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Harness Training


lovemyGreys

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We have many threads in the African Grey room pertaining to Harness's. Although most greys can be trained to wear a harness i suggest introducing your baby grey to a harness from an early age will be beneficial.Many of us want to take our parrot out with us on an adventure & to be able to let them experience the outdoors.

 

Training a parrot to wear a harness would be something I would like you to put a great deal of thought into before setting out to do it. It is imperative that you can handle your baby before attempting to train . It is preferable that you be able to handle the area under the wings. In any training situation you need to focus your full attention on your baby while maintaining a sensitivity to the bird's emotions, while relieving them of any fears. Training needs to be done in stages, always ending each session on a positive note with plenty of praise.

 

Here are a few links for you to have a read through, although i personally use the Aviator harness, have a read to make your choice.

 

The Aviator Harness...

http://www.theparrotuniversity.com/aviator.php

 

The Feather Tether...

http://www.claviaryonline.com/ftetherins.html

 

A pictorial guide to fitting them...

http://parrotphotos.us/harnesstutorial.html

 

Harness training your bird...

http://www.parrotchronicles.com/2005/features/harness/harness.htm

 

And Finally for a picture reference back are our resident models Alfie & Freddie being harnessed trained at around 10/11 weeks ;)

 

Alfie

Freddie___Alfie_003.jpg

 

Freddie

Alfie___Freddie_25.jpg

 

A word of caution, An unclipped bird is always at risk.Most of all know your bird, work with your bird and think of safety first when you take your bird outside.

 

So, buckle up out there rather than let your bird be swept away in the moment.;)

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Liath is harness trained and loves to go outside. It really doesnt harm the feathers. She does tend to pick at the harness. So I just keep moving around to keep her occupied. I dont know if the harness is uncomfortable, or just easy to reach and have a nibble on. But she loves it. All I have to do is hold it up and she flies over to me instantly as she knows what it means.

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I have the Aviator Harness and am trying to train Kip to wear it. She was not trained as a real baby and does not like the thing going over her head. I have been working with her now for 4+ months. She is not afraid of the harness, will climb on it, beak it a bit etc. She will also now usually let me sort of drape it over her body. But if I try to put over her head its not a pretty site....a few attempts have resulted in me being bloodied in the melee that ensued along with her screaming as if she was being attached! I keep trying and am making progress but its slow going.

 

I think the lesson is that you should try and introduce the harness as early as possible (Kip was about 1yr old when I started). Of course each bird is different. I am confident I will get her to accept with time and persistence, but it sure would have been easier if she was used to it as a baby (say 2-4 months). ;)

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Liath was about 1 when I got the harness. But I was already able to handle her anywhere, under her wings, her legs, tail anything at all. The first couple of times she definitely didnt like the idea of the harness, but once she discovered that the harness meant a new adventure she would wriggle to get into it. She even takes hold of the clip and tries to tighten it herself.

 

Oisin isnt harness trained at all. I havent even tried him yet. Maybe this summer i will start....:dry:

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A good method for training an older Grey to accept the harness is to first begin by getting them to accept a spoon feed!!!!!

 

Find their favourite food mash it all up or liquidise it and offer it from a spoon (this is also useful for when medication needs to be given) Once they have become used to the spoon feed and look forward to it you can begin the bib treatment. This consists of a piece of paper towel with a hole in the middle. You pull it over the birds head and it acts as a bib. If you get into a mess it doesn't matter as the paper can be easily ripped and removed.

 

I have found this method very useful to help train older birds to accept having something pulled over their head. Once they are happy with the paper towel you can move onto the harness.

 

TJoutside017.jpg

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That is great info with the paper towel! We are hand feeding our Cockatoo and I have been giving a little here and there to SweetHeart to try to get her to bond a little closer to me. We just got harness's for them too! It is in the 70's here lately and would love to sit out on the deck with them. Our Cockatoo was no problem at all getting it on him, but he is just a big baby lol. Now SweetHeart our almost 1 year old TAG is going to be a challenge. I will try that with the paper towel! Thank you! I do have the harness hanging on her cage and she is getting used to seeing it at least.

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Wow, the paper towel bib is a good idea!! I will give that a try.

 

I have been wanting to take my baby places with me, but she is fully flighted and she loves to fly . .. in fact, it worries me a bit, even at home. She's flown into windows and walls a couple of times, and that scares me. I'm considering a one time wing clip for her, but I'm very ambivalent about it. At any rate, wing clip or not, she needs to learn to tolerate the harness. I have an aviator harness for her, MUCH easier to work with than the feather tether, which I had for my last bird, butI have not yet attempted to put it on Jenna.

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I just have a cheap harness for SweetHeart, I have not tried the paper towel yet, and I plan on it, I was excited and wanted to take her out with me, I put it on her, which she didn't like very much and than took her outside, thinking that she would just pay attention to the outside and not her harness. I was dead wrong. She tried to eat her harness trying to get it off. So three minutes later, I didn't want to see her freaking out, and was hoping she would just be like oh wow, I'm outside instead of what is this on me, but she didn't so I came back in and I took it off. I will attempt to do it slowly this time around and not freak her out. I take her by the screen door every day and she is sooo interested with the outside, I thought maybe she would just forget it was on her and pay attention to the outside. So don't be a fool like I was and be in a hurry lol.

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Jenna has made some progress with the harness, let me tell you what we did. Do any of you work with clicker training? I got some advice from another forum about the harness and we tried it . . . so far so good.

 

What we did was first work on "targeting" (where you get the bird to touch a chopstick or something similar and reward them for doing that). She did that inside her cage really well for a couple of days, then started doing it outside her cage as well. So I held the target through the halter, and little by little, shortened it so she had to poke her beak through the harness to touch it. Last night, she poked her little head ALL the way through the harness, I praised her abundantly and gave her treats, and we stopped for the night. Then, this morning, we gave it another try. This time, she put her head through the harness and let me drape the harness over her, and was perfectly calm and happy. GREAT progress. Only now I have to figure out how to get her to let me put her wings through the harness, since she is not particularly fond of being touched. Anybody have any ideas on that?

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Have you tried this method as suggested by Parrotlady..

 

A good method for training an older Grey to accept the harness is to first begin by getting them to accept a spoon feed!!!!!

 

Find their favourite food mash it all up or liquidise it and offer it from a spoon (this is also useful for when medication needs to be given) Once they have become used to the spoon feed and look forward to it you can begin the bib treatment. This consists of a piece of paper towel with a hole in the middle. You pull it over the birds head and it acts as a bib. If you get into a mess it doesn't matter as the paper can be easily ripped and removed.

 

I have found this method very useful to help train older birds to accept having something pulled over their head. Once they are happy with the paper towel you can move onto the harness.

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Guest Skuffy

I started off about 3wks ago with my harness..Max was alittle scared of it at first,,so i held it in my left hand while Max was on my right,,,I can now hold Max and Harness in both hands,,he beaks at it,not in agressive way,but just to check it out...Links about are ok to read,,But if you Search YouTube theres lots of Vids showing how to get your grey used to it,,then how to get your grey to be happy with it on....Have a look..do a few Diff Searches on the Harness...i found loads...Some are funny aswell:laugh:

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I take Jenna outside in her travel cage and let her play in the fresh air; also the breeder kept her in an outdoor aviary for part of the day most days, so she's not scared of the outside. But I still can't get the harness on her LOL

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