New baby green cheek odd behaviour

Hello! New to the forum, nice to meet you all!
Hubby and I have 2 parrotlets and recently got a green cheek conure! (No name or DNA results yet). We were wondering about some behaviour and can't seem to find a straight answer. GCC is very well behaved, 3 months old. We notice when we have him out, weather hes on his cage or us, he will lay down flat on his belly when we try to get him to step on our finger to put him back. He just plops down, and sometimes lightly bites onto the sweater or blanket hes laying on. We assume hes just too smart and avoiding being put back but wanted to check! Thank you!!

That does sound like a bit of a delay tactic for going back into the cage. I have a GCC that recently came from a rescue and doesn’t know how to step up that does this type of behavior. With my other conures, they always get a little piece of apple when they go into their cages (to make a positive association) and now I just say “apple time” and they head in. You might try a special treat that he doesn’t get any other time of the day. You could also try making going “in” to the cage less permanent. Just randomly place inside the cage and leave the door open, then take him back out. To remove the thought that they ONLY thing that happens when you go in, is that the door gets closed and you leave him. I would also check to see if there’s any areas of his cage that he seems to shy away from when he is in it. There could be something that he doesn’t like or finds uncomfortable that might be making him hesitate to go back in? Just my random ideas, I’m sure that others will have some thoughts too