New Aviator Harness - any advice for beginner ?

[sidech]

Hello,

after reading about what type of harness seemed the most appreciated on this forum, I decided to order the Aviator Harness from Parrot University. I ordered the xsmall, my birdie is 133 grams.

Zoulou lets me handle him quite well, and I have been touching his wings from day 1, after seeing one of Michael's video, in order to prepare him for the harness and also wing care.

So, besides that, what else should I be doing to prepare him for it (maybe put a piece of rope on his body ?) and what precautions should I take the first time I put it on ? (I have watched the video on Parrot University that shows how to put it on, and I'll rewatch it before putting it on the first time).

Thanks !

[Michael]

Forget their DVD, this is better:

Flight Harness Training Parrot

[HyperD]

Take it slow, dont go putting the harness on all in one go... Little steps at a time

[sidech]

Got it ! I'll take my time.

[JadeW]

Follow Michale's advice/training steps. Definitely way better then that DVD (that wouldn't work for me...) But good luck!

[Michael]

Basically the DVD advice doesn't work well for smaller parrots and doesn't involve positive reinforcement. Following the DVD's advice, I only ruined my relationship with Kili and had to start again with my own method for training the harness. Luckily she is so good at training that it only took 3 days, but imagine if I did my method off the bat and didn't use theirs?

[sidech]

Yeah, I can definitely see that their method is waaayyy too fast. I'll try yours, Michael, or something very similar. Can't wait to get my harness !

How long does it take to ship if your in Canada, anyone knows ?

[Michael]

Dunno, probably under a week. I got mine very quickly. There's no rush to getting it on. I don't think I put a harness on Truman for at least the first 2 weeks I had him and keep in mind I knew what I was doing. The first few times you put the harness on, you'll be really confused and trying to figure out how to get it on (try to practice ahead of time but you'll still get confused) so you don't want to upset the bird too much and make it turn against you. Make sure it likes you first, then lose a little of that by putting it on but then gain it back.