Quote Originally Posted by falcon3d View Post
Thanks Pete. I will try that. As for feeding on the fist, will cause any screaming or aggression down the line? Is there a downside? What you describing is how I typically feed by PR/passage falcons and would be whole lot more familiar to me.
It depends a great deal on how much you lean on his weight further down the line. Most people seem to feel the need to really get after their hawks (more so than falcons) early on. But in the wild, often young hawks are still with their parents for weeks longer than some falcons. It is just harder to see what is happening with young hawks as they are frequently in the canopy of trees and tend to be a bit stealthy to begin with.
I'm not saying this protocol won't cause the undesirable effects we worry about, but sometimes those things are going to come because with hawks those behaviors are so much closer to the surface. One poor feeding day due to overheat or sour crop or whatever and boom...there it is, full blown screaming, mantling, aggression. You just have to trudge through it, get them going as best you can and let time heal all the wounds that might happen along the way. But, for me, routine is the best medicine. If the hawk knows what to expect and when to expect it, then generally it allows them to relax in the off time and be 'on' at the right time. Bouncing around with how you handle them and their training is not always a useful way to proceed.