So I adopted a 6.5 yr old male red bellied (named Draco) about a month ago from his previous owner who could no longer give him the attention he needed. He's a very shy bird, and at first was nervous and did not want to really interact with me, let me give him head scratches, etc. For the first few days I took it slow and had him away from my other birds (2 tiels and a meyers) so that way he would become used to me his new owner and being in a new place. Over the past month he's come a long way: he calls for me, takes treats from me, occasionally (about once a day) lets me head scratch him. He has even come out of the cage a few times willingly and would sit on my shoulder nervously.
While all seemed to be going well, recently I've hit a plateau with him. He gets so nervous when I give him a headscratch and if the slightest noise is made, he tries to bite me. He's got me a bunch before, and his bites are pretty bad, so my natural reaction is to jerk away. I know I should be more confident with him to help eliminate this behavior, but I feel like his fear or uncomfortableness is also a factor. I've had to towel him a few times when he got out of the cage and would not step up on my finger or perch (his wings are clipped but he still manages to get himself in trouble with flying) and I would pet him and talk sweetly to him to calm him, but he reacts pretty badly and I try to avoid the towel. But now I'm at a loss! How can I stop what seems to be fearful biting when he allows me to pet him (puts down his head, etc)?
