Nipping vs Biting-Progress and 1 step back

[Snowghost]

Paco and I are making progress, well at least I think we are. He gets out of cage all day, we have been working on "going bye, bye, get in your cage" I tap his perch with almond in hand and he has been swinging in and sitting on perch. Lots of praise.

Yesterday I actually got a little scratch on his head. I think we were both nervous. Lots of smiles here.

I try to be around him as much as possible, moving slow, talking to him. I clean his cage often, the bottom tray slides out. He is not used to this and I talk to him in a soothing voice. His cage was filthy when I got him and had 4 inches of torn up paper at the bottom. Sometimes he reaches for the top of my head and gets a few hairs, I don't panic.

Today I was next to his cage wiping down a shelf and he is on the roof of his cage and he reached down and got the back of my shirt, a little of my shoulder (ouch) I"m not sure if he is nipping to figure me out, he's still scared, or he will bite me if he get's closer.

I tell him no, ack ack, (not sure how to spell it) It seems to work. I've googled til I'm blue in the face and tried searching forms here.

What else can I do to make him comfortable and feel safe with me?

 

[BertAllen]

Keep doing what your doing and eventually he will stop. Tinker gives me a nasty nip now and then but it's not the blood letting he was doing.He lets me touch his talons now where before it would have invited a bite.
Time and patience is all I can advise.

 

[Snowghost]

Well, I kind of blew in his face too so he wouldn't lunge at me. Just when I think we are making progress he turns into a little S*&^&.

 

[BertAllen]

Yep Tinker flew over to me sitting watching TV and nipped me hard on the right forearm. Teresa was shocked because I had just finished feeding him some walnuts and playing with him 10 minutes before. But again no blood, just two red marks.

I just try to ignore him when he does this.

 

[Snowghost]

I don't think ignoring it will work with him. We are still getting to know each other.

 

[Lynn L.]

Well, I kind of blew in his face too so he wouldn't lunge at me. Just when I think we are making progress he turns into a little S*&^&.

So good to know someone else is experiencing this. We make a lot of progress, he'll let me clean the cage without swinging at me (more and more), let me hide food treats in his cage, take a nut from my hand and then next nut, WHAMMO! He knocks it out of my hand or bites me. I tried not reacting but lately I've been letting him know it hurts. Not yelling but acting hurt and stepping back. For whatever reason, this seems to be helping.

 

[Snowghost]

Thanks Lynn, I started a new thread. We seemed to be making progress but today he went to bite me again. I don't honestly know what to do at this point. I provided details on other thread.