Adjustment phase?

[mom2mny]

I brought home a blue fronted Amazon! He stepped up for us when we went to look at him. Although he did bite me once for apparently not raising my hand quick enough after he stepped his first foot onto it. LOL He does not want to step up for us now that we've brought him home. That is normal, right? I believe that is probably just part of his adjustment phase. He's only been here a few days. Should we just keep letting him out of his cage to play on his playtop and wait for him to go back in the cage so that we can close it for now? I don't want to force him to do something he's not ready for. He will take food from our hands.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Many congrats on your BF. How exciting!!

I'd leave him be for a while so he can get used to his new home. Everything is new to him right now. New people, new sounds, new environment, new everything. Amazons usually settle in fairly quickly. You can read to him, talk to him and offer him treats.

As far as letting him decide when to go in and out of his cage: I personally do not allow any of my birds to come and go as they please from their cages. The first thing I taught all of them was the STEP UP/ STEP DOWN command. If you have a playgym on top of the cage, I would ask him to step up from inside his cage, place him on the playgym, and then close his cage so he can't go in until you put him back in. I find less cage aggression issues this way.

Do you have a playgym away from the cage? If so, take him out and place him on that.

Good luck with your new family member, and if you have some pictures, we'd love to see them.