taming a scared orange winged amazon parrot

Question
Hi Maggie, our names are Jenny and Nick, we own a pet shop in manchester and have recently aquired an orange winged amazon parrot, he is six years old and by the looks of it hasn't been interacted with much, his previous owners had him for two years but were very wary of him and never attempted training or interacting with him (part of the reason we took him!), we think he is more nervous with men as he trembles more with them than with females and responds less. He takes food from our hands, will come to us on his cage to receive treats and 'dances' with us but if we initiate any form of contact from about two foot away or closer he goes for us while backing away and squeaking, he is out of his cage free to roam the shop all day which at present he isn't taking advantage of! we are constantly hand feeding him and talking softly to him, giving him grapes if we get a really good response, if we ignore him and talk to another animal he shrieks or looks like he wants to fly onto us. we would like to know if we are going the right way about gaining his trust and if there's anything we can do to acheive a better response from touching him and what actions we should be looking for that is him telling us that he trusts us more. what are the first steps to trying to stroke him? any feedback you have would be very much appreciated!  

Answer
Hi,

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back to you, (I'm in the process of moving).

Here are some articles that should help you work with this amazon. But the most important thing to understand is that touching/petting him is going to take a lot more trust. If he isn't tame (and very scared of people), you should work with getting him to step up onto your hand first probably. Sometimes even very scared birds will allow you to pet their head through the cage bars, and if he volunteers this, then that is great! But otherwise, touching and petting should be reserved for a later time in most cases.

http://www.quakerparrots.com/qtips/winning_trust_of_abused_bird.htm

http://www.quakerparrots.com/qtips/bonding__overbonding.htm

http://www.parrothouse.com/pamelaclark/secondhand.html

http://www.parrothouse.com/jdoss.html (has some great amazon articles on her page!)

I hope this helps.

-Maggie