New aviatior harness

[Tali]

Hi y'all!

so I have decided to go down the flight harness route.

Tali still has clipped wings but once her malt is done I have decided to let her keep her wings so she can fly to me in the house.

so I now have a harness to teach her to wear so we can still enjoy outings together.

my problem is.. she's not big on being touched on wings or under wings. She loves to snuggle in the evenings under her blanket, and when she's chosez she loves a scratch under her chin and on her back of neck...

She is willing to put her head into the harness to retrieve treats. 

How can I get her used to being touched around her wings? I think she remembers the breeder cutting her wings and she wasn't exactly calm and gentle about it.

do you think I should worry about teaching her to be touched under wings? Or just focus on putting harness on over head?

Once it's on over her head if I keep the treats up I can manuvour the rest of the harness inplace, I havent worked up to tightening it up snug to her body yet.

any advice would be much appreciated 

thank y'all so much in advance 😊

[Greytness]

When I bought the avatar harness, it came with a CD, which was extremely helpful. Perhaps there's a youtube video explaining how to get your grey used to being touched. I know that the CD went through that process. 

[Tali]

Yeah I watched the DVD, he demonstrated on a macaw, Tali isn't quite are keen on physical touch as that macaw is haha! Like I said when she wants a scratch she loves it, when she doesn't she lets me know! She growled haha or ducks and weaves from me haha! 

Shes more of a " i like to be next to u or on ur shoulder/hand" type of grey who loves treats haha! 

I can get the harness on with her being a bit touchy around her wings but I don't want to cause more mental trauma by not addressing that issue. 

[Tali]

First time in the harness.. so we went for a drive to the beach 

got a little fidgety on the way home but happy as 😊

oh yeah I cut my dreads off! Radical difference in appearance lol

v

[Greytness]

Nicely done! She adapted to it quickly!

Enjoy your day together. Happy New Year!

[Timbersmom]

Great job! You accomplished the goal quickly there, I know from reading the forums that many aren't successful this fast. Happy New Year

[neoow]

Yay! Well done you and well done Tali!

Now you can have all sorts of fun adventures together!

[SRSeedBurners]

Good for Tali!   I'm pretty sure the Aviator Harness is what helped save my GreycieMae's life.   When I trained her early on to wear her harness I would take her on daily bike rides down a trail to a duck pond 2 miles from our house.  She must have ridden that trail with me 50-100 times at least.   When she got out thanks to my idiot sister-in-law, I found her after two days sitting in a tree on that exact trail near the pond where we had been riding to together.  I'm convinced she knew the trail and was waiting for me, especially since she called to us at the end of the second day in the dark after we had given up for the day and were headed home.

I still take her to Home Depot/Lowes all the time in her harness.   She's a store favorite, they love seeing her.

 

[Tali]

Yeah it was a great little outing, kept it rather short, she met a few people with lots of questions... not many Greys in NZ 😏... and then we saw a dog that she insisted on maintaining a visual on at all times haha!

But as soon as I saw her first yawn we turned around and headed home. 

She got a little fidgety with the harness as we were on the way home, but nothing major, a few sunflower seeds is all that was needed to distract her while I was driving.

once we got home she had a very big sleep... haha!

she gets very tired after experiencing new things and places. 

I think it's because she's only a baby.