The Aviator Harness

I have had an Aviator Harness for a few years now.

It was prize I had received for winning a parrot portrait contest on a forum. It was red and was the extra small size, hence perfect for my Pois.

Unfortunately, it didn't see much use in those years. In fact, while I had kept it out to show it to the birds in hoping they would get acquainted to it and might be more willing to accept it (as per instructed on the complementary "how to" video), Shade still carried on her fear of harnesses (I had tried getting her used to a Feather Tether harness as a young bird and that had been an absolute disaster), I wasn't comfortable enough handling Joey or Zuri all over to try with them at the time (still have to work on that) and Petey..well me trying with would Petey would result in me having very bloody and mangled hands. Piper is just too small.

Earlier on this past Spring, I had started looking for that harness again but apparently I had misplaced it. It did hit me that Pixel appeared to be the best candidate of all my birds to try the harness once more - I can do whatever I want with her and she seems much more comfortable than Shade with having things go over her head.

So I bought a new harness (this time in black). I did receive it but didn't get around to trying it with Pixel at the time for whatever reason.

Yesterday the Boy went through some boxes and lo and behold, he found the older harness! Inspired by the discovery, I figured I'd show it to Pixel. She seemed quite unphased by it so I thought I'd drape it over her. Still didn't care. Before you knew it, in less than half an hour, I had her in the harness!



No problem putting it over her head, no problem putting her wings through the loops. Once in the harness she did try playing with it, but I could distract her from that so I don't think she was uncomfortable. Taking it off was a bit harder than putting it on because once she grasped what I was trying to do, she tried to "help" me along but it just make the whole thing take slightly longer.

She got praised a lot through the whole thing and she looked like she LOVED the attention. I think I might try it a few more times inside before going out - while I'm not so concerned with her, I feel I need to practice how to hold that leash properly and possibly figure out something very secure because I'm still a bit uncomfortable and concerned it might slip away if she decided to take off.

For anyone looking for an Aviator Harness, you can buy it straight from the makers and choose the colour you want (not all sizes come in all colours mind you) and you will even get free shipping! Worth a look!

The Aviator Harness - Link

Being prepared in case of fire

It is something we all wish will never happen - having our apartment / house attacked by flames.

Given how sensible our birds respiratory systems are, it is important to be well prepared to evacuate them as quickly as possible in case of a fire.

Since I moved in this building, I've got some practice in getting the birds (and cat) ready to be evacuated - we've had a number of false fire alarms over the years. While they aren't pleasant, it at least gave us the opportunity to work out the kinks to getting everyone ready to go. The carriers are right within reach in the birdroom and I've contrived a way to try to have two birds per carrier (Shade and Zuri are ok together and I put Piper in a smaller carrier into Pixel's carrier divided with a blanket but still have to work out Joey and Petey) so that it's easier to bring everyone downstairs. Given that our building probably wouldn't go up in flames all that quickly because of the massive amount of concrete, I haven't used pillow shams yet but they would be my alternative to getting the birds out more quickly and efficiently still (one bird per pillow cover) if there was a fire on my floor. The extra fabric would help lessen temporary exposure to any close smoke and they are more easy to carry down than the carriers.

It's a good thing to be prepared for.

And while we were ready for this morning's 5:15 false fire alarm, the resulting lack of sleep and cranky birds - no, make that cranky Meyers, was something else we had to deal with later on...