When I purchased him he would not let you go inside the cage at all and would bite every time. fast forward 3-4 weeks I can now enter his cage bare hands and go about my business cleaning and changing water/food ect BUT when it comes to stepping up I use a sock as he would always without a doubt bite the bare hand, he's happy with the sock steps up without a fuss and let's me use my other hand to scratch him (with the odd bite) which works just fine for us atm plus he now goes from sock to shoulder and back again... I have a friend who breeds birds and cares for rescue birds, he's telling me never to use the sock as birds are scared of covered hands? it seems as if everything I'm doing is wrong and he can show me tips/tricks to do things

My question is, is using a sock for now really such a bad idea? he doesn't seem scared of it and it's only until I can get him to step up on my bare hand then I will remove it... TIA