My Experience with the AVIATOR Bird Harness
The AVIATOR Bird Harness is the only truly SAFE and ESCAPE-PROOF bird restraint system
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I always like to see birds outside and felt that I am taking something precious away from my pet birds by keeping them indoors.
Years ago, I used to go hiking with my African grey on my shoulders, which was fabulous. My most memorable hike was in North Torrey Pines Nature Preserve – north county San Diego. If you haven’t been there – it truly is heaven. Here are some photos: http://www.torreypine.org/parks/photo-album.html -- I hiked from the beach up to, along a sometimes very slim rock path to the nature preserve on top – with my grey on my shoulders. He certainly got a lot of attention!!!
It was scary at times, as I was concerned of him falling off. He was clipped, as I was told he should be, to prevent him from escaping. But a clipped bird often translates into a "clumsy bird" -- one that risks injury easily without the powerful wings lifting them up when they need to.
I also understand that even clipped birds can fly to a certain extent depending on how extensive the clipping was. However, I was naïve in thinking that he was so bonded to me, he “would never fly away” … guess what. When our pet birds get spooked they do – and they are gone in no time. It happened to me.
After that, I was too scared to take my pets out, and I always felt guilty for depriving them of something really important. In the past, I bought the original bird leash – and it didn’t work at all. I fumbled, my bird freaked out – I tossed that harness happy that I hadn't killed my pet with that thing.
I joined a mailing list that discussed the topic of “free flight” and the members were advocating the Aviator Harness. Therefore, I bought it.
At first, I made a mistake of trying to put it on my grey without knowing what I was doing. It went wrong. He got spooked, bit me, screamed … I gave up and toyed with the idea of tossing it, too.
But the Aviator Harness actually comes with an instructional DVD. I took it out and watched it. The instructor practiced on a stuffed parrot first – which I also did, with the little stuffed duck I bought my parrot when he was a baby. It was kind of fun watching the DVD with the different birds, from young chicks to older birds being trained to wear the harness. I was thinking that with all the fun bird noises coming from it, this also makes a great “bird sitter” DVD ;-) … My birds most certainly responded to the macaws, cockatoos, amazon voices. I enjoyed watching the macaws, cockatoos and other parrots. It is a nice DVD.
Anyhow, once I knew what I was doing with “Mr. Duck” – I tried it out on my grey. A little bit of fumbling. A nip or two to bear – but it ended well. Within a minute, the harness was on. I took him immediately outside to reward Monty.
As luck had it, some quaker parrots were flying by (I live in Florida), the red-sided blackbirds came over to let me know that the bird feeder was empty, a blue jay was sitting on the patio chair. Monty forgot about his harness and was mesmerized by the sounds and sights of nature.
It was a great experience.
Sibylle Faye
Website Administrator
Bird Health Mailing List: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/avianhealth/join (discuss bird health issues only)
