Harness training

I received a harness to start my bird in training. As soon as he laid eyes on it he started to freak out. He's never seen one before and shouldn't know what it is. As far as he knows, it's just another object. Obviously it's going to be difficult if he freaks out from just looking at the very thing that's supposed to go on him.

Does anyone know why this is happening? Does he have some sort of cosmic psychic ability to know what it is? I can understand him freaking out once I try to get it on him, but getting it close to him is a major problem. At the moment, it's ON the cage so hopefully he gets used to the sight of it.

He's never freaked out like this before. He's usually a very curious bird and would allow anything in his beak.

Some parrots take to the harness with ease, others take a bit of training, and still others take a LOT of training. My parrot Salty fell into the latter type, it took me almost a year of every night training with him, to get Salty used to putting it on and taking it off. Lots of treats are involved.

Huda_bird said:

I received a harness to start my bird in training. As soon as he laid eyes on it he started to freak out. He's never seen one before and shouldn't know what it is. As far as he knows, it's just another object. Obviously it's going to be difficult if he freaks out from just looking at the very thing that's supposed to go on him.

Does anyone know why this is happening? Does he have some sort of cosmic psychic ability to know what it is? I can understand him freaking out once I try to get it on him, but getting it close to him is a major problem. At the moment, it's ON the cage so hopefully he gets used to the sight of it.

He's never freaked out like this before. He's usually a very curious bird and would allow anything in his beak.

Click to expand...

Hello again Huda_bird. I'm glad that you accepted the 'harness challenge'. You said in your intro at 'new members' that you 'got a bird a few months ago'. Was your bird a rescue? There could be an association with 'colour', 'tubing' (caught in same??) or the harness itself if there is a past history.


Otherwise, if your bird's reaction is just a 'freak' incident (pardon the pun), it could be as simple as you coming near too quickly with a 'foreign' item in your hands.



Hopefully you have read the 'sticky' and other postings on harness training to get you started and to assist in your progress. Slow and steady wins this race for sure. Leaving the harness on the cage is a good start. Let your bird become familiar with it then get ready for the next step.


We are here for you...

I have had both reactions. Complete acceptance and total fear.
Of the 2 I think Fear is a more natural reaction.
Birds and snakes are mortal enemies and a harness must look quit a bit like a snake to a bird.

I was able to get my YNA Bingo fully into his harness the second time I tried him with it. Pacho my RLA would not come near it. Patch was totally unable to fly so I never tried to train her with it.
I should try the harness out with Merlin. he is young (about 1 year old) and can't fly till his feathers grow back. The breeder clipped them and I bought him that way.

I just bought 2 aviator harness's for my Cockatiels. I thought I might have luck using it with my two girls that I raised from the egg.
Again I am getting 2 completely different reactions. Mango want's nothing to do with it. She loves neck scratches but I can't bring the harness close to her even when I am giving her a good scratch.
Angel likes neck scratches just as much as Mango. In fact they compete as to who gets the most scratches when I put my hand in the cage. Angel is perfectly ok with the harness being held right next to her when I give her scratches.

So it's still a work in progress for the Tiels and TBD for Merlin.
Merlin's real problem is he is not a shoulder surfer. He only holds on to my finger and I have yet to expose him to the harness.
Also the harness may be to large for him. It fits my YNA but Bingo is a large bird compared to Merlin who is on the small side for an Amazon.
Bingo is 550Grams and Merlin is 300Grams.

texsize

You said in your intro at 'new members' that you 'got a bird a few months ago'. Was your bird a rescue? There could be an association with 'colour', 'tubing' (caught in same??) or the harness itself if there is a past history.

Click to expand...

I bought him as a two month old at a bird shop in Vietnam. There are a lot of bird shops here and not very many bird owners even give the birds attention. They treat them like objects and just keep them in a cage with nothing to do.

When I'm home, I let him out of the cage and he'll fly around or even hang out with me and fly on my head. He'll step up on my finger and pretty much put everything in his beak. With all the things I've seen him be curious about, I can't believe the reaction I'm getting from something that shouldn't even mean anything to him. I can put that harness around anywhere I don't want him to be and he won't go there. It's like the devil to him. There's absolutely no correlation with anything like it for him to understand at this point. I suppose I could try another one but I hate to keep spending money on something that's useless.

Thanks for the replies, guys. He follows me to whichever room I'm in including the bathroom. I'm tempted to leave my window open to see if he flies out and even knows where he lives and comes back. If I leave the windows open and he comes back and sticks with me, I guess I won't need a harness. If he never comes back...well, I'll miss him.

I could be completely wrong here but...
I understand some of the Asian bird markets use chains on the legs of birds to restrain them.

Maybe the harness is to much like a chain for your bird.

Huda_bird said:

Thanks for the replies, guys. He follows me to whichever room I'm in including the bathroom. I'm tempted to leave my window open to see if he flies out and even knows where he lives and comes back. If I leave the windows open and he comes back and sticks with me, I guess I won't need a harness. If he never comes back...well, I'll miss him.

Click to expand...

Yikes, please don't let him fly away...you are the best thing that ever happened for this precious bird.



I agree with texsize and perhaps the 'extension' could be a problem due to some past association. Again, remember that this takes time and patience for you both. There are harnesses that come without extensions which can be attached afterward - possible option. There are also bird carriers/backpacks etc which may work to move him from place to place involving outdoor transfer...Hang in there Huda_bird...

Huda_bird said:

You said in your intro at 'new members' that you 'got a bird a few months ago'. Was your bird a rescue? There could be an association with 'colour', 'tubing' (caught in same??) or the harness itself if there is a past history.

Click to expand...

I bought him as a two month old at a bird shop in Vietnam. There are a lot of bird shops here and not very many bird owners even give the birds attention. They treat them like objects and just keep them in a cage with nothing to do.

When I'm home, I let him out of the cage and he'll fly around or even hang out with me and fly on my head. He'll step up on my finger and pretty much put everything in his beak. With all the things I've seen him be curious about, I can't believe the reaction I'm getting from something that shouldn't even mean anything to him. I can put that harness around anywhere I don't want him to be and he won't go there. It's like the devil to him. There's absolutely no correlation with anything like it for him to understand at this point. I suppose I could try another one but I hate to keep spending money on something that's useless.

Click to expand...

Huda, I have to agree with Wrench, Ellie and Texsize, all of them have made extremely good points in that getting him use to a harness isn't going to be a race, It's going to take time, and Patience. Tex Size made an excellent point, one I haven't thought about, But snakes and birds are mortal enemies, and if your bird perceives the harness as a snake, then no wonder why he's freaking out. Thats the great thinking out of the box that these guys do so well. Ellie has harnessed her baby from being a wild fly in, and got her use to the harness and uses it daily as her and her hubby take Ellie for walks. Birds take patience, understanding, trust, and troubleshooting, and thats the nature of the beast to be a good parront, you've got to understand your birds fear and work around it, I believe it was wrench there in a previous post that said one bird saddled right up in the Harness, yet another took a year to do the same thing, and he had to work with her every night, putting it on, taking it off, using many treats. Parranting a Bird is rewarding, but no one ever said it was easy.