Petting

[Kitty]

Hi guys,

I'd like some advice on petting my feathered baby!

I have him out of his cage with me for a good few hours a day. He is used to being handled and will step up, fly to me and fly back to his cage on command.

He will let me stroke him at the back of his head, but it always takes a few attempts. When I first approach him with my hand to stroke him he opens his beak and follows my fingers as though he's expecting me to give him food. Does he associate my fingers with food too much?

Yesterday I purchased an aviator harness for him. It would be so lovely if I could safely take him outdoors! On the instructions to the harness it recommends that I work on being able to stroke my bird under his wings before trying to put his harness on. How should I go about doing this?

 

[KatherineI]

What species bird do you have? That can help quite a bit, as each species has certain peculiarities that other species do not.

In my experience, when my Loki (GCC) follows my hand and has his beak open, it's not that he's expecting me to give him food. That's a warning that he will bite if I get my finger or hand close enough. My Too, Sugar, does not do this. As for getting them used to you touching them under the wing, I suggest starting by getting them used to you touching their wing, the upper side. Once he's used to that, you can start to gently lift his wing to touch underneath. When that's alright, then start acclimating him to you gently expanding his wing out. From the harnesses I've seen (and I believe the Aviator is the same), you have to expand their wings, even just a smidgen, in order to get the harness on.

That's how I did it with my Too, but she's extremely trusting of me and my husband and lets us do just about anything in the world to her, lol.

 

[DebsFlock]

The aviator harness used to come with a video demonstrating how the guy who designed it does the training. I find it awfully hard to work with, but it's probably the best design for actual flight.

Scotty came to us with some rough handling issues. He actually really enjoys having his head rubbed, but if I approach too fast with my hand he will growl and threaten, even after a couple of years. I think he's expecting to be grabbed from behind.

One place not to pet is down the back or on the body, except for desensitizing purposes.

 

[MaraWentz]

You dont have to open the wings but you do have to be able to move them a smidge tonget ther harness around them