cockatiels

[pauldcox01]

anybody put one of the harnesses on and how?

[icemaiden]

I wouldnt bother with a bird harness. Birds get very stressed when fitting one on. Not good for them.

If your worried it will fly away then visit a good avian vet who will proffessionally trim the feathers so it cannot fly away. It doesnt hurt them and in my opinion far safer than a harness.

[orange-gnome]

I am not one to trim birds flight feathers at all!!! In my opinion it is not necessary and not fair, all of a birds exercise is done through flying, let alone their only natural defense mechanism...Americans are great fans of this but they love to chop bits of animals for no good reason - just look at the ears of some dogs- there are many books which tell you to chop off the flight feathers for dominance and so training reasons, however it is unnecessary and training a bird is easy without clipping the wings as long as you have patience.
Anyway, you dont need to worry about dominance issues with a tiel. To fit the harness all you need to do is take it slowly, distract with a favourite piece of food to chew on whilst slipping the first part over ....don't fit the whole thing, just the first step of putting it on...do this every day a few times for a week until he/she is used to it then the same with the next steps, until he is perfectly happy to have it fitted. After the initial getting him used to it phase, he will love the opportunity to fly about outside (which is what I assume you are using it for) and its much better than depriving a bird of flight for its lifetime!!! There is nothing unsafe about using a harness.

As for how to put it on, it depends what type you have, try looking up the particular brand on bird sites to see if there are instructions, if you didnt't get any with it.
Like I say distraction and food is the key for getting him used to it, talk to him in a friendly voice and take it slowly and you can't go wrong.

[icemaiden]

Just imagine a pet bird in your house gets frightenend by something, flies away, straight in to the path of Patio Doors, thinking he can get outside, severely injured or worse, neck broken, not a pretty sight. I know, I have seen it happen.

This is why I trim my pet birds wing.

Not for dominance, training or other purposes, only for safety.