weird sounds and stepping up

[Icnatslpel]

hey guys, whenevet i pet my african grey he shakes his head and makes like baby sounds while breathing, i thought he doesnt like it since he puts his beak and tries to "bite" my finger but he doesnt even put any pressure what is that? are those sounds normal, does he enjoy it or not?

for second question i kept petting him until he would put one feet on my arm then i moved my arm forward he went on it but he was shaking and scared so i held him abit didnt move alot and put him back, will doing this make any progress with him stepping up without being scared?

Edit: I know this may sound stupid but does letting him watch vids of parrots of his kind doing stuff like stepping up and that make him do it better or its a bad idea?

 

[Cas27]

Yes the more you handle him the better yourself just might get more exited. I tell my grey too put his beak down and he does and I pet him he twitches and makes all sorts of noises and yes still bites me sometimes with know pressure sometimes draws blood. Greys are high strung birds at least mine is but he's just turning 8 months old I would love too here some more of your grey stories.

 

[Icnatslpel]

Yes the more you handle him the better yourself just might get more exited. I tell my grey too put his beak down and he does and I pet him he twitches and makes all sorts of noises and yes still bites me sometimes with know pressure sometimes draws blood. Greys are high strung birds at least mine is but he's just turning 8 months old I would love too here some more of your grey stories.

mine is 2 years old almost, my dad got it when he was 3 months old he was awesome and i was playing with him alot and he wasnt scared of stepping up but i just got bored and didnt do many stuff with him anymore so it all went from start and i have started back to build trust between me and him i wont force him to do anything ill just pet him and try to make him step up when i can. its so awesome to do it and this forums helped me on how to start with him and i keep reading about his behaviour and ask around to understand this little guy and his feelings.

 

[wrench13]

Re: watching videos of other parrots. I know my Salty loves to watch videos of other Amazons and oddly enough ones of Indian Ringneck parrots. Macaws scare him , and videos of greys , cockatoos and other parrot species he pretty much ignores.
Salty is learning to sing a Mozart opera piece by watching youtube. Imagine that !

See what type of parrots your Grey responds to, and play those. Make sure to pre-screen them, so he does not learn bad behaviour. You may find a vid of a parrot stepping up, but also screaming , so that would be a bad choice to show your Grey.
In training your Grey make sure to reward good behaviour immediately after, so he gets the connection, and be consistent - so very important in training parrots.

 

[LordTriggs]

yes, parrot videos can be very fun for them, I also do believe they learn faster from them, mostly because they can see what you want the bird to do when you perform the action the owner in the videos does. There was a Ringneck mine liked to watch called Marnie. I'm sure people here know the one I'm speaking of. I'm certain he helped Rio learn to talk as his first phrase was "what you doing" which that ringneck says a lot.

As for the other stuff, the shaking could be excitement or he could just be a bit nervous, greys are notoriously high-strung so it makes sense to me. As for touching you with the beak it's morel likely beaking, essentially using the beak as a hand to either check you out or to make sure you're not about to fall out from under him. Very normal amongst all birds and not a thing to discourage