Flight Suit!

[baron1282]

My wife and I Bought our bird a flight suit, we did everything we could think of to get him acclimated to the suit. We hung it in front of the cage for a few days, we put it in the cage and let him bite it and play with for a few days, than we put it on.

Now he is scared to death of it. We want to take him places with us, but don't want him to poop all over us. :-/ He just won't want it on, and we are not going to force him. He is generally scared of it, he was fine until we tried to put it on. We had it on him for a few hours and he seemed annoyed, not scared.

Now when he sees us pull it out he runs away from us, when we have it in hand. He bites when we try to put it on, and he just looks scared! Breathing heavy and just shacking. So we do not try to enforce it on him.

Is there anything we can do? We can't even put it back in his cage for him to bite and play with because he runs from it. Is there a different style of suit we could try, or can we get him to like this suit? We gave him treats as well to try and get him to like the suit.

Thanks!

 

[AngelicaandBandit]

I do not recommend suits at all, no. Suits are uncomfortable and can trigger feather plucking. I serious advise that you get a harness, preferably the aviator harness, its secure and safe.

 

[baron1282]

Ok, I will look into the aviator harness.

 

[JasmineGCC]

We have an aviator harness for Jasmine but whilst she happily puts her head in it she won't tolerate me touching her wings ... So I bought a rucksack instead which she loves!!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It sounds like you took it way too fast! You put the whole thing on, you should of taken it slow and rubbed it on her, rewarded her for putting her head through and such. It can take weeks, or even months to get a suit or harness fully on them!

You made a big mistake, you'll need to start over and this time take it slow. You need to reward every small step forward, not make her wear it to get used to it. I tried that with Rosie, when I didn't know nearly as mch as I do now and took bad advice. It doesn't work, all you'll end up with is a bird who will be extremely difficult to put it on.

I use the aviator harness, it's great. I also do not like the flight suits, but for smaller birds they seem to be popular. I don't worry about poop, it will wash out

 

[baron1282]

It's not that I worry about poop, it's other people that have issues with it.

 

[Grinder]

Copperarabian is correct. It may have seemed slow already, but it takes such a long time to get a parrot used to the suit. EVERY step needs to be a super small baby step that is constantly rewarded.

As mentioned the aviator harness is great and comes with an informative lengthy DVD that you need to watch before you doing anything with the harness.

Good luck to you.

 

[Kalidasa]

I just bought the aviator harness for my conure. She has no problem with me touching her wings. But for right now I wear it as a bracelet when we play, or wrap it around her favorite ball. For now, it's just a new accessory that she barely notices. I'm going to take it super slow. If, ultimately, she hates it or it really bothers her than I simply won't use it. I'm not going to force her. The whole point is its supposed to be fun. If its not fun, it's not happening...she's a rescue and she will never be traumatized again as long as I'm living!