Okay, so I've had my Parakeet for 5 months now, and he doesn't want to touch me. He'll eat millet I'm holding as long as I'm holding it out to him. I've put my hand in his cage almost every day and tried getting him to step up, but he almost never lets me touch him. Granted, there have been times where I didn't put my hand in his cage for a couple weeks. Also, a couple months ago, my mother was worried about his nails getting too long and tried speeding up the "bonding process" by chasing him around the cage with her hand. Before she did this, he was starting to warm up to me a little bit, but after he was back to the way he was when we got him. I'm fairly sure this made him more uncomfortable around me. But we got him a special perch that trims his nails and he loves it.
There was a time when I had food in my hand and he was trying everything he could to get the food, but not touch my hand. He would climb on the cage around my hand and right in front of my face, around my hand, and leaned as far as he could, but he still was not able to get the food. The other day, I was holding is food bowl and he was standing on the edge of the bowl. I moved up from under him and he let me touch his foot and stomach. Although he did fly away and come back a couple times when I touched him too much.
I'm wondering if there is anything I'm doing wrong or if there is anything I can do to increase our bond and get him to trust me. I'll try anything but taking him out of his cage. Also, I was planning on getting another parakeet soon. Is this a good idea? Or should I wait until Quinn (my bird) can step up? Could really use the help Thanks.