How to Put a Harness on Your Parrot | Parrot Training

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So, before you even start training to harness, you are going to want to make sure that you are able to grab your bird, you’re going to be able to open his wings and touch him all over his body, so that he is not scared when you are going to be doing that with the harness.

So, if your parrot is comfortable with the harness material being on or near his body like this, you are going to start to teach it to put its head through the collar. This is really the secret to wearing the harness, is getting the bird to feel like it is participating and volunteering to put it on, rather than having the harness forced on it. So, rather than sticking the harness on your bird, you are going to have the bird stick the harness on itself. If the bird has its own control over the process, then it is nowhere near as scary as having it forced onto it.

So, we can go back to our trusty target stick to use the target to target the bird’s head to go through the collar, like this. Target. Good boy. Very good. Once your parrot knows how to put it’s head through, you just keep practicing where you have him stick his head through the collar, you click, give him the treat, and take it right back off. The whole idea is to show the parrot that the harness is harmless and it’s not going to be stuck on it all at once.

We are going to build this up in stages. Good boy! This time, I’m going to leave it on a little longer and let him chew his treat while wearing the collar around his neck. I’m still going to hold it, just to make sure that nothing happens, like he can’t fly away with it and get hurt. We will take it back off.

After a few days to weeks of practicing having the collar go on and off, we are ready to put the harness on all the way. Just put his head in the collar, while he is eating his treat I can bring the material over and put the first wing through, put his second wing through. Give him another treat to keep him busy, and then while he is eating that, I can just tighten up the harness, like that. Good boy.

Then, taking off the harness is also very important, but it’s just the whole process in reverse. Almost done. Good boy.And, that’s how you put your harness on a parrot, and now we are ready to go outside and have some fun.



  1. ouch that hurts and they dont like it i would never tie my baby bird and then take him outside just as a woman never ties her baby boy or girl﻿

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  3. This parrot should NOT be making those noises, he's too hungry! This kid is well known on youtube for his "amazing" training but is equally well known in the training community as a beginner that doesn't know what he's doing. Barbara Heidenreich is a REAL expert that's been doing this forever!

  4. I really like these videos but these harnesses look quite cruel to put on a parrot

  5. I have a parrot, and you use a harness as you would a leash for a dog. so when you go outside with it, it doesn't fly away like mine did 😛 but mine came back home 🙂