Any advice or experience
Hi, so I adopted this boy yesterday from a bird store. He is going to be 10 years old next week. His original owner was a man, and I was told that he passed away and this bird got passed to his niece. But she was young and couldn’t care for him so he ended up at the store which is where he was originally sold. They say he prefers men, but was in a home with multiple people. I was told technically anybody can hold him if you try and get him to step up, he does nip and hold your finger, but he doesn’t bite hard enough to draw blood. It’s just a strong hold with a lot of pressure. But they told me and showed me at the store that if you push past him and his biting, you can force him to step up. I don’t agree with that and won’t be doing that with him.
I am looking for advice and to see if anyone has experienced anything similar. I want to know if anyone has successfully bonded with a grey that has a preference for one gender that you are not. I am not a man and so he does not want to step up or want any pets. He does take treats, but I have to go slow because some of the times he has bit my fingers instead of the treat. I’ve only had him for one full day and I understand he does need time to settle and get used to me. He is talking a lot and interacting with me as I talk to him. He does still seem nervous and occasionally shakes a little bit. He does hang out outside of the cage and just kind of watch me.
I do plan on target training and clicker training to work with him and see if we can start the bond that way. Also to see if I can train him to step up without biting using target training.
Does anyone have any good advice on how to approach this? Any methods or things I should or should not be doing? And what are some good ways to help bond with him and have a good relationship? I eventually want to be able to trick train him and do some flight recall. As well as getting him used to a harness and going on walks outside and things like that. Does anyone have any similar stories or experience like this?
Thank you for your replies in advance!