Aviator Harnesses and Amazons

[GoDiego]

Today Diego's new Aviator harness has arrived in the post. I've started the process of getting him used to it but I'm thinking it's going to take a while. Diego is fine with me cupping his head in my hand, touching under his wings, and sometimes lifting the wings. Today, he stuck his head through the harness but quickly backed out again. He did this a couple of times and I treated him each time. He was not scared of it, but thought it was just a game in the end and ended up upside down from my fingers and clowning around.

 

Does anyone else manage to get a harness on an Amazon?

 

From what I can see from watching youtube videos, other species of parrots seem to be a bit calmer then Diego. Diego constantly has ants in his pants and is looking around for the next thing to chew or explore.

 

Does anyone have any advice on how to calm an Amazon down whilst putting a harness on, or is his hyperactivity because of his age or is it just an Amazon thing?

 

I saw the thread on the Grey section about cuddling in a towel, but Diego is not a cuddly bird. He likes a good scritch and he cuddles in his own way but not in the way I have seen other parrots do.

 

Some advice on how to go about this would be great.

[Jayd]

HaHaHa......Maybe, if your lucky, in his older age, he might calm down...lol The "off switch on a Zon, doesn't work"................................

[GoDiego]

Mmmmm, this was what I was thinking LOL. OK so a broken off switch I can deal with, but any ideas on how I can work with him to get the harness on. He just bites and claws it, not in an aggressive way but to play with it. This is not a bad thing as he is obviously not threatened by it, but at the same time it makes it impossible to get the harness on him. LOL

[Jayd]

Leave the harness in his sight, and every now and then try again. Remember, a Zon takes years to mature, and even then they only think about eating and playing. Maybe after he comes to accept everything, and a little more calm, it might happen. As a note: A zon is treated not the same as a Grey, you can slightly raise you voice to them, you can give them a firm direct command, [no yelling] and you can use the word's " Stop, No, and don't.] They don't get the hurt feelings a Grey does. Diego is a very young baby, new to life, his home, you, and to what you expect from him ..........Keep up the good work......Jayd

Edited September 6, 2010 by Jayd

[KimKim]

I have been working for a couple months now with the harness and me touching him. But, unlike you, I cannot touch Babalu anywhere, most of the time. I can scratch his head and rarely his back. He to will stick his head through the harness for a safflower seed then back out right away.

[Rrrma]

Did yours come with the instructional DVD? I'd watch it if it did. Norma doesn't want to have anything to do with it, she is very afraid of it. It is probably going to take weeks or even months to get her used to it! Rosie doesn't care though, she let me put it on right out of the box, she will let me do ANYTHING to her though. Hardy... I don't expect to ever get it on Hardy because I can't even touch him, let alone think about putting anything on him... but we will see.

[Jayd]

Please remember, once they've accepted the harness, you have to put it on them on a regular basis, if you let to much time go between using, you have to start over from scratch.....

[GoDiego]

Did yours come with the instructional DVD? I'd watch it if it did.

 

Yeah I watched the video and was almost in awe of the quite and placid Macaw he was using to put the harness on. He said that this particular Macaw had only had around 10 hours of handling in the 6 months of his life and I could not believe how well behaved it was! I'm thinking although I can use some of the pointers he made during the video, I may need to adopt my own way of getting the harness on. I think there is going to be a lot of distraction needed. I'm going to try giving him his favourite wooden book to play with whilst I try and put it on him, so that it distracts him from playing with the harness. He's not scared of the harness at all, OK, he's not sure about it when it goes over his head but I think it's more of a case he just does not get what it's for yet and sees it as mummy playing with him as before I got the harness I played with him a lot with a looped shoe lace.

[pfcarquejo]

I also bought an harness, when i had ' Lolita', but i never used it on her or on the Zon girls. I feel it will be to much stressfull to them to subject them to the handling an harness requires...at least at this stage of their life. I am affraid the way the breeder treated them in order to feed them with the probe, left some traumas. When I bought The Zon Girls, He was hand feeding 102 baby birds, so you can imagine he couldn't give each bird the care and attention it needed....and the way He handled them was not a very loving one!

I prefer to let them fly inside the house, and at this stage they are already comming on call:

[GoDiego]

Your poor girls coming from this breeder, at least now they have a very loving home. Diego also flies inside the house, the reason for the harness, is we spend a lot of time outside and it would be lovely for Diego to join us out of his cage. I take him out for an hour a day in the cage to get some sunshine, but you can almost see him longingly looking through his cage bars to join us.

[pfcarquejo]

The breeder knows a lot about parrots, and He tries his best to care for them….but we are not talking about a ‘parrot Home’, we are talking about a “parrot aviary” with commercial purposes. That is his job and where he gets his income. He does his ‘Job’ the best way he knows, but I belive that, in this conditions, it’s impossible to give to hundreds of baby birds the care we give to our loved pets in our family. That has consequences, and I think I have to be extra carefull about everything that requires handling them.

[Jayd]

Tit’s impossible to give to hundreds of baby birds the care we give to our loved pets in our family. That has consequences, and I think I have to be extra carefull about everything that requires handling them.

This is very true..... When a baby bird is being raised by a parent, the parent has one thing in mind, getting the baby out of the nest and on his own. A breeder like you speak of has the same concern, getting the baby out of the nest. During the actual feeding time, the baby's don't care where or how they get there food, from a beak, or syringe or spoon or a Gavage tube, all they care about is eating..After being feed, a parent bird goes about his business, protecting his mate and young, at the breeders, the baby's are back together where the learn to be birds from each other and develop their skills, this is very good. In the wild, baby birds have no human contact, they leave the flock and meet new birds, find a mate and repeat this cycle. From the breeder, these have received human contact, even if you breed only two birds at a time, you do not give them so much attention that they bond with you. When two or a hundred are sold or given to their new parront's, that's when the bonding process starts!...Do not worry about "That has consequences, and I think I have to be extra carefull about everything that requires handling them." The bird's will adapt with you more easily, since the raising of them was done more naturally then a hand raised pampered, bonded with breeder fledgling. This is harsh but it's true...Thank you Jayd

[GoDiego]

OK, it's nearly been 2 weeks now of everyday getting Diego used to the harness. Have we progressed? Ummm, no! LOL I am still only able to get his beak through the neck hole but only for a second. The rest of the time he is pulling it out of my hands, tossing it in the air, and laying on his back and playing with it. I'm not sure if this is going to work with Diego I would love him to wear it, his whole world would open up for him, it's all very frustrating. LOL

[Jayd]

As I've said before, Zon's are part Monkeys....lol