If a chick were to ‘bond’ while being reared by humans then wouldn’t it be mean to remove that chick from it’s home & the person because it’s bonded to that person? Wouldn’t you have many behaviours to start with if your chick was ‘bonded’ because you’ve just taken it away? Chicks don’t bond, adult birds bond to other adult birds of their own species & opposite sex. Chicks will grow into adults & form friendships in varying degrees with their humans.
Many people ask for a chick to hand rear themselves just so the bird bonds to them. Many people are also opting for a hand reared weaned chick for the same reason, rather than a parent reared bird. A parent reared chick is not an untamable bird, nor is it an unsocial bird. Receiving a hand reared chick does not guarantee you have a friendly bird to bring home.
Birds can take months to years to form real friendships to humans in their house, even for hand reared birds. This is the time it needs to get to know you & your household, get used to the new environment it has now been put into & learn to trust the new humans in it's life. A hand reared bird is not already bonded as a chick just because people have fed & socialized it. It is simply just used to human contact. This can make things easier for the human buyer but in some cases it has made no difference.
Some hand reared birds do not take well to being removed out of the home they’re grown as chicks to get used & shoved into a completely strange, new environment with humans & animals it has never seen before so don’t expect it to be nice or friendly. Most new comers are usually shy, quiet & prefer to hide in one little corner of the cage for the first month or so. They just need time to settle & get used to things.
Some hand reared parrots are very friendly & loving from the day one in their new home for about a week or so, then things can change & they start to attack their new owners & become aggressive. Owners of these sort of parrots often make the mistake of presuming they’ve settled in instantly & don’t give them the time they need to themselves. We become excited about them being home & so friendly that we over do it with cuddles, being taken out of the cage & made to socialize with everyone 24/7. It can become overwhelming for the new bird & they start to become aggressive. Even if the bird appears inviting & friendly towards you from the first day, you still need to give it some space to adjust accordingly to avoid confrontations a week or two down the track. Many people in this situation complain that they asked for a hand reared chick & the chick is not hand reared because it’s aggressive. It’ can be common for a hand reared chick to display these sorts of behaviours. Aggression in a new environment is the only way some birds know how to react to such a big change, it is frightened.
Parent reared chicks do have an advantage to hand reared. They’re more likely to be a lot healthier than a hand reared chick. Some parent reared chicks only take a little longer to become accustomed to humans. All hand reared & parent reared chicks are fearful of new surroundings. All hand reared & parent reared chicks are still young & have not yet learned anything from life. The imprint of humans in parent reared chicks takes time & the imprint of new strangers in hand reared chicks also takes time. Chicks do not bond to ‘humans’ because they’re hand reared. They come to know humans & only form a friendship with their humans after they’ve moved into their new home & after several months.
Give yourself a head start by reading up on the species parrot thoroughly before bringing it home. Don’t expect miracles from the bird & don’t think that just because it’s hand reared it’ll be a nicer or easier bird to handle, some are not. Don’t rule out a parent reared bird. There is no such thing as hand rearing for ‘bonding purposes’. I have a parent reared cockatiel in my home who is quite sociable & talkative. He loves human contact, only tolerates my other birds & had turned out to be a typical ‘pet’ cockatiel all within the first couple of months of bringing him home.