Harness training update....

[Kalidasa]

Well, after some practice that seemed like it was going well, we tried to fully put on the aviator harness. It was a total disaster, when we actually got it on she panicked before I could pull it together, and she got entangled in it, so I immediately cut it off her. NEVER AGAIN! It's not worth her getting hurt, or making her miserable, or destroying our relationship. Thank god she's forgiven me, she probably thinks it was a game gone bad by accident--I hope. She's on my shoulder now chewing on a blueberry. That was horrible, those things are a death trap for small birds. I feel like a jerk.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

You were only recently asking about the harness right? You moved waaaaay to fast!!! Of course he would be scared!

I'm so sorry you had a bad experiance, don't be afraid to give Nika a few months to forget the experiance and try it again the right way. Knowing what you do now you won't rush!

 

[Kalidasa]

She was really easy about training, she stuck her head in the neck-hole without any coaxing. It was just the very end, the tightening of it where she freaked and started wiggling. I'm just glad she wasn't hurt. To hell with that thing.

 

[Klaery]

I am sorry to hear you had a bad experience

It is usually alot harder to harness train smaller birds as the fit is much tighter. You need to move veeeery slowly, you can get there in the end but it is very hard work.

 

[Kalidasa]

lol! Well first I have to get another one! We'll see...if I do I'll have to get a different color because she's wise to the black one. I'm also realizing now I was more panicked and traumatized than she was! She just wiggled a bit and I just cut it off before I could stop myself. She shook it off like it was nothing and went back to playing with the harness...where's I almost had a heart-attack!

 

[MissTaz]

I wish they made a harness that was easier to tighten up. I can get mine pretty tight but all Rory wants to do is chew on it.

 

[cockatielgirl]

My cockatiel molly is harness trained but she wont fly around outside and all she wants to do is chew on it!!!!

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Gilbert doesn't like it if i don't stand him on the counter for putting the harness on. They lose their balance when you pull the belt around to tighten it and if i have him on his T stand he gets really annoyed. I put him on the kitchen counter and he squats down more and balances easily so it's fast now.
Gil will start to try to fuss with the harness when he gets bored. But luckily he is usually excited and fascinated outside so he is rarely bored. I live in a busy town, so there's constant activity outside.

 

[SolarCat]

Sunshine likes to stick her right foot through the harness and hold onto it, so it makes it really difficult to tighten at all. It takes about 10 minutes of me coaxing her to grab my finger instead of the harness before she'll do it so that I can put it on the rest of the way.