Harness

[marie83]

We can get Ollies Harness on now with no problems but he wont do anything other than obsessively chew on it. He refuses to be distracted at all by cueing tricks, trying to give him a meal/treat as a reward for having it on.
We kept taking it straight back off to start with and tried to up the time.
We also tried taking him straight outside as he likes being out in his cage but no, he still relentlessly chews.

I'm at a loss as to what to do, any ideas?

[cml]

We can get Ollies Harness on now with no problems but he wont do anything other than obsessively chew on it. He refuses to be distracted at all by cueing tricks, trying to give him a meal/treat as a reward for having it on.
We kept taking it straight back off to start with and tried to up the time.
We also tried taking him straight outside as he likes being out in his cage but no, he still relentlessly chews.

I'm at a loss as to what to do, any ideas?

Sorry no, Stitch HATES his harness, after being totally fine with it for a while (probably due to being a baby at the time). He suddenly developed a deep hatred for it, and now flies away when seeing it. We've tried reintroducing it several times, but to no avail.
I have bought nice carriers for both parrots instead, for outings this summer!

Hope it works out for you though, as harness training is awesome!

[janetafloat]

No suggestions I'm afraid, I have the same situation with Alfie. If you figure it out please let me know!

[Eric&Rebecca]

I'm thinking about getting harness for my cockatiel's I think George would be fine but Edmund he'd chew!

I have been working with George to get him used to touch his wings. I can touch his wings now and stroke them and last night he came for and under wing tickle! Very unusual for a cockatiel!

Got to wait till George older though because he's going the same way as he's dad... HUGE! Edmund is a petite cockatiel but George is already 88g! I'd be worried about the sizing of the harness getting too small.

[Michael]

He refuses to be distracted at all by cueing tricks, trying to give him a meal/treat as a reward for having it on.

http://TrainedParrot.com/Weight_Management

Taking it on and off quickly (for treats) but before they have the chance to chew can help teach them to just wear it as well. Another one is continuous reinforcement while wearing and not chewing. Put harness on, treat, as soon as done another treat, etc. till it is removed. Don't give the bird a chance to chew as the treats keep coming. Increase durations and decrease treats if that's successful. Last option is just flooding. Put the harness on and leave it on for a while (may still only be 5-60 minutes, but that's still a while to be wearing it). Do this often and the bird will eventually get used to it.

You gotta be careful though and consider why your parrot is allowing you to put the harness on. If you use flooding and just make it wear it uncomfortably to "get over it," the bird may start to preemptively refuse to let you put it on. If this isn't the case, then wearing it enough may kill off some of the novelty. I've been using the same harness for 4 years with lots of chewing and it's still (functionally) good as new. It looks chewed up but I wouldn't worry about it failing.

[Michael]

Sorry no, Stitch HATES his harness, after being totally fine with it for a while (probably due to being a baby at the time). He suddenly developed a deep hatred for it, and now flies away when seeing it. We've tried reintroducing it several times, but to no avail.
I have bought nice carriers for both parrots instead, for outings this summer!

Hope it works out for you though, as harness training is awesome!

A) http://TrainedParrot.com/Cape_Harness
B) http://TrainedParrot.com/Weight_Management

I know my "healthy target weight management" approach is not guaranteed to bring on motivation as we're not starving the bird like professionals do but my approach is a good start. Next blog article will be about maximizing motivation for the healthy weight managed parrot so please make sure you read that one too because it will be as much if not more relevant than this one.

[cml]

Aye Michael, I believe you are correct.

I have some degree of food management going already (as you probably know), but I would need to fine tune this to get motivation up a little I think.

I do think it could help with training, Leroy could use a little more incentive to allow me to lift him, and Stitch might start considering the harness again if Im lucky ^^.

At the moment, I am keeping the birds stable at a weight were I know they are probably a few grams over their baseline. I got weight data for the birds that go more than a year back though, so I know they could safely lose at least 10g for Stitch, and about 15g for Leroy.
At the moment they are sitting at around 190 for my green fluff ball, and 245-250 for the blue one .

I totally agree that food management is an important aspect to parrot keeping, I saw that discussion in your blog area, and I think the important thing to realise is that food management isnt intended to starve a bird, but rather keep them at a healthy weight.
Both my birds are as Ive said food managed, but kept at a weight that is probably a little on the chubby side atm . Might be time to tweak it a little bit!

[cml]

Just wanted to add that I am gonna wait to start harness training until Stitch has completed his molt, he's changing primaries atm, and is a bit on the touchy side with his wings.

[janetafloat]

That's good advice, thanks Michael. I think I'm flooding Alfie but too soon and he'll completely refuse it if I'm not careful. In our case he's a bit too young for weight management too (about 8 months).