Anybody else have a Senegal Parrot?

[billiethekid40]

Hi, just wondering if anyone else has a Sennie. My parents have one and they do not have (never have had) the time for him. So we have had him for 4 years and he is not tamed at all. He will let you scratch his beak, will take food from your hand, but cannot be taken out of his cage. Lately he has become agressive towards people. i feel he is demanding more attention, and is becoming resentful of being ignored. My step father will not give him away except to a very experienced parrot owner, so I have offered to take him home with me. I have more time to offer him, and I believe he truly wants to be best buddies with someone. I'm just not home often or long enough, so my only option is to bring him with me to my apartment. (pets are allowed, and the place is quite soundproof...he isn't a noisy bird either

). So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or advice? He was a rescue bird when we got him, but I'm afraid we haven't done well by him so far

I'm determined to change that, so at the best I can keep him, and the other best case senario would be to tame him and find him a loving home.

 

[runamuk]

Several questions? Do you know how old the bird actually is? Are you certain it is male? Any idea if this was a handfed bird?

The answers will help

In the meantime.....yes with great amounts of time and patience you should be able to bring the bird around.......especially if it is an only bird......

 

[billiethekid40]

I think Merlin is 5, though I think he could be 6 at the oldest. He came from a pet store but wasn't in the store for very long. I don't know where he was before the pet store. Nothing bad happened to him in the pet store, but the noise there bothered him a lot, so my parents decided to buy him. We had birds before him, but never a parrot. He was not tame when we got him, even though he was a young bird so my guess is that he wasn't hand fed as a baby.

He is and will be an only bird. We had other birds while we had him, but never in the same part of the house. We know he is a male because he has been DNA'd. We took him to the vet to have this done shortly after he came home. The certificate is around the house somewhere.

Any helpful hints? Any bird forums to reccomend? I have found one, but it doesn't look very active.

 

[runamuk]

OK with that info.......he is turning into a teenager think 18 yr old hormone overload......

...if he wasn't handfed then he wasn't bonded to humans at a young age which makes it more difficult but still not impossible.

Spending alot of time just talking to and interacting with him is key......does he get to come out of his cage?....if so let him out to hang with you as much as possible......take up knitting birds are terribly curious creatures so use his own desire to see what you are doing to your benefit.........believe me if he can see you doing something he will eventually want to check it out...especially shiney things, or yarn...even coloring with crayons strewn about the table...doing dishes in the sink.......heck I used to have difficulty reading a book because the birds would want to hang on it or eat the pages

tip on taking out of the cage...one just open the door and let him do it on his own.......or try using a stick or perch he is familiar with to climb onto to bring him out........I prefer to clip feathers on the wings until the bird and I have come to know each other....I am sure I will be flamed but feather trimming is about as evil as a human haircut

 

[Miniv]

I'm not an expert. I've had parakeets, a couple of cocketiels and a conure (which is a small parrot.) They ALL need human interaction plus stimuli - such as toys or activity to keep them from getting bored.

Having a large enough cage with toys is a start. Then placing it in a good central position in your home AWAY FROM DRAFTS is the second thing. (Our two birds are in our kitchen - which is the most active room in the house.)

Finally, allowing your parrot some time OUTSIDE of his cage for some human interaction. Since we have both dogs and cats I close the other animals away every other day and allow each of our birds out of the cages for short times. Our cockatiel is very shy and tends to crawl around her cage mostly. My conure enjoys riding around on my shoulder and will fly back to his cage for some excersize.....and then will fly back to my shoulder again.....it's turned into a kind of game of hide-and-seek.

My conure tried to turn into a biter when he reached puberty - when he was let out of his cage, but I cut that off by wrapping him up with a hand towel and stowing him right back into his cage IMMEDIATELY with a stern "NO BITE". He learned very quickly, that if he bit me, his freedom was taken away.

Oh, and I trained both of them very quickly about getting on my hand with the help of the use of a wooden perch.

You can find some great advice on training your parrot from various Parrot Books at pet stores. I found them invaluable when I didn't have anyone else to ask.

Good luck,

MA

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

I have parrots and they can really be demanding birds. I would suggest you get a stick and teach him the up command to start with,and then just let him come to you. My McCaw didnt care for any female...well, guess who had to clean his cage and take him out--YUP, me. It didnt take long until he was coming up to me and wanting to cuddle, my Molluccan Cockatoo had always been a mans bird, until I got him, he still prefered Bob to me, but it didnt take long with him either. My Amazon is just the opposite she dont care for men and will lash out and bite any male, but is a sweetheart to women and any woman can handle her. My African gray (who now is owned by Luvmycritters) and he is also a reall LOVEBUG. IT takes time and plenty of patience with large birds, and the one thing you do have going for you is you have a quiet one...mine..well, lets just say my house can get loud at times!

Give him plenty of wood chunks to chew on too, it helps to keep there little minds occupied. When my McCaw is out of his cage, his favorite thing to do is clean out any drawers he can get into..I keep one empty one with just a few toys of his in, for him to play in..he loves tossing everything down to the ground, and then climbs down and plays "chase the dog" or "get moms feet", so usually I have to put the dogs into the bedroom when hes out. When he gets extreamly loud (and cockatoos and mccaws can get VERY loud!!) I have a very large walk in closet (the size of a small room actually, about 6 x 10') and he has to go into his cage and goes into his "room" until he can behave...sounds terrible of me to do, but it really does work..a little while in darkness, and hes fine. Have fun with your new friend.. Corinne

 

[JO~*]

I have a Senegal-- female, she must be around 20 years old and I have had her since she was about 7 years old. Mary is a very fickel little thing. She loves me but HATES everyone and everything else.

I got her a mate once and after slowley letting them get to know each other over a period of time I put them together one day and she about killed him. Needless to say I sold him and gave up the idea of the sound of baby peeps around.

Mary says a few words and has a very evil laugh.

 

[luvmycritters]

I have parrots also - though not senegals. You have been given lots of good advice so far. One thing you have going for you is that this is an only bird.

I would think twice about putting his cage in your kitchen, unless the kitchen is a large one. Only because there are some fumes that can be given off while using non - stick fry pans, that have been known to be toxic to birds.

Here is a link - and good luck! Lori

http://forums.birdhobbyist.com/forum.php?catid=35

 

[tigeresss]

There's some wonderful advice and this may of been said, I didn't read all the replies but...I don't know much about this particular kind of parrot but make sure he is getting fed properly (many pet store seeds are awful for birds) as well as has a proper cage enviroment. Also make sure he is getting the proper amount of sleep...for example lovebirds need 12 hours of dark, quiet, undisturbed sleep. If you can put natural pearches in his cage, arbutis(sp?) trees work great if you have them there. It's very unnatural to have those straight perches that are the same width straight across. Basically try to get his cage as natural as possible...also I forget the brand name but it's sort of a corn cob/pelleted type of bedding...don't use that as it is a major breeding ground for bacteria. What is easiest and works best (plus you're recycleing) is newspaper pages. Parrots should be getting out of their cage EVERYDAY for a minimum of one hour to play around. All of this may of already be happening but I know for many type of parrots (not sure if it applies to all or not) if they are not getting most or all of the above they can be kept in a suspended state of "puberty" which leads to agression problems as well as they can get quite depressed.

 

[Robin1]

I have a Sun Conure and my mother has a Sennie. She is afraid of him so if anything needs to be done I am called.

He sounds really bored. If I were you, I would take him and have his wings clipped so he can't fly and get him a gym for the top of his cage. Put toys and treats on it. They don't like being in a cage all the time. Take him out so he can sit and watch whats going on from his gym and give him treats. Each time you bring him out, hold him a little longer. Eventually when he is more trusting let him sit on your shoulder while you are on the computer. They want to be close.

There is a store in town we go to here in town that is just birds and many of them are out of their cages. My mother trys not to get too close to them, many are large parrots which make her nervous. The owners always laugh because as I walk among the birds saying hello, I inevitably end up with the birds asking to be picked up and if I don't or do for awhile and put them back against their wishes, they will jump and land on me.

When my Conure is annoyed he will try to bite. Sometimes the Sennie too. When they do, I gently take their beak between my thumb and index finger and tell them NO BITE. Sometimes it take a time or two but it seems to work.

Robin

 

[billiethekid40]

Thanks for all the advice. I know ALL about bird housing, feeding, and care. Its bird training I have no idea about. All of the training advice I have found has been geared towards younger birds, and mostly towards hand tamed birds. I have yet to find any good info on dealing with a bird that is literally becoming vicious. You say to have him out of the cage, but at THIS point, I CANNOT do this. He CANNOT be trusted and will attack a person. He needs to be handled from inside the cage first I believe, although my goal is to have him out of the cage ASAP. But I will NOT take him out until I know he won't attack me first chance that he gets, as I know then I'd be afraid of him and after that our training would go nowhere. I was hoping someone would have had a similar experience and have some advice to share on that aspect. Its a somewhat unique situation as I'm trying to gain the trust of a bird that has known me for 4 years.

His cage is large, with lots of rotated toys and natural branches, but not so many that he gets crowded. he gets fresh food daily, and not just a bird diet but fresh veggies, fruits, etc. Usually whatever is leftover on our plates he will get a taste of almost every day. He is a very healthy bird, just not a very happy bird rightnow. he seems to actually LIKE my cat though, they have been having some nice chats together between the bars. He uses such nice inviting body language towards her, and will to me too, as long as I don't get too close. I just know there is a friendly bird inside that angry package of feathers!

 

[Marion]

We had a large Conure on time. It was very friendly until it reached three years old then you could not nothing with it. We got it a buddy and it was happy, but you could not mess with it from that point on. It would still talk to you and blow kiss at you but you could not take it out anymore.

They were so loud that my husband decided they needed a new home, so we sold them to a lady that had always wanted them.

Now I just have cockatiels. They are really sweet.

 

[runamuk]

OK you are not going to make much progress trying to work in his cage......if he is attacking....he is defending his territory and to force him within his cage will make him more defensive. sorry not what you wanted to hear. You must get him out of his territory and comfort zone.......wish I were closer I'd take him and work with him in a heartbeat......I love those little ornery parrots. another thing you can try is to towel him and get him out of the cage then scritch his head and as soon as he stops struggling put him back.

You'd be surprised if he is clipped and cant fly and he comes out of the cage he probably wont just attack as he is going to be outside his safe zone........birds tend to only attack when they are in/on their cage in fact I used to carry a huge macaw (who was originally wild caught never became tame) on my shoulder....so long as I used the perch and didn't try to touch him he was fine...this bird could easily have taken off my finger and would if you tried to pet him...he had bitten several people who didn't listen when told DO NOT TOUCH OR PUT FINGERS NEAR THIS BIRD........the advantage is senegals are tiny in comparison....so easier to force handling on BUT they still have a nutcracker beak so be cautious.....try to not show any fear birds are extremely sensitive to your mood........

 

[JO~*]

I already posted on this but one thing I forgot to say is that when I got my Senegal the lady told me that the bird would like me but that would be all she would like and that she would go after anything else--dog person whatever. I don't know how the lady knew that but she was right. I have seen this bird go out of its way to go after other critters.

Could it be a Senegal thing??

 

[Miniv]

Runamuk is correct about the cage. That is HIS space and he will defend it. My conure is the same way and I respect it by not reaching in the cage and messing with him. He comes OUT to me and then I offer my arm or shoulder. "Ducky" also is a ONE PERSON bird. I am the only person he allows to handle him. He has drawn blood on other people -- even people he's known since he was a baby.

Using the towl may be the way to go initially. I also think you should check out some books about training. And if there is a chat forum for parrot owners, you could ask on that for suggestions.

MA

 

[runamuk]

I already posted on this but one thing I forgot to say is that when I got my Senegal the lady told me that the bird would like me but that would be all she would like and that she would go after anything else--dog person whatever. I don't know how the lady knew that but she was right. I have seen this bird go out of its way to go after other critters. Could it be a Senegal thing??

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nope not just a senegal thing it is a bird thing...birds often mate for life...get married as it were.....and in a household often a particular human becomes the mate and the birds will try to defend their mate from others......birds also commonly only like either men or women but not both......I do not know why but saw it often enough to consider it normal

 

[JO~*]

This is a picture of Mary.