My wife and I recently picked up a ~15 year old african grey 2 weeks ago. He was basically living with a hoarder in a not very good environment and fed chicken wings and an all seed diet. His owners smoked a lot, and although I took his cage with him for familiarity reasons, it smells and looks like shit. Over the course of the two weeks he has let me give him head tickles, picked up some new words and I can hand feed him. He will NOT get on my hand but does sit on top of his cage regularly.

So I bought a new cage. I put the new cage next to the old one for 2 days. Put some treats in it, on top with the perch, put toys in there etc. He wants nothing to do with it.

Last night I put him in the new cage (towel grabbed). He immediately started plucking. Once he was secured on a perch I turned off the lights and went to bed. Usually at 630am he's very noisy but was dead silent this morning. Still plucking. So I put him back in his old cage and he immediately was chatty again. He won't let me give him tickles at the moment and didn't eat a thing while he was in the new cage.

Any advice on how to make the transition?