Harness training questions

Hey everyone! I'm finally learning to read my little buddies signals better so I'm really connecting with Echo recently. He is still pretty cautious with hands but I want to start doing some harness training so I can get him involved more in my life outside of the house.

The main question is: Is it ever too late to harness train an eclectus? Echo is 11 months old and acts like a teenager (pretty rebellious and free spirited). Should I wait until he is more mature to start something like harness training?

Thanks for any responses!

Echo is in prime age to start harness training. Keep in mind -some parrots take to a harness very quicly and some it takes a middlin' anount of time, some take a long time, and some just never accept wearing a harness. Depends on the individual parrot. My Salty - it took almost a whole year, of working on this every single night, until he was comfortable with weaing one. One suggestion I have is to buy a harness one size larger than you need, beacuse the head loop will be larger and your Ekkie will have an easier time and be more at ease putting his head through the bigger loop. Once the training is well underway, you can always swap it out, or sell it on this forum. There are lots of good videos on technoques to introduce and put on harnesses. The harness of choice seems to be the Aviator harness. There are a few different manufacturers, with different ways of attaching and getting your parrot into them. In any event, go for the real deal on these, no cheap Chinese imports, because quality of materials and manufacture can mean the difference between having a jolly good time outside with your parrot and hand wringing because the closure material or method was crappy.

Skip the harness training for now, he’s not ready. If he’s not comfortable with hands, you’re gonna lose his trust with harness training, which requires hands all over his personal space. Work on getting him comfortable with hands first. Harness training is very advanced for a bird like echo.

Very good advice from both members above. Once Echo gets more comfortable with hands, feel free to jump right in on harness training. But if hands still make him skittish, you definitely want to focus on teaching him to walk before moving on to running, so to speak.