Aviator Harness | Training Progress

This is Taki, our 7 month old Lutino cockatiel. Taki is most likely female but we call him a "he" anyways.

We got an Aviator Harness (in size petite) from DrsFosterSmith.Com on sale about a week after we got Taki in late September of this year. My first approach was to teach Taki to put the harness on himself like a trick, but this didn't work well with Taki's personality.

We gave the harness training a break for a few weeks and then picked it back up again about a week ago. I've done 1-2 ten minute training sessions with him daily to get him used to the harness. This is me demonstrating one of the techniques I used to get him used to the harness going over his head (I used the wing hole cinched down very small at first to show him the harness isn't scary because he was intimidated by how tight the head hole was to squeeze into). I would drape the harness over his back and feed him spray millet, then when I removed the harness I also took the millet away. This built a strong association between the harness and being fed millet.

If you recently got an aviator harness or are trying to harness train your bird to wear an aviator harness, I STRONGLY suggest you watch the full 1 hour tutorial about harness training by the manufacturer. A copy should have come with your harness, but it is also posted on youtube by the manufacturer. I am simply demonstrating some of the techniques introduced by the manufacturer in the tutorial video along with my own twist on getting my cockatiel used to slipping his head into and out of the harness without jumping straight into using the petite head hole.

If at any time your bird becomes uncomfortable, nippy, or unhappy while harness training, take a step back and slow down the process. The goal of training should always be to bond with your bird and build trust between you- it's not about the end result of your bird learning a trick. Trust cannot be build if you're knowingly scaring your bird during training sessions.

When I get a chance, I'll film me putting the harness on Taki and explain how I hold his millet to distract him from the process of putting it on. He tolerates me putting the harness on but is not 100% comfortable in it just yet without some millet to distract him from biting at or tugging on the harness. He has done approximately 10-12 harness training sessions (10 minutes each, 1-2 sessions a day spread out by a few hours and always during daylight hours so that if I did get the harness on him I could take him for a tour of our backyard for 3-5 minutes). Once he tolerated me putting the harness on, I would warm him up to the harness for 3-4 minutes by playing with him the way I demonstrate in the video, then I would put it on him. Once he had the harness on, I took him immediately outside into the backyard. He did four 3-5 minute sessions where he wore the harness in the backyard and played outside to make sure he was reasonably comfortable in it before we took him on a full fledged walk.

We got Taki two months ago. Before we got him, he had a botched wing clip. He has seen a certified avian vet who has told us that Taki is in perfect health besides his overclipped wings. The way that the wings were cut prevents us from making his wings match, and since we'd like him fully flighted, our vet suggested that we wait for him to molt and regrow his feathers instead of trying to make his wings match for now. He's going through his first molt right now and has molted most of his clipped feathers. His first two primaries on the clipped wing are growing back in. A bird's wings should ALWAYS match and their secondary feathers should NEVER be cut!