by Pajarita » Mon May 07, 2018 9:02 am
Welcome to the forum, Brit, wife and Captain Jack! Yes, it is bad to change the name because parrots not only understand the concept of a proper name but use them themselves, same as people do] BUT there are actually many, many birds whose owners never actually taught it its name and does not recognize the word as such in which case you should pay a lot of attention to see what word or sound he uses as his name. My newest bird is a female quaker which name was supposed to be Gryphon but she did not answer to it once so I watched her very closely and paid attention and identified a sound she uses all the time and to which she replies: Keku, so that became her name. Same thing with the bird before that one, a caique whose name was supposed to be "Cheeks' but who answers to Javi [his previous owner's name].
Now, just because a bird does not take off, it doesn't mean that you can assume that he will never fly so, please, be careful of not taking him outside without a harness and, also, please do your outmost best for him to fly by exercising him and prompting him to it [it's unhealthy for birds not to fly, their respiratory system atrophies].
Be careful of your interactions with him [was he DNAd a male?], this is a big bird with a powerful beak so no roughhousing with him at all and not touching anywhere but his head, neck and cheeks [everywhere else is no-touch zone]. Besides, he is in his honeymoon period so you need to wait until he is over it before you can begin to get a sense of his real personality and you don't want to push it now and suffer the consequences later.
As to his not wanting to let go... welcome to the wonderful world of parrots! That's the way they are - some more than others with larger species like macaws being quite needy that way. What works best is to establish firm routines that never change. This works both ways: it benefits the owner and it benefits the bird. It reassures the bird and gives it a sense of control over its own life [which reduces the inevitable stress of captivity] and it benefits the owner because, once the bird is used to the routine, it opens up windows where you can get your stuff done without having to force to bird to accept something he doesn't want to. My birds are on me as much as they want as long as they don't fight each other over me but they all get off me and even go into their cages when told because they know that 'it's that time' - which they don't mind because they don't spend hours and hours and hours in their cages. Don't force him to leave you if he doesn't want to [he will just resent it - parrots are not dogs or cats, they don't obey us just because we tell them to], just make it so he 'wants' to get off you by either tempting him with a treat or a toy or one of his meals and, when he does it on command, praise, praise, praise. I always have to work with the new birds on this because most of them came to me after having to spend way too many hours in their cages but I never have to do it for long because they catch on real fast because:
a] in the morning, they go back into their cages for their breakfast and it's only for half an hour before they are let out again
b] in the afternoon, they go back because they spend hours and hours and hours out of their cages and are ready for a nap or to munch on some more food.
But the best [easiest] time for them to go back is in the evening when you give them their dinner because, if you are keeping them at a strict solar schedule and feeding right [meaning NOT free-feeding protein food], they are super eager for their nut and/or seed dinner.