Training 2 'No-Touch' birds to wear an Aviator Harness?

Has anyone trained a bird who hated to be touched to wear a harness? I'm thinking about getting a harness for Bella and Zora.(lightly clipped green cheek conures, 1 year old)

They absolutely hate their carrier. We've been working on it forever! They simply hate being in the 'small cage'. The reason they don't like it is the aspect of being in a cage.

So... I'm turning to harnesses. They love looking outside, and now that it's spring and getting warm (here anyways) I thought it would be perfect. I haven't ordered them yet, but I am working on 'getting the head through the loop' with a loop of black cord I have, which I know is pretty pathetic but I thought it could fill in for the black harness until I decided to order it.
Most birds in videos, threads, etc. I see are either 1) a baby, 2) standing still 3) okay with touching. I guess all I'm asking for is advice and insight on how to go about this training. I know it will take a while. Thanks guys.

Will be following this, Merlin doesn't mind being touched but is NOT okay with being touched by anything that isn't our hands. Unless it's a) food b) the duvet when he's snuggling down.

Good idea to start with the loop training though! Our aviator is just boxed away at the moment, we've got the flight line and everything, really wanted to have him out at our local park but... alas.

Ozzie doesn't really mind to be touched, sometime he likes/love his head rubs sometimes he don't. Now being an alexandrine, they are not a very cuddly parrot, so I guess Ozzie can kind of be the 'no touch' parrot.

Anyway, Ozzie is harness trained (like 2 weeks ago ). And before I ordered the aviator harness, I worked on him being able to touch his wings, back, neck, etc. Every time I touch near his wings, I would give him a treat, so he quickly understand if he lets me touch him, he would get treats. And now I don't give him treats anymore after putting the harness on, because going out and have fun is the biggest reward to him

Ozzie is pretty young (5 months), but i went very slow and took 2 months until I put the aviator harness fully on him.

Try to handle Bella and Zora at night, I've find with Ozzie he is a lot cuddlier at night and late afternoon.

Hope this helped

Yeah, I guess the first step is getting used to being touched... Any tips on how to go about that? They just shy away and nip any hands/fingers that come near them and try to touch them.

Be very very patient. It will not be easy. Something else you should know is that it can be harder again to train small parrots with the harness as the head loop in the harness is smaller (relative to the harness size) than on the larger harnesses. This makes it very slow going getting it on and off the first few times.

It can be done though Take your time. Good luck!

Thank you, I didn't know the head loop was smaller! This is going to take a while, but I have 20+ years! LOL

A much needed update!!!

Bella is suddenly warming up to touch! She's the one who shied away from being touched the most; she's made PHENOMENAL progress! I can touch her head and her back now. I can even scratch her head a bit.

Zora I can touch on the back, wings, and rarely on the head. So much progress!!!

So, don't give up guys!!! It can be done! I'm hoping by mid summer maybe!

Thats good news! Are they letting you put the harness on them? Boomer is ok with me touching him anywhere but he does not like the harness touching him so my training is not progressing as well as I'd like. Hope everything goes well with Bella and Zora!

BoomBoom said:

Thats good news! Are they letting you put the harness on them? Boomer is ok with me touching him anywhere but he does not like the harness touching him so my training is not progressing as well as I'd like. Hope everything goes well with Bella and Zora!

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Sorry for the late response! Only saw this now.

Err.. Sadly, no. They'll step on it, pick at it, etc., and I can pick it up next to them (slowly) and target train their head through with a treat, but actually placing it on their heads and bodies have proved difficult. Still working it all out... It's going to take a while.

I think I'm going to order one for Oliver. He's really good with me touching him now, so we'll see about the harness..