by Pajarita » Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:34 am
Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new family member! Leaving it be for the first two weeks is the right thing to do. This doesn't mean that you should not allow the bird to come out of its cage, you should, but it means that, unless the bird takes the first step toward getting closer to you, you should not push it to do so. If the bird is moving closer to the side of the cage where you are and hanging on to the bars, he wants to come out and either approach you or, at the very least, observe you more closely so do open the door and allow him to come out. Put [you can tie them with untreated sisal rope which will provide its own entertainment for the bird] tree branches on the side of the cage that go up [they love to climb up as height means safety for birds], talk, whistle, sing, dance, etc and, every now and then, offer him a treat BUT if he doesn't take it from your fingers, just leave it where he can get it and walk away. This treat is not a bribe or a reward, it's a gift from you to him, a token of friendship to let him know that you want like him and want him to like you. If, when you are standing close enough, he tries to climb on you, let him. They need physical closeness as much as they need air -the need is hard-wired into their brains and no bird bonds closely to a human if it's not allowed access to him/her. Make sure you feed it right meaning never free-feed protein food [it will end up messing up its liver and kidneys], he is still young enough to learn to eat new foods easily but it will get harder as he gets older.
As to hard beaking [this is when they start nipping you a bit too hard], all I do is complain loudly with an OUCH! and tell them: "Gently, gently' and praise, praise, praise as soon as they release the pressure. I've never understood why some people believe that not reacting is helpful... These are highly intelligent animals that have wonderful control over their beaks and the pressure they exert with it so it's just a matter of them learning what is too hard for us, defective, featherless birds that we are. They are also highly empathetic and do not like to cause pain so the not reacting is just confusing to them, if you ask me. All my birds came from somebody else [I am an animal lover so I only adopt, rehome or rescue] and most of them came with aggression issues but they all end up working out great after a while. Right now, I am dealing with Javi, a black-capped caique that gets all bent out of shape when he gets startled or is upset about not getting what he wants. He has this habit of pinching just the merest amount of skin a bit too hard and in a very quick succession but he is already learning and, although he is still doing it [but not as often], he stops when I go "OUCH!".
Most of all, keep steady and completely unchanging daily routines [and that means weekdays, weekends, holidays, your birthday, when you are sick, etc]. Nothing makes them feel more secure and at ease than going through the same schedule every single day. It's what they do in the wild and it goes a loooooong way toward getting them used to their new home AND diminishing the inevitable stress of captivity [they are undomesticated species and the fact that they are born in captivity doesn't change the physical and emotional needs they have which are identical to the birds in the wild and which we cannot fulfill].