by Wolf » Sat Apr 04, 2015 2:41 pm
Good advice from Liz. The reason that the bird remained in the guys hand at the pet store is because the bird was too terrified to move. This is a cruel trick that is used to show people how tame the bird is in order to get the sale. The thing is that it works because most first time bird owners don't know about birds, but try to imagine how it would affect you to be so scared that you could not move to save your own life and that is what the bird experiences when this is done to it.
You have had this bird for about a week, which is not very long, so you need to be patient if you hope to build any kind of relationship with this bird. You can't force a bird as all that happens is that you scare the bird and it will never want to be around you and since neither of you will be happy under those circumstances the bird gets the short end of the stick and it did nothing wrong.
I would like you to consider that despite being as small as it is this bird has the intelligence of about the same level as a young child of about 3 to 5 years of age and the emotions of about a 2 year old. This bird is just a baby even though it looks like an adult, it is still just a baby bird. If you will just spend the time talking to the bird without expecting it to do anything it will come to you all by itself once it gets over being scared of you and its new scary strange environment. In order to encourage this, you need to sit a chair near the cage, it needs to be close enough for you to offer the bird an occasional treat, probably millet, the type that is like a little branch, it is called a sprig of millet. The bird will not take it until it is not afraid but you want to offer it anyway, so that it can learn that it is food and that you are not going to hurt it. This may take a few days, a week, a month, but it will take however long it takes for the bird to not be afraid, so be patient. Never try to force your bird and wait for the bird to come to you. Spend a lot of time talking to your bird and singing to it as well, the more time the better and watch your birds posture and how its feather are laying and listen to its noises, these things will in time help you to understand that your bird is trying to communicate with you and some of what it is trying to say.