Aviator Harness anxiety

[shibatimes3]

So I decided to buy Zoe an aviator harness.. it finally came on Friday and ....... she hates it.... ! :(

I have never seen her so upset with anything which was really disappointing for her mom as I would love to be able to take her outside........

Getting it over her head wasn't too bad but trying to tighten the loop and having it around her girth was crazy! Any experiences in getting their anxiety down or am I fighting a loosing battle?

[tracie]

I am anxious to hear what people say. I bought a harness for my YNA and he was o.k. until I tightened the loop around the girth and then it was a nightmare. Honestly, I haven't tried it since. Best of luck!

[babypiggy]

did u watch the dvd?

if your bird is anxious about the harness it shouldn't be on hims at all...


just let your bird get use to it

to understand the birds minds

they are not use to having something touching them/on them

hmmm
maybe try having the girth quite loose at first and tighted it a bit at a time over some time

also it's good to distract your bird bla bla bla

[LoveMyBeak]

Heh Heh good luck with that one, I haven't even considered getting CJ one due to the fact that he is ALL beak, feat, feathers, and ATTITUDE.............LMB

[babypiggy]

it took ajax about a week to harness train him

[my-africangrey-echo]

You must watch the DVD and TAKE YOUR TIME. It can take several weeks till they are ready to let you put it on. If you just expect them to let you put it on them and go outside you are never going to be successful.

Here is Echo with his on and he loves it. But it took 6 weeks the first year I had it and 4 weeks to reintroduce it to him this year. There are still days he dosn't want it on and I do not push it... I want him to love it not hate it.

[shibatimes3]

I did watch the DVD and i have been hanging the harness close to her off and on. She has always let me play with her head and pretty much do anything to her without difficulties so... here;s hoping for success! Thanks all for your help!

Echo looks very handsome in blue! :)

[KimM]

Good luck! I'm in the process of training my macaws with the harness. My Harlequin is first. I'm just going to take my time and trust me, there is no more "hyper" bird than my Newton. Some days doing anything with him is like trying to get a wet noodle out of a wild cat's butt. LOL And it's no coincidence that is how he got one of his nicknames - "Noodlebutt"

I've watched the video twice. I'm going to watch it again and again until I understand how to make him comfortable to wear the harness. Be patient. I think once they learn, it will be well worth it. I know when Newt learns, then he will be able to go anywhere with me.

[Tom Lawless]

I started Bing in a harness as a baby and he has taken to it pretty well. I still have no luck getting Davey to have anything to do with it. As some of you may remember my saying on an earlier post, I didn't follow the advice of the video and watched it with Dave in the room. I'm not sure if that played into his anxiety or not but I'm wishing I'd followed that advice so that I could rule out that problem. Right now it is hanging practically on top of his treat bowl and he's o.k. with that until I try to hold him with it in my hand or anywhere on my person. He thinks its the devil. He will do almost anything to be with me unless I have that harness out. Then I'm his enemy.

Follow the advice of the video on all counts. I am hoping to get Dave into it one day but I'm not hopeful. In the mean time he has to see Bing get to go out in his. It makes me feel bad for him.

[madisgiftpaiges]

We got our harness last week, I took it out and was looking at it, set it on my desk right next to her cage so I could finish working and then watch the video, within 2 seconds she was on the side of her cage checking it out, so I figured what the heck, set her on the back of the bar stool and slipped it right on and tightened her up and she was ready to go. We left it on for about 15 minutes and it didn't bother her one bit. I don't know, maybe it is because she is so young that it was so easy cause Tippi the quaker turns into a demonic lil puppy when we try to put it on him, lol, grabs it and starts shaking it like a puppy with a stuffed animal, growling and all, lol. I have also since day one introduced at least one new experience almost every day with both birds in hopes to avoid or minimize their fears of new things because new things happen a lot around here. Oddly Chicken is more excited over new toys, foods, cage rearranging you name it than Tippi ever will be, I found Tippi absolutely hates the color yellow!

Good luck and don't give up with time Zoe will adjust to the harness. Every time we put the harness on we go outside even if only for a minute or two!