# Willow - three weeks in



## Soapy (Jan 13, 2019)

Hello, I just want to say it's really useful reading everyone's experiences of taming and bonding with their birds. 

Willow has been with us for three weeks now, he was 10 weeks old when we got him, he was parent-reared so not really used to people, hands etc. I've been working with him to build up trust, and he's been taking seeds from me, both through the bars, and with my hand in the cage, and even from the palm of my open hand, so I'm pleased with that progress in the time we've had him. 

However, he doesn't seem keen on taking it any further. Basically, if I'm not holding food, he doesn't want to know, he either backs away or hisses, or if I'm too close will reach to try and bite. More of a warning than an actual bite attempt, but obviously not happy with the idea. 

Obviously I don't want to distress him, but I also don't want to "reward" the bite attempt / hissing etc, by giving him what he wants (ie, by taking my hand away). So I'm backing off a little, and just sitting with my hand in the cage. 

I guess I was just looking for a bit of reassurance that I'm going the right way about it, but actually now that I've typed it all out, it looks like we're actually making decent progress. I was getting a bit demoralised that he's not more receptive, but it's still early days. I'm just impatient for tickles!


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