How did you get your bird to wear one. I have tried with mine and she extremely hates it with a passion. She sees me get the suit and she tries to fly away.
Well, Franklin wasn't the easiest to teach to wear it and he still get's upset with me initially, but once it's on and he gets to go bye-bye with me, he forgets all the drama
Anyway, when I first got it in the mail, I set it around for him to see and explore on his own...then I started playing with him with it, like play "peek-a-boo" covering him with it.
I also prepped Frankin by playing with his wings, pulling them away from his body, and yes..petting his back and rubbing and moving his feet/legs. Trying to get him comfortable with me having to "manipulate" his bodyparts to get him into it.
They day I decided to seriously get him IN his flightsuit, almost 6 months AFTER we got it, he chomped on me pretty good while trying to flutter away. I grabbed a rag and "towled" him to get it on and once it was on, he was all confused, but I hurried up and took him bye-bye in the car so he could associate "flightsuit" with "bye-bye" Of course, I praised him like no other the whole time I was getting him in it.
It's gotten easier ever since because Franklin absolutely LOVES to go out side and bye-bye. I don't have to use a rag to get him in it anymore. It's mostly difficult to get on him because he's so tiny. I can "dress" my pigeon - no problem - but little Franklin can grab ahold of that flightsuit with his little talons and NOT LET GO! And then, because he's so tiny, I'm always afraid of hurting him.
I have to say, I wouldn't recommend flightsuit training if you have a new bird, you definitely want to build a solid trusting relationship first. You can definitely loose some trust in your relationship of you don't take it nice and slow.
With Franklin, I had been exposing him to all kinds of other elements BEFORE the flightsuit so he could learn to trust that I wasn't going to hurt him.
It's amazing some of the things that will initially freak out a bird. One day, I was at the computer with him, he was being incredibly annoying, wanting to pluck the keys off the keyboard while I was trying to type. I kept picking him up and putting him on the back of my chair, and he'd hurry back to my keyboard, attack my fingers - for how dare they interrupt his destruction process....
So I took a clear ballpoint pen cap and offered it to him to destroy. HE FLIPPED OUT!! He squawked and took off running, then fluttered to the floor.
At first I thought I just startled him and didn't associate his behavior with the pen cap. I tossed the pen cap on the back of my chair, picked up Franklin and was going to put him on the back of the chair to play with the pen cap and he saw it, started shaking, gripped my finger so tight I thought he was going to draw blood!
All that over a PEN CAP! ROFLOLOLOL!!!!
It definitely distracted him from destroying my keyboard, but not in the way I had intended!
Flightsuits aren't for everyone, but if you do decide to try it, just take it slowwwwwww...and make sure you have a very good overall relationship with your bird making sure you can touch him/her most everywhere.
That's extremely important...if you can only touch your birds head and you expect him to wear a flight suit, you've got some work cut out for you. But if you are like me and love having your bird go with you and exposing him..then it just might be worth all the effort.
Good luck!
Toni
