Who has tried a Flightsuit with their bird?

[RavensGryf]

After some thought, I am leaning toward ordering Raven a Flightsuit. FlightSuits? Bird Diapers - Avian Fashions

It was a toss up between Flightsuit and the Aviator harness that I have. He can grudgingly wear the harness around the house for a short time, as long as we don't take long fiddling to put it on or take it off. I figure that even though he doesn't like the harness, since he's not freaking out, it's just a matter of him getting used to it. Same with a Flightsuit. Especially if he gets used to the outdoors and starts to like it, that will serve as positive reinforcement to wear it, once he gets the association in his mind. Great, and it's going to be the rainy season soon. Oh well.

I used to think Flightsuits were embarassingly ridiculous, and I wouldn't be caught dead with a bird wearing one. Lately though, I've been thinking that they actually are pretty clever, and certain colors wouldn't be bad IMO. It's a harness and diaper in one. It serves as a harness, yet takes care of the concern of getting poop on your clothes or wherever. Sounds good to me!

Let me know if you've tried both harness and Flightsuit, and which is better in your opinion, and why?

 

[Doublete]

I can't get my gcc to accept the flight suit. But he wears a harness. No idea.

Just my experience with my one bird.

 

[RavensGryf]

I can't get my gcc to accept the flight suit. But he wears a harness. No idea.

Just my experience with my one bird.

I remember you said that on the other thread. What does he do where he will not accept it?

I might be wrong, but it looks just as easy to put on as a harness, if not easier since it doesn't go over the head.

So far I know of one person here who uses one. Seems like harnesses are far more popular. I really want to try this since one of my concerns was the pooping everywhere. Raven is the one who refuses to be poop trained, and on top of that he poops very often for his size.

 

[Doublete]

I haven't totally given up on it.
But Loki is terrified of the suit. It hangs on his cage, I've worn it, I've tried rubbing it on him while I hold him. He thinks it will eat him. And to put it on you have to set them down on top of it and fasten it on them kind of like clothes on a kid. And Loki, like a little kid that doesn't want to get dressed, will do anything to get away from it. The harness doesn't bother him and once I get it over his head and wings he usually forgets it's there.

I don't know if it's just Loki being weird. I haven't tried and amazon size suit, and Chiqui really doesn't want the harness.

 

[SilverSage]

I use both, here is the short version of my take on it.

-Aviator your bird can stand up while it is put on, basically it is a trained behavior. Flightsuit you basically have to man handle them into.

-In my experience the Flight Suit is more constrictive and sends some birds into much more of a panic.

-I like not getting pooped on

-AVIATOR (I miss printed flight suit) t is considered the safest.

I personally really feel from my experience that the aviator is safer and more comfortable, but I like the diaper aspect as well. I have seen them used TOGETHER. I have not seen either company endorse this concept. For a larger bird, I honestly dont trust the flight suit as a restraint.

 

[Kiwibird]

Not much to contribute about pros/cons here, but Julie I can't wait to see the handsome Raven in a flight suit. I'm sure you can find one he won't be *too* embarrassed to wear and will look totally adorable in

 

[Captsteve]

My biased opinion, the flight suit would be a pain to put on.

As for poop, a travel pak of baby wipes does wonders.

 

[Nakiska]

If you look through my pics, you will find our Green Cheek, Franklin in his flight suit and our Pigeon, Belle in his.

I love the flight suit concept, but its not a put it on and let them wear it all day kinda thing. You do need to change out the little poop pad at some point. If you don't, your bird will surely get some messy vent feathers.

I have used the flight suit much more with our Pigeon because he is a very good flier, where our Conure has a dislocated wing since birth and it has strictly limited his fly ability to about a 15 foot long flapping hover to the ground.

Belle is very accepting of wearing his suit but he is used to being totally manhandled by us. (Not anything bad by any means)

So to get the flight suit on, you have to get your birds feet through the leg holes, then pull each wing through the wing holes and it velcros along your birds back. The leash clips at the tail area.

For our suits, we decided to do away with the bulky clips and ran a decent length of cloth ribbon through the leash hole. We tied a loop on our end for a handle.

Belle has spent a lot of time outside in his suit and we've never had any problems.

Definitely not the easiest item to get your bird used to accepting, especially if they won't let you hold their body and stretch their wings out...that's the most important thing to teach your bird to allow you to do in order to become mostly successful with getting into the flight suit.

I have no experience with any harnesses yet.

Good luck with what ever you decide to use. I'm sure both flight restraints have their challenges.

Toni

 

[RavensGryf]

Thanks for all your input so far.

My hesitation is definitely the fact that it might be hard to put on, on a bird who doesn't enjoy a lot of touching and is eager to bite. On the video, it looks fairly easy to set the bird on top of the opened suit with feet out the leg holes, and quickly put the "shoulder straps" up.

 

[ChrisWink]

I've tried both and by far like the harness much better. With the fight suit I just had a messy bird to clean up once it was off. However I have my guys potty trained so they go on command making it easier in the long run.

 

[RavensGryf]

I've tried both and by far like the harness much better. With the fight suit I just had a messy bird to clean up once it was off. However I have my guys potty trained so they go on command making it easier in the long run.

That's interesting. The company says it doesn't happen, and their product has been popular for years. I wonder why that happened with your bird? I'm not insinuating it was anything you did , just curious since I'd hate for that to happen! But Raven's poops are typically drier than my other birds. Would that happen every time you used it? Even when the suit was on for a shorter period?

 

[ChrisWink]

Not sure if it was me or not really. But I had a hard time getting the flight suit on my TAG Echo and he just didn't like it. I found I was more comfortable using the harness and it just may of been my overall dislike of the flight suit that made it a messy experience for me. Like I said I have potty trained my FIDS and it's much easier to take them to a potty spot and tell them to go when needed. It's just my personal preference many others here my have a more positive view of the flight suit