It is so hard!

[sprout]

It is so hard to not just pick Papaya up. I know I am doing the right thing by letting him settle in and come to me first but I am going crazy not grabbing him and up and petting him.
I know it could take quite a while for him to trust me. I actually relish when he flies off the cage so I can ask him to step up and sneak in a couple of scritches on the way back to the cage.
Actually he's doing pretty good- just me that is impatient. He will come over to me on the top of his cage if I stand there and give me a kiss if I ask him and he is even reaching over to put one foot on my shoulder.

 

[DebsFlock]

You are definitely better off not forcing anything, because you could wind up taking 10 steps back. OTOH, if he is willing to step up on you, I don't see anything wrong with asking him to, just ASK don't MAKE. We handled Scooter from day one -- he was plenty happy and confident and didn't really need to be left alone to settle in. Scotty needed a bit more time. It just depends on the bird, I think.

Hey, I see you are in Tarpon Springs. I grew up in Clearwater. Small world.