one ornery bird...

[sillybirdArthor]

My finance and I just received one of her mothers parrotlets. He was hand raised and is two years old already and has already had a mate that has died. after that he sat alone in a closed up room for the better portion of a year. i take him out as much as i can during the day, but every time i go to the cage he scoots away and when i go to take him out i have to lift up the food bowl he is hiding under and grab him; then he usual trys to fly back to the cage. once he is out he won't stay in my hand very long before trying to fly away, however he will usually sit on my shoulder without flying away much( he usually likes to stand right behind my head where i cant see him) but if i try to pet him on my shoulder he will fly away. When he fly's down to the ground (because his wings are clipped) he will hop away from me when i go to pick him up but when i catch up to him and put my hand in front of him he usualy climbs up on it and trys to get back to my shoulder. I've taken the mirrors out of his cage and try to get him to eat from my hand as much as possible(which is maybe a chereo or two a day) i also try to move his toys around in his cage every few days or so(i need to go buy him some new toys though). when he is in his cage he just sits and dosn't do much of anything sometimes he just sits all puffed up on his cage floor, iv'e never seen him play with his toys. his cage is about 2.5 feet tall, and about 20 inches in width and length. he is in his cage with a blanket over it around 10pm and the blanket is removed around 11 am -ish. he also won't eat anything other than seed and i try to treat him with chereo's. i put a new piece of lettuce in his cage every day and today i also put a piece of broccoli in there as well but he wont touch either one. does anyone have any good advice as to what to do with him / do you think he will ever be tame again? he dosn't seem to be showing any improvement over the past week...

[atalantae]

It will take your little one longer than a week to become tame again.
Patience and persistance will work. Take your time. Talk to him.

He is most likely sad because he lost his mate. They are like humans and do miss their loved ones too. He is in mourning.

Give him time he will come around. Just keep spending as much time as you can with him.