Sophie The Pigeon Harness – A DIY Pigeon Harness

Information

My humans wanted something to be able to bring me outside with them safely, and because I’m a non-releasable rescue pigeon which would no longer be able to survive outside on my own, they needed something which would keep me safe while doing so

NEWS UPDATE:
My harness design is now also being officially made by FanzyPants , they produce ready to use harnesses based on my Sophie The Pigeon Harness so that you can just buy one if your for example can’t (or just don’t want) to make one yourself
You can find the Sophie The Pigeon Harness collection by FanzyPants here on Etsyor here on their Sumup Store

There are several reason why I can’t (well should) not be outside without a harness and/or leash, I won’t go too much into detail about this, but some of these reasons are:
– I won’t be able to survive on my own (find food, a safe drinking source, find safe shelter etc)
– I (unfortunately) don’t see any danger in things like dogs, cats, (human) traffic, most other humans etc.
– I’m terrified of simple things in nature (even though my humans do keep trying to teach me it’s okay) like insects, trees etc.
– Even though I have recovered from the situation I was in before I got rescued by my pet humans, I do still need special care from time to time
– My breed is a fancy pigeon, and my breed often doesn’t live many years in the wild (due to our bright colors for example)

And this list goes on, but that is not what this project is about though

There are several other commercial solutions available like pigeon pants and parrot harnesses, but I personally don’t really like to wear pigeon pants, and more importantly: Pigeon pants are not intended for outdoor use! The parrot harnesses are exactly that: Intended for parrots, yes you can use them for pigeons also, but they are a lot ‘bulkier’ and such than needed for a pigeon.

A few reasons why pigeon pants for example are NOT suitable as (outdoor) flight harness is that the closing mechanism of those flight pants is often made of Velcro, and the risk of Velcro failing while being outside is way to big to be honest. Secondly, those flight pants often have the ‘leash connector ring’ on the back of the pigeon, which means that if it would be used for flying that the leash would be dangling down from our back. And thus this could potentially cause the leash to get tangled in our wings, which would seriously injure us or worse (you for example really don’t want us to plummet to the ground due to this!).

The Sophie The Pigeon Harness is made from bra’s for various reasons, some of these reasons are:
– They are easy (and cheap if using a thrift store) to obtain
– They contain 95% of all the components needed to make the harness (the straps, the leash connection ring and the adjustment slider)
– The shoulder straps (of which the harness is made) often looks quite pretty, is a BIT elastic, and often have a ‘soft inside’ meaning they are comfortable

My pet humans main thought about using bra shoulder straps was: “They are designed for women to stay in place, not to cut into the shoulders and to be as comfortable as possible, so why not use those ‘advantages’ for our sweet Sophie ”

The elasticity of the harness itself ensures that it will ‘give in’ just a little bit when I would for example suddenly reach the end of the line (‘lowering the blow’), but they do not have enough elasticity to actually be able to come off suddenly

NOTE: The elasticity of the harness alone is NOT enough to prevent injuries, you will also need the Soft Brake my pet human has designed! (but that is all well explained in both the PDF you can download and in the YouTube video we’ve uploaded.

There are many reasons why I personally think you should actually take your rescue and/or pet pigeon outside, but those are also all explained in the video, the PDF and on the project page of my pet humans where you can download the PDF itself .

Me and my pet human have spent over 465 days on designing and testing the Sophie The Pigeon Harness (which also includes making the video, PDF tutorial and all the pages online), and we are all 100% confident in my Harness system I have A LOT of fun tagging along with my pet humans, and also when flying in the park with my humans for example (although still can’t get my humans to fly after me though ).

I would HIGHLY recommend you to check out the main project page on my human’s website, and to watch the video to make your own Sophie The Pigeon Harness for your pigeon(s)

Another reason to watch the video (at least the second half of it), even if you would use ANY other leash system (or are even considering to take your pigeon outside without one) is that the video contains A LOT if important information about taking your pigeon outside (including the possible dangers and risks you should be aware of beforehand).

I really hope that the tutorial(s) will be useful for you and your pigeon(s) and that you will have a great (and safe) time outside together

(Indoor) Pigeon Pants/Diaper and Pre-made Sophie The Harnesses tip
I have placed some extra tips and information at the Additional Resources tab for if you are considering to use a ‘pigeon diaper’ for your pigeon while being at home with your pigeon I will also start listing stores in that section if there are stores which are actually planning to sell pre-made (or to order) Sophie The Pigeon Harnesses

DISCLAIMER:
It should already be quite obvious, but using my pet human’s design, making my pet human’s design etc is 100% at your own risk, and you will also accept all responsibility for doing so! Simply because we obviously can’t guarantee the quality of the materials you’ve used, your sewing skills, your location’s safety (predators etc), your pigeon’s behavior etc etc.