Introducing Harness

[kalypso123]

I recently got my aviator harness for my tiel. I was just wondering how any of yall went about introducing the harness and puting it on your bird. Should I just show it to her for a few days then try to put it on?

 

[FCx]

I bought one that came with an instructional video that was super helpful!

The first step was just to show them the harness--make sure they're not scared of it. If they are scared, a good way to remedy the fear is to give treats whenever it is shown to the bird...that way they associate the harness with good things

When they don't mind being /around/ the harness, you wanna try touching them with it. The video showed the person gently trailing the harness over the bird's body, showing that it was not harmful--giving treats sometimes to promote the correct behavior of course!

Then, the person practiced lifting the wings and pulling them out. A bird that will allow you to touch their wings and stretch them out without fussing will help you out immensely and keep your bird from getting stressed. Treats, again, should be provided if your bird starts to let you do this.

Then they set about actually starting to put the harness on the bird, one wing at a time. If they start to chew on the harness, you should hand them a toy so that they can be distracted, but not a treat, or they might associate chewing on the harness with treats ^^

The most important part is not to rush your bird into it, or they'll ALWAYS hate the harness...trust me, I botched it the first go around with my Sun Conure. Good luck!