Harness help!

Natasha

Regular Member
Hi!
The breeder where Opaline came from did harness training with her, ive put her harness on and shes chewing on it, now I cant get it back off without her flying everywhere and trying to bite me. What do i do?!
 
Either distract her with a treat or food so you can loosen it or if its causing her stress and you really cant get it off just cut it. Dont rush with anything even if she has had harness training in the past. When you do put a harness on her start from scratch and do it very slowly. Don't put it all the way on until you know you can handle her to get it off again. Its better to have built some trust first. You're new to her. Everything is new to her. Give her time to settle. Harness training is quite hands on and shes not really had much time with you yet
 
I find having the bird facing you preferably on your lap is the best position and your bird will not fly from you. plane what you are doing, first you loosen the strap fully, pull it through the loop on the neck strap so the strap is fully through on the side of the opposite wing, move the wing out leaving strap on top of wingfrom the strap, thread the strap back through so most of it is by the other wing and move that wing out leaving strap resting on top of that wing , now just slide the strap that goes over the neck over the head from the back.
 
She was getting extremely stressed and she wasn't happy at all so I had to cut it off her. She doesnt want to come to me now so im just leaving her for a while x
 
She was getting extremely stressed and she wasn't happy at all so I had to cut it off her. She doesnt want to come to me now so im just leaving her for a while x
Yeah just leave her let her calm she will come to you when shes ready. It happens lesson learnt lol.
 
Your priority should be trying to build some trust with her. Set aside the harness training for now because until she trusts you it isnt really necessary. If you intend on taking her outside she needs to learn to trust you first and foremost. Things like that can come later. You'll have heaps of time for stuff like that
 
Harness training is not so easy but its always more difficult to take it off as you are going the wrong direction from the way the feather lie. the first steps are getting the bird to allow things around the neck starting off with the long length and making him/ her comfortable before the next sage of just using the neck loop. do not attempt to put the harness on your bird until your bird is comfortable of having the neck lop on and taken off
 
I feel your pain! Gary was harness trained to a point, but our own naivety and inexperience led to him hating the harness and now he bites when he sees it. :( We would love to be able to get him to trust it again and get Bebe trained up too, but an angry macaw versus my fingers makes me too nervous to go past the initial stages of getting him to accept the harness in his proximity. I'm keeping everything crossed so that you can be braver than me! ;):biggrin:
 
Ive got a little flight suit for oscar that is velcro an buttons no going over the head or hooking threw wings it works really well
 

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