Not Complaining But....

Jasper and I are getting along great but when I get close to him, he ALWAYS acts like a lovesick teenager. He's whining, whimpering, wings down, regurgitating, can't sit still.... It looks painful for him. I'm honored that he's chosen me to be part of his flock but I also feel bad for him because he seems so beside himself. Will he eventually get over this? I know that he was left alone for I don't know how many years and isn't used to the attention. He's in the family room so he has a lot of distant interaction. I get close to him often through out the day. He lets me touch him. I can't really get him to step up because he's so "out of his mind". Is there anything that I can do to help him? Or is this just something that we need to keep working on?

I built him a stand out of PVC so that I can get him away from his cage. I was thinking that it may help if we had interactions away from his cage. He doesn't seem cage territorial. When he first came here, I had to be careful about his food dishes because he'd try to bite me but he doesn't do that anymore. I built the stand in front of him and when it was done, had it kind of close to his cage. He hid from it. He was on top of his cage but hid on the backside of it. I moved it further away. He's ok with that I'll slowly move it closer.

He likes to chew so I bought some popsicle sticks for him. I offered him one. You would have thought that I had a dagger in my hand. I put it on top of his cage. Maybe he'll "find" it later. If they're so afraid of everything, how do I put new toys in his cage? How do I change them weekly?

Perjo is easily spooked by new things, but then she'll surprise me and be fine with something you'd think should scare her to death. She is afraid of new toys at first, but loves when I put the vacuum hose near her.

What works for me is I get the new toy, leave it in sight of her for a week. Then start holding it in my hand as I approach her. Sometimes she takes to it after than, other times I need to leave it out another week.

Also with chew toys, like the cork style, I'll put it in her cage when she's on top of the cage or outside of it but can see me put it in. Then when I put her back inside she knows it's there and I'll often leave the room to come back and see her checking it out up close.

It just takes time and every new toy is a new scenario for them.

Our CAG "Reno" is like that with my wife. Doesn't matter where he is, either - when he gets amorous, nothing will put him off.

As for toys, it's weird, isn't it? We had trouble with our parrots traipsing back & forth across the top of the couch, and no regular blockage would put them off. For laughs, I put an orange toothbrush (we had tried to offer it as a toy to various birds, and none would go near it) on the back of the couch, saying to my wife "There, THAT will stop them!"...and it did. ALL of the birds treated it like it was a viper, and stayed as far away from that stupid toothbrush as they could get. It's still there, months later, and still the most effective gate we've found. Ballpoint pens, on the other hand...they all love playing with & shredding them. Go figure...

Just be patient with the new stand. I built a play stand for my CAG and it took several weeks to get her to sit on it. As far as new toys go, it helps to find toys similar to ones your parrot already accepts and enjoys. We build a lot around cardboard egg cartons, she accepts those instantly. Others are hit or miss, with the misses more often then the hits. She does show more interest in toys that I play with in front of her, so that is a good way to generate interest.