New mommy to Umbrella Cockatoo

[hotrodcaddy3]

Hi everyone I am a new mom to a 9 year old Umbrella Cockatoo named Max. He is a sweet bird and seems to love me. I don't know a whole lot about his past except that he was rescued by some friends of ours 7 years ago approx. and they had him for about 2. They then sold him to another friend of ours who had him for the past 5 and she was unable to keep him any longer becuase Max didn't like her husband and would SCREAM every time he say him. Now max is with us and we want to give him a forever home. He has been home with us for about 2 months now and seems to have taken to me well. He has only bit 1 person with the intent to be a mean 1 time to our knowledge in the past 7 years. He has attempted to humped 2 peoples headed and that did leave some damage but the only time he actually bit someone was when the previous owner came to visit him in our home about a week after we took him. He bit her finger and she required a stitch. I am comfortable with him to the point of letting him out and petting him. I get nervous holding him a lot becuase I don't know how to read his body language. He loves to petting and will tell you to "Come here...Give me a pet"...He talks A LOT and seems to actually be very smart. He will answer your questions and just seems to love everyone. I won't let my 5 children hold him (they are too young all under the age of 7), but have allowed them to hand feed him some snacks. When we got him we were told to feed him everything we eat except certain fruit, coffee and Chocolate. We have him on a Pellet diet and give him an occasional nut. He won't step up upon request with me yet. He was trained to only go into his cage for a bite of ice cream and I would love to change that and just get him to do it on his own without having to be bribed. OK so basically I don't know anything much about these birds except he is very smart and can scream quite loud when he wants somethings. I am looking for information on how to read his body language, training and how to just overall make sure we can trust each other. Thank you