Tyler explains why he shouldn't be caged

Heya guys.
I just brought dinner up to my babies. They were sharing my meal of unseasoned steamed chicken and potatoes.
I have a lot of trouble getting my Grey, Tyler to eat his food. He would prefer I hand feed it to him. My boyfriend, who has recently started to develop a very good friendship with Tyler, only makes this worse by hand feeding him when he comes to visit. I always tell him not to but the two of them look so cute together.. lol
My birds are usually never locked in their cages, as they have their very own bird-safe room. Anyway, I lock Tyler in his cage when its dinner time and put food in his 'special bowl for yummy yummy' (Tyler says yummy yummy when he REALLY likes food so in trying to get him excited about new food, I use his words)
I told him to go in his cage and he starts in his most pathetic little tiny voice 'no..no.nononononono' like he usually does when he really doesn't want to do something. I picked him up and he immediately flew onto my Amazon's box.
(Tyler is the only one left fully flighted as his slightly twisted leg makes him very clumsy. Also, he likes to come close and taunt the other birds, using a mean tone of voice telling them they are bad, which initiates fights. He usually needs to get away quickly. I am going to be placing him in my bedroom soon because these fights worry me.)
I told him to knock it off and went over. He refused my up command with a very firm 'NO!' followed by 'nonononononon' so I went to the other side of the box and said very firmly 'Tyler you come up to mommy RIGHT NOW OR I'm gonna -' He was stepping onto my hand at this point and interrupted me with a very clear 'Ty Scared'.
I have never heard him say the word scared before but he will usually use 'Ty' in front of sentences when he is very nervous.. like Tylo instead of hello or Ty Love you.
I felt SO BAD for yelling at him. I told him very nicely, "Tyler needs to eat his food, yummy yummy, right? So Tyler has to stay in his cage and eat his food. Mommy will come and let Tyler out to play soon.'
So I locked him in his cage and he didn't say anything else.
I gave my Amazon, Rocky his food and was leaving his door open until Tyler started in with 'nononono' again. I think he wanted Rocky to be locked in too so I said 'Mommy will put Rocky in his cage for dinner, Tyler'.
Rocky didn't even notice as he was stuffing his beak with food as fast as possible.
I really don't know what to think, I suppose he might have been scared by my tone of voice. I don't think he was scared of being locked in his cage because his cage is where he goes by himself, when he's nervous.
I just went up to let everyone out and although he ate only a very very tiny bit, I told him he was a good boy. Picked him up, undid the doors and he gave me one of his big ol' kisses, complete with mouth smacking action noises
Funny little guy!

Very cute ... very impressive ... it's almost shocking the first time something like this happens ... it's almost like getting mad at a child and then that child looks up at you with his/her big blue/green/brown eyes and says, "I sowrry" with tear streaked cheeks ... how can you stay mad at them?

Again, birds are like children ...

Ohhhhh bless his heart, that is so cute, wonder where he heard that word. I never call my guys BAD ever, for that reason, I would hate for them to come out and say Bucc bad boy, (or whichever one is saying it) it would break my heart. At the moment if he does anything he knows he shouldn't he just looks at me and says "Bucc's a good boy, noooooooooooooooooooooooooo. A few weeks ago I would have sworn that they have to hear words over and over again, to be able to pick them up, but after Bucc coming out with "BOB" its made me rethink my thinking.

And yeah they really are like children.

What a cute little guy!

He is very clever and fair!

I sometimes slip and say bad boy/girl. I try hard to say you've done a bad thing or thats not nice instead but sometimes, when they are being especially bad, (especially my Macaw because she argues with me when I try to reprimand more gently) it just slips out.
Plus they always hear people hollering at the dogs.. that's not going to stop as we have 2 Jack Russell Terriers who are always doing something someone might consider bad, and several different people are handling the discipline in different ways.
I try harder with Tyler, he was very depressed when I got him and it would make you cry.. He would have a toy in his hand/beak and if he chanced to drop it he would hang his head and say in such a forlorn voice, 'Tyler's a bad bad boy' or 'Tyler's a bad bird' He had even started to pluck his feathers slightly. It was ridiculous. He would scold himself if he did anything at all like drop a piece of food, fall down..etc. Sometimes even for no reason when nothing had happened.
I just kept saying 'No, Tyler is a good bird', whenever he started saying this, since I knew he understood the word no. Sometimes if he seemed especially upset I would repeat whatever action he did and say 'Mommy is a good bird'. That really seemed to perk him up and sometimes he would even say Tyler is a good bird after the reassurance.
His original owners really did a number on him. I think they must have just stood there telling him he was bad for no reason at all. The person who had him next at least gave him toys and a radio to listen to, just didn't have the time to work with him and gave him to me.
People are so mean!!
Animals need to be treated a certain way. Birds are delicate, sensitive & intelligent. they need to be treated like that!
I try to treat my animals very fairly. When disciplining the dogs, I act like a dog. If they bite me, I bite them back. If they get too aggressive, I hold them down in a forced submissive manner for a few seconds. As soon as I let them up they seem to understand immediately what the problem was. I think they are happy that I'm communicating in dog language and they don't get upset with me like they would when I get frustrated and just yell at them for punishment.
BTW - I'm sorry. Try as I might it is just beyond me to make a small post. lol.

'Tyler's a bad bad boy' or 'Tyler's a bad bird'

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O thats is awful, That really started the tears a flowing again. Good on you letting him know that he's a good boy for dropping a toy. My 2 love to throw their toys around and hear the sound it makes.