Harness Training - big FAIL!

Got head in - Jumped and Flew! Somehow this got her Wings Into the harness also. Not quite correctly. A lot of distress and struggle so I figured best to wait a while before attempting removal. I don't understand how -- once the bird has actually gotten its head thru the centerstrap -- how does anyone get their bird to stand still for the 5-10 minutes it takes just to move the adjuster-piece of the strap? ...I wonder if mine is defective, it is really supposed to be Not-Possible to Adjust the strap like this?...

Anyway waited maybe an hour or so, with Sunny mostly on my shoulder. After a while of her Mostly calm-ish, attempted to remove harness. BIG struggle! Then once it was finally off she just sat there against me like I had killed her. Entirely still except for big slow round-eye blinks.

So we sat there a while. When I finally went to move her I noticed blood under her wings. A first I thought it was only from me - she'd latched-on to me a couple times - but it wasn't.

So. Another vet visit today. Two more broken bleeding feathers to pull. Lots of blood, in fact. Went home clipped - (at least it was a nice, even clip; not a trrible deep irregular clip like when I first got her) - and unhappy. I had to leave of course to go to work, and I don't think she had moved the whole time. Not a sound since I arrived home, except to resist being moved. (I moved her to sleep-cage.)

When they suggested clipping at first I said No. But then I thought, if I cannot harness-train her, then how can I not? She flies through doorways and lands near baseboards, in spots where I may need to put Real mouse-traps in the near future. And my ceilings are moderately high, once she gets some lift; what if I cant get her down when I need to leave?

(I think she must be quite mad at me because she has not made a sound at all since Ive been home.)

I hope she forgives you quickly...I wish there was some way we could make them understand that we truly have their best interest at heart...poor thing...and POOR YOU! I’m sure this has been equally as traumatizing for you as it was for her!

That is stressful--
Be wary of assuming she can't fly clipped. A bird who is clipped can still glide to the ground when the clip is done properly---if not, there is a bigger risk of injury from them falling like a rock.
A clipped bird can take off outside with space and very little wind.

Oh that sounds terrible. I want to harness train my conure but not if it’s that complicated.
So sorry for your poor frightened bird, and for you.

Ok, I'm going to assume you're using an Aviator?

First thing we do is to have it adjusted for the wing that goes in first. So if it's his left wing (my right), before even putting his head through the neck loop, I adjust the waist strap so my right side has enough to put his wing through immediately after putting his head through.

The second part is that we trained this is multiple facets. So the neck loop is "on" and "off". The wings part we trained without the harness - this we had to do because he hates being touched.

For this touch training, we just practiced giving a cue word, touching, then treating. Of course, when we started it was cue word, treat, and touch all at the same time to get him to associate touch positively. Then we slowly adjusted the time from the touch to the treat, so he learned to wait, accept the touch without moving, then have the treat.

That means, when we put it all together, we first use the cue word for putting his head through the loop ("on"), then we use the cue word for touch ("sayang") as we put his wings through and adjust the waist cinch.

One quick tip when you get to the end, hold on the plastic adjuster when you are tightening the strap - no bird likes being jerked around as you tighten their waist band. So hold onto it as you tighten.

Personal experience shows that our bird is picky about how the harness rests on his body. All body feathers must be underneath the waist strap (not above), so I have to tuck his feathers underneath or else he'll start nibbling at the harness. Your bird might be different.

If I can suggest Jen, Practice every night just putting his head thru the head loop leaving there as long as you can( maybe only a second or2 at first,and then removing his head thru, giving clear vocal prompts and LOTS of treats the whole time.This may take afew months of doing this every night. THen progress to draping the harness overhis body until he is comfortable with that,andTHEN start typing to put wings thru the loops. Somebirds get itright away,and some( likemy Salty) have to take it slow sothey are confident.

I think that when we proceed, it is going to be with a different type harness. Although I feel ever more convinced that the Adjuster on the current Aviator might be defective, still, this attempt was a little too traumatic.

It looks like the Avianweb harness might not have to risk damaging feathers, as long as the bird is willing to put her head thru. So we might try that. Maybe. But not anytime soon.

She IS talking to me again today. And eating..I remained incredibly worried until this morning when she decided that even if she was mad at me, I still wasn't supposed to leave the room without her permission. I was so glad to hear my parrot yelling at me from the other side of the house! And when I obeyed her and returned to her presence, she commenced eating again. Such a relief! And, she even granted me a little shoulder time today.

However, she's still truly not fully back to her happy self. I get the sense I may be on probation.

I tell you, the harness training for us was traumatic, probably moreso for me than Parker, as I would have a heart attack at the slightest sign of struggling, for fear of entanglement. But getting to the wings...brutal. The head was the easy part...

I eventually gave up when I realized, as a plucker, Parker butchers his primaries and secondaries so badly he has no chance of flight during the summer when we are likely to use the harness anyways.

I’m sorry you’re having to go through this. I wish you the best of luck moving forward and hope you can get to the end. As Al perfectly noted, for some birds it can be a yearlong+ endeavor.