A quick update and wondering if anyone has any ideas...
I've had Hydrogen since mid December (10th, I think) and we seem to have reached a bit of a plateau in terms of taming, so I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on next steps?
Things initially progressed really quickly and he's perfectly happy taking food from my hands, will climb onto my hand inside his cage to hoover up sunflower seeds, is ok with being stroked while he eats (if he's in the mood).
But he's still very easily startled and prone to... well, for want of a better word, "pinging" out of my hands, so he's definitely ot handleable. I've also noticed that he almost seems to vibrate whenever he walks onto my hand and only stops when he climbs off again... which I would assume is a nervous thing?
While he's happy to climb onto my hand when it suits him he's still, as I mentioned, very easily startled. We had to start over with taming in early January when something seriously spooked him while he was having out of cage time and it was impossible to get him back in the cage without having to trap him, which obviously was unpleasant for all involved. I don't think he's still reacting to that now; he's much more comfortable with me now than he was before that little debacle, so although it did set us back, he's definitely ahead of where he was before it happened.
I've also noticed that when he's in his "playpen" he mostly avoids my hands and doesn't generally like being stroked either, so while I'm obviously still doing it for enrichment, it's not particularly helping with taming.
I'm happy to accept that he might not be the kind of ham that likes being picked up and cuddled, but i do feel like it's kind of important that he can be handled in an emergency.
I know bathtub bonding is often recommended, but it's currently not an option... mostly due to a lack of bath :P
If anyone has any thoughts, they would be gratefully received, otherwise I shall just continue to be patient and try to figure it out
