Timid ringneck, help making that first step (literally)

[ARTong]

My new 4 month old Indian Ringneck is extremely timid. We are being slow and going his pace.
If you approach him in or out of his cage you get one of two reactions, 1 is heavy breathing (think watching a horror movie heavy breathing) but puts up with your presence. And 2 is walking or flying away.
Rarely he's into attempting to take food.

Just want to make sure 1 the heavy breathing at our approach is just his nerves not anything to worry over and 2 get tips for building enough trust for that first step up.

 

[wrench13]

Good n you for going slow but steady. IRN's NEED to interact with their humans daily in order to remain tame. Determine his favorite treat, and that becomes your ambassador treat. Only use it for taming and later on trick training, or at least maintaining his tameness. Verbal praise too. Always reward immediately when the positive action occurs, so he can put the 2 together. IRNs are hard to tame but boy once they are, they are soooo cute and smart. My lil amazon Salty owes most of his vocabulary to watching IRNS on Youtube.