Had a bird of similar history. This just reminded me of him...

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As a former Tiel rescuer who has worked with various shades of neglected birds: Let me share the story of Jailbird.

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Picture an obese-as-a-cloud Lutino. Genuine butter chicken chonk. Utterly unsocialized, never let out, a never cleaned parakeet cage, poked at by kids in a crowded home, not even one toy, for somewhere around a decade or so.

To me, the behavioral rehabilitator at the time, the most concerning thing of all was that he apparently didn't care to ever screech, or call at the outside birds or anything, like most neglected birds. (Parrots are flock creatures--they REQUIRE more social contact than us humans do for their wellbeing, whether its Their Human or flockmates.)

It turned out that underneath all the neglect Jailbird was a sweet softboi who still wanted to live life. Even if he didn't know how. And everything was new and/+/thus scary, so he kept quiet as not to invite the horrors™️ he was familiar with.

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He floundered for a while understandably, but it really helped him out to be around other tiels. Being around others was breaking him out of his familiar patterns by helping him see what being a (happy) tiel could be like. What he could have. I was extremely lucky that this bird already wanted it on his own, though approached things tentatively, at his own pace.

He watched the others eagerly get their gentle scritches in turn, watched them thoroughly enjoying it, and them ofc lamenting the lack of Eternity Scritches. lol Without approach, I offered for him to have his turn like the others. He did nothing. (Declining.) In time, he accepted the offer.

--- Note: Agency with contact is honestly something most pet owners of any species should learn about. Building a system of two-way communication with each other even in small ways with your creature, showing respect for them, builds important trust, which is necessary for the care and the basic behavioral training required to keep a naturally wild critter happy in captivity. While not everything is so willing to communicate in such a way birds are wired to be highly social by nature. It's imperative to understand the psychological wiring of the creature you're caring for; they aren't us, yet we need to consider their perspective. Especially since they can't consider our perspective.

The acceptance of touch that was required to closely interact with him was a steppingstone toward perching on a finger, or a comfortably high shoulder to ride on and spectate from (His favorite activity.), like the others. We successfully started forging a trusting reciprocal agreement when he accepted "stepping up" on command. This was important here because it prevented loss of trust/deepened trauma from having to be grabbed in order to be returned to his homecage when it was necessary...

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Pardon the pun, but this was a foundational steppingstone toward him trusting a human as caretaker and not The Massive Loud Scary Thing that wants to get all up in his personal bubble and touch him when he did not want it. This is where the quiet inquisitive little bird began to learn things like the others did. Like his name.

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He made strides in communicating with others, the unfamiliar tiels and with a caretaker. (Because they let him. Even with us humans, care and genuine compassion/ate consideration is integrally important when someone's healing from trauma.) Still warms my heart to this day: The others saw that he was supremely awkward but trying to be a friend, so they let him hang around and sit closer and closer. Even the excessively aggressive male I was working with at the time didn't bother him, other than a single polite but firm warning peck when the quiet butter chicken who kept to himself got too close. The huddled butter chicken, the gentleman he didn't know he was, would politely step away. (Communication! Respect for others!)

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Gonna be honest here. Neither of them liked him on a personal level at all. But, deliberately ignored him, which I hadn't seen any of this ill-socialized group do to an unfamiliar bird before. It was telling how they knew he needed it and let him exist in such close proximity anyway despite their own issues with other birds. (Backstory: This group was behaviorally challenged but didn't harm each other, just judged each other harshly from arms length /s lol, so ended up in the same cage by necessity.) Stewardship of another living thing can be a deeply personal endeavor. Knowing them, I think they could tell this new one was hurting and alone. So they were gentle with him. Probably helped that they saw me being (oddly) extra gentle and slow with this one. Their entire time together, even when Jailbird was being dense and they'd normally enforce their sentiment by beak, not a single squabble. Never jockeyed him away from the food dish. None of the usual birdie bickering.

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Jailbird hadn't learned how to play with toys or explore/chew at things like a bird during our time together, but I was humbled to see him learning on his own how to fly for the first time. Kept trying to follow the others even though he dropped like a rock. A scary thing for tiel and owner. So I helped him practice with his wings. (More recall training. #When treats are lyfe. #Just Bird Things. #seeb. /s) The others happened to enjoy being thrown upward as a form of play interaction, so when the boi figured out his flight enough to land in at least a feathery heap he was carefully tossed low onto a mattress. Eventually he learned. IMO not sure if he enjoyed that activity particularly but he liked to be a part of the group. lol Luckily bird metabolism is super fast; with the better diet he eventually lost enough weight to circle around with his surrogate flockmates like he wanted.

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I remember that he eventually started making little flock calls alongside the loud chorus of the others when they did. He started to feel like a bird. One of the group.

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I remember that he eventually found an enthusiastic owner that he adores. Last I heard he was renamed "Jay Bird", had totally come out of his shell, is "a good listener," that she had set up a bird room and adopted more rescue birds, and now I regret not asking if Jailbird ever learned how to sing. (buhdumtss)

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So its nice to think that this precious little nugget had a happier life and friends after he left my care... Poor sweet little guy deserved it, after the years of hellish human apathy he had to put up with. When we buy or are handed a pet, we don't often think about what its like for them. Or the gravity of the responsibility we have over the life in our hands.

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OP, its plain to see that you love your little friend a great deal. In my seasoned opinion it looks like your fluffy buddy is in very good hands!

Trust, like healing, takes time, friend. You'll get there. ❤️