen. So in that case, you might wanna talk to a vet and look into getting a cone or some better options. If your bird kind of is already bare here and you wanna keep your bird, you know, just comfortable, soft, prevent them from plucking a little bit or just make them look better, this is a great option. If you want a Halloween costume for your bird, also a great option. One time I attached kind of like, I gave her a black sock and put a Batman logo so you could do all different color socks of all different kinds. I personally think she looks like Simon from Elvin and the Chipmunks. You know the one with the, the nerd with the, the, yeah. Aw, you're so cute. I can't even, we're just like bird upsetters. So she's gonna be like this, like all cuddly and like feel like something dramatic happened to her. When in fact nothing happened, we just switched to shirt. We usually love on her and then at night, you know, we put her in the cage and she acts like she can't stand and needs more cuddles but she gets over that pretty quick. Right? Right? You're fine now. Are you fine already? Yeah, you're fine already. Yeah. Do you see your new shirt? It's beautiful, it's blue now. You match Jenna's shirt. So that is it guys. Jenna's always the best at these things. Jenna's the one that pulls the blood feathers, things like that. If I need to keep Jersey calm, trim the nails of the birds, things like that, I always bring in Jenna because two is better than one and also she's really, really good at it. Then together, we really know how to get down and do those things that nobody else wants to do. And we love sniffing our birds, huh? You see what's new? With Picasso, it's really easy to forget that we're on camera. Yeah, I'm so sorry. No, I tell them that all the time. I'm like, guys, I just cut five minutes out of this video because I was sniffing. So that is it. Thank you guys so much for watching. As always, follow Jenna on Snapchat and Instagram at JennaSara. Link is below. If you guys want your bird featured on Engage Not Cage, follow me at Marlene McCown and at Engage Not Cage. Follow both of those accounts, tag me, hashtag me, whatever you've got to do, message me. And also, come join Parrot Station. Who's your favorite bird on Parrot Station? It's bird that played the xylophone. The eclectus? The eclectus. I know, that was so cute. Didn't we play that video like crazy? It was, it was pretty amazing. That's one of our favorites. So join Parrot Station on Facebook. We love having you. We love looking at all your birds. Thank you guys so much for watching this video. Please like, share, comment, subscribe. Right, Brett? Subscribe. You must subscribe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. And sniff. It's crazy, crazy. Okay. Okay, say bye. Bye. Bye. She's like, give me out of here.