what if u hold raptor like chicken, like this
But they have sharp feet! I would recommend holding them as demonstrated by Jed Taylor:
I wouldn’t recommend holding them like that, as someone who owns peafowl and has owned many other kinds of fowl that are very raptor-like in movement and build and likely behavior (especially peafowl, who will group hunt larger animals like snakes).
The problem is that the feet are not just sharp, they are strong as hell for jumping/launching themselves. Literally peafowl at least are strong enough to break their own legs if you give them a platform to push off of (your hands) and no space to stand (tucked under your arm). When I was very new to keeping peafowl, no one told me this, and I attempted to pill a bird in my lap, to have a secure hold on her like I would have for chickens, and she snapped her own leg trying to stand up. Transport caging for peafowl has to be designed such that the bird can just barely stand, with their head ducked- any taller and they can get the space to flush and break their necks or spines, any shorter and they can push against the top and break legs.
There’s the option some people use where they just. bag them.
But given sharp or pointy enough claws, I don’t think that’s likely to be an option; although put a pin in this, because a leather or other small “vest” to control the grasping front claws might be possible.
They also cannot be held or carried by their legs, as they can (and will, given the chance) dislocate their hips. They cannot be carried by the wings, or they will dislocate their wings at the shoulder.
I have also watched vet techs trying to carry my birds like the photo shows, and it’s extremely unsteady to them and does not feel safe- the birds are usually frantically looking for a way down, and they panic when released because they don’t have stable footing at the start, so they’re more likely to scratch you getting down. It’s also harder to release them forward of you, when their tail (the thing which they use for balance) is the last part released. It is a thing of comedy trying to watch them handle large game birds/phesants like this, because it doesn’t work well.
I’m pretty sure that the illustrated hold is for use with birds of prey, whose skeletal structures are build different- they have grasping claws you don’t want to have grasp anything, they have practically upright rib cages/keels. If you restrain them like this, you actually do probably have control of their wings, and holding in front of them, you’ve probably got your hand on their keel, instead of their crop.
This is a bald eagle skeleton (left) vs a peacock skeleton (right)
Way more horizontal center of gravity, with the wings very forward, you don’t even really need to tip the bird back to hold its back against your chest. If you hold a long, horizontal bird like in the photo… it’s probably gonna fall forward or try to get forward, and you don’t have nearly the same control over the wings as you do with a bird of prey, not to mention your hand is now grasped over their crop instead of a keel, which can do damage.
Here’s a velociraptor skeleton
again way more horizontal, and you have not just rear feet but front feet to manage, and whereas a fowl beak won’t really do that much damage, a raptor snout is full of teeth.
So how do you carry a 30lb animal with sharp, non-grasping feet AND hands, that’s built like fowl and not birds of prey, and has a face full of teeth instead of a beak?
I would definitely agree hooding them is a good idea. In fact, they used to hood peafowl to transport them, and the birds would perch on poles and be carried rather than try to jump down, no restraint necessary! I would also add that a small vest or other body restraint can be used to keep the hands/wings in check if they have grasping hands.
I made a video demonstrating all three- the “idiot baby” hold and the perch hold, which are both used with our friendly birds that don’t mind being carried (like how you can carry a bird of prey on a leather glove if they’re trained), and then the actual hold for all other peafowl.
The last hold does three important things. 1) It controls the legs facing away from you (like the illustrated hold, or like bird of prey holds do), but with the important difference that they can get no leverage with them and puts no weight on them, and so cannot hurt their legs. 2) it controls the wing at the wrist, not the elbow, by putting your arm over all of the main wing bones instead of over one joint and bendable feathers that can slide free. 3) It faces them backward, so they have to go INTO your hold MORE if they’re trying to escape, rather than out of your hold like with a forward carry. Also when faced forward, they seem to want to join in on the walking or are actively looking for a way down, and struggle to control their forward movement- carried backward, they seem to mostly be Confused and not sure what to do about it. The other advantage here is that, if you have your legs held in the right place (at the ankle), you CAN carry the bird one-handed with this carry, leaving you free to open doors or manipulate caging/transport stuff. Not that you SHOULD handle large animals alone, including and especially dino raptors.
Combined with a hood to prevent them from seeing you as something to Bite, or possibly some sort of soft, breathable muzzle integrated into the hood if just a hood doesn’t work, it should prevent injury. I would still imagine that raptor handling gear has protections built in to prevent incidental scratches, and that they aren’t just handling a velociraptor in a tshirt and jeans.
I also made a video of carrying my very most tolerant bird the way the illustration suggested, just to make sure I wasn’t making things up. I did forget to put my hand up at first, but even after I did, there’s SO little control with that hold on a large bird. I didn’t explain what I was filming to my partner beforehand, and when he stopped the camera the second time he asked “what the hell was that? a hold that sucks ass?”
I will grant you that is my first time trying to hold a peafowl like that, mostly because I have held a LOT of large fowl in the last 20 years, and a forward carry… well, sucks ass for fowl-shaped creatures compared to bird of prey shaped creatures. it LOOKS nicer to someone watching, but it’s way more hassle.
Thank you so much for the expertise and demonstration videos!
