Bringing Home Baby!

Hi everyone! I am bringing home my GCC Friday!!! I am so excited! I have read many threads on this forum about people who are overly excited and push their birds to socialize with them the second they get them home and then get bit.

My bird (nameless, still..) was hand fed, interacted with by the owners and customers, and is taken home from the store nightly.. he stepped up on my finger and made his way up my arm, pulling my arm hairs and playing with my clothes.. no biting or nipping. I got the feeling he was content on me. (I fell in love, needless to say.) I know that relocating to his new home will be scary for him and he may not be so friendly at first because of the drastic changes.

Should I place him in his cage and sit by him, talking and feeding him treats with the cage door open and let him come to me? Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Congrats on your new baby!

Having just gone through this exact scenario myself, I will say, keep an open mind as best you can. Our bird did *exactly* what you described when we picked her up. She sat on my should the whole way home (3 hour drive), nibbled on my ear occasionally, and flew right back to me the second my wife took her away.

Now, a week later, she's a totally different bird. We are following all of the "rules" (don't force her to interact, talk to her, etc), but her actual personality is showing bigtime. She's NOT the bird we brought home in the car who wouldn't leave my shoulder. Not by a long shot.

The biggest lesson I've learned so far, in my week of ownership, is to just be the best you can be, but realize that your bird is going to be who it wants to be regardless of what you do, and don't get too bent out of shape if things don't go as magically as that first day.

Good luck!

When they go into a new environment they can change like that! But the way I told the folks who got a baby from me is don't expect them to act like that when you bring them home. Certain babies still acts good but some acted out just like the one above. I told them to start playing and have them sit with them to get adjusted. I told them this before they leave and they usually will text, email or call me the next day when this problem arises. In every case I have helped them to overcome it in two days. You must be stern and don't back down or they will try to run you over if your afraid of them. I will always work with any bird from day one but that's just me as I've been raising and training for over 17 years. It have not fail me so far to train from day one. Good luck in what you choose to do.

I think it should entirely depend on the birds! If they are comfortable coming out the first day, then allow them out! If they aren't, that's ok! Give them time to settle in!

When Charlie came home with me, all he wanted to do was cling to me! He wanted nothing to do with me while in his foster home, but once in my home, I was the only familiar thing in the scary new place! And that was after an ~4 hr road trip!

Jayde on the other hand didn't want physical attention, but she so badly wanted attention! It was like she was trying to demand attention while at the same time being afraid of it. I think it was two weeks before she felt comfortable enough to leave her cage! She wasn't stepping up at this point, at least not to my hand, but she was climbing to my shoulder. She had a fear of being on hands, so I had to work with her to help her overcome that fear. She was fine getting scritches on her head, but getting a scritch on her head is by far not the same thing as stepping onto a hand!