The Feather Tether "Bird Harness" seemed like such a great idea. It allows us to take the bird outside safely enough without having to worry about him flying off and hurting himself.Take a moment and look at that picture. Note that that is a picture... not a video. This is a single millisecond in time. We looked at this picture and thought, "Gee, this bird looks happy and properly tethered! It seems like such a great idea! Let us go buy one right away!"
We found one, we figured out the proper size for our "medium sized parrot", and brought it home and showed it to him. He looked at it and decided to chew on our fingers. We took this as a good sign and then tried to put it around his neck.
Honestly the back should have a surgeon general's warning about loosing fingers to "small to large" sized parrots when attempting to put such an item on YOUR bird. The thing they fail to tell you is that the bird in the picture is either 1. Stuffed, 2. HEAVILY sedated (and propped up), or 3. The bird has been in training for the past 20 years of his life for that one picture.
After wrapping our bird in the "birdy towel" and deftly making sure my fingers staid out of the reach of his beak Lisa and I were able to wrap the first part around his neck. (pause) He then went into "complete birdy freak out mode". He started flailing around with his eyes closed and flung himself off the couch and started rolling around the floor. We thought that maybe he would start settling down after a bit but he eventually wore himself out and lay there panting with his eyes shut. I checked the tightness and that wasn't the issue... it was just tighter than HE would have liked. (I could easily fit my pinky finger under the neck part.)
We got it off and he cooled down... and now we need to get it under his wings...
I think we'll be returning the "Feather Tether".
~B.
Wow...quite a visual! Doesn't sound like that's going to work for this weekend, huh? Bummer! Any new thoughts? (Just carry him?)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad someone is working on a packing list. Man, I feel very disorganized! I did ask the Lord this morning to give us really wonderful weather while we're down there. I think we all just need rest. Praise God for the kindness of the Fergusons!!!
Hey, maybe you guys need one of those little stroller things to push Nikko around in. (Like the lady I saw "walking" the cat.) Of course, it would be very hard to push on the sand...
Looking forward to this Saturday and next week!!!
The instructions in the "feather tether" said to reward the bird once he got all hooked up. However, he was freaking out too much to see that I was holding his favorite birdseed ball in front of his face... I think he really thought he was going to die.
ReplyDeleteOh man, if only you had known, you could've taken a video to preserve the experience for posterity! Ah, things that seem like a good idea at the time...
ReplyDeleteI think the picture is PhotoShopped!
ReplyDeleteOk Ben, I was cracking up at this! That is absolutely hilarious because I can totally picture everything you were saying. Animals definitely have their own opinions, and when you've got one with a beak like Niko, watch out! So much for that idea. That's like Riva and me using leashes for our guinea pigs. Usually leashes are reserved for animals that actually MOVE. Enough said. ha ha!
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