help

Hello Everyone!
I am a new senegal owner,we brought home our new and first bird 2 weeks ago.We think its a he as there were two..and he was the biggest.He is about 15weeks old.
He is very cute and funny,however he is not trained at all! and he bites all the time! I have been reading reading reading on line trying to educate myself.But there are so many points of view it is confusing. Almost all the articles i have read say trust is the biggest issue...but my breeder says you have to teach him who the boss is and make him come out of his cage,her suggestion was to grab him and hold him close and just sit with him.Ha...I tried that and of course he was scared and bit me HARD! drew blood.
First of all tell me people how do you not react? Now I am kinda scared he will bite...so when he lunges I auto pull back.
Stepping up is out of the question right now!!! We have worked with him everyday bribbing him with mullet,now he will come down to the open door of his cage and will eat from the palm of your hand.If I slowly try to touch him he runs away.
Please help....we read about all these people that have these nice friendly birds and we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks

If you have the nominate species (yellow belly), the male senegal's head is more square looking than a female's and they also have a thicker and stronger neck but that's hard to judge unless you have a male and a female sitting side by side. The easy way of visually sexing them has to do with the green V on their chest and their tail undercoverts (the medium size feathers which come out of their belly and cover the base of the tail). If the V is deep and reaches all the way down to the lower belly and the undercoverts have even the smallest speck of green on them, it's a female. If the V is short reaching down only to the middle of the chest and the undercoverts are all yellow, it's a male. I don't know if this method of sexing works with the other two subspecies (orange and red bellied) but I have an orange/yellow belly mix and she conforms to it same as the yellow bellies.

I really don't know why the breeder told you that you need to show the bird who is boss. There are no bosses, leaders or any other type of alpha role in birds flocks so this 'boss' thing is just something that people made up and which means nothing to birds. Male Senegals are nippy birds even when young and male Senegals over a certain age (when they reach sexual frustration) are holy terrors. It's as simple as that. It's the way they are. Some species are mild and docile and some are nippy. In most species, the male tends to be the more aggressive but there are species where the female is (eclectus, quakers, lovebirds, etc). In Senegals, it's most definitely the male although they always defer to the female (they bite the heck out of a huge human but turn tail and run when confronted with an angry female ). Now, having said that, this doesn't meant that he cannot bond with you and be a great companion. It just means that you will have to work harder at it.

I also have no idea why the breeder told you to hold the bird in your hand by force, this will do nothing but upset him and you don't want to upset a Senegal. So, if I were you, I would forget about that and pronto! My advice to you is to take it real slow and allow him to set the pace and determine the relationship you two will have. Allow him time out of his cage as much as possible (Senegals don't do well been cooped up for hours and hours,makes them aggressive), allow him to fly every day (they are EXCELLENT fliers!), talk/sing/whistle/dance for him, offer him treats, play with him, etc. Don't push him to do something he doesn't want to do, if he wants to come to you, he will on his own. Senegals like to walk on the floor and follow you around so be careful where you step (they also like to bite your feet so be careful about that, too).

When it comes to all psittacines (parrots and parrot-like birds) trust is the most important thing but this trust needs to be earned and it takes patience, persistence and consistency. Establish routines and follow them every day, knowing what is going to happen and when gives them a sense of security and control. Feed him breakfast (a dish of cooked whole grains, rice, legumes and veggies with a piece of raw veggie, fruit and a leafy green) early in the morning as soon as the sun comes up (they are great eaters!), give him a nice big bowl of water so he can take a bath (they love to bathe and do a very good job at it on their own -they don't like getting sprayed), give him natural branches to perch (make sure they are not poisonous, leave the bark on and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes at 450 degrees to kill parasites, mold, fungus, etc). They usually like to rest and nap from noon to around 2 pm so don't bother him then. Feed him dinner (a mix of seed and pellets) when the sun starts to go down (this time of the year is about 6:30 pm) and, most importantly, he needs to follow a strict natural daylight schedule with full exposure to both dawn and dusk so once the sun is down, he should be asleep in complete darkness and very little noise. This is absolutely necessary for the long run because, if you keep him up when it's dark outside, his body will think it's spring and will produce breeding hormones all year round. This is bad for all birds but most particularly for species that are known to be nippy. Male aggression is a secondary sexual characteristic in parrots and you don't want a hormonal male Senegal all year round. Trust me on this!

My male Senegal is a total character and one of the best talkers in the birdroom. He doesn't only have a hugely large vocabulary, he speaks in sentences and knows exactly what he is saying. For example, when he kisses Tobita, his mate, he says: "Pretty bird! What a pretty bird you are! No kiss for mommy?" (OK, granted, he calls himself 'mommy' but you know what I mean). If I am offering a piece of fruit to another bird and he is not taking it, he goes: "Eat it! Eat it! It's good!" If he gets mad at me (something that happens quite often because Tobita loves me and he hates me for it), he tells me: "Good night! Bye bye! See you!" That's his way of throwing me out of the birdroom . We don't really interact physically because although he's been with me for a year and half, he had been kept in a cage for more than ten years and had turned extremely aggressive but we play word games all the time. For example, he would say: "What's your name?" to which I would respond "Mary Jane", then he would say: "Where you live?" and I respond "Down the drain" (this is something my daughter learned in school when she was a child and it got stuck in my head). And, if I don't answer him the first time, he flies over and standing right in front of my face (there are branches all over the birdroom) would practically scream the question over and over and over until I do. He is also a great dancer, shrugging his shoulders and holding his wings curved and away from his body, he goes round and round and round while talking up a storm. So, take it easy with him, don't push him, be patient and kind and loving and he will come around.

Thank you sooo much for all of your great advice! I thought it not right to force the bird to do what he didn't want to. I have noticed that he has made small steps each day to be more trusting. As far as the diet...here's what I have been doing, fresh pellets in the morning and all day,about a cup of mixed veggies...cauliflower,brocolli,especially loves carrots,spinich,little bits of fresh fruit. At supper time nuts and seeds,and more pellets.You sure were right about being a good eater!!!Is it better to cook the veggies?
How often should they have rice and beans?
The type of bird I have is a yellow and orange mix,the v is quite low.
Any advise on how to not react when the threat of a bite is there?
Again thanks for all your time you spent on us!

I think you have a girl and not a boy.

As to veggies, my birds get both cooked and raw every day. They get cooked corn, peas, carrots, green and wax beans, pigeon peas and broccoli in their gloop and a different raw veggie, fruit and leafy green every day. The larger the variety, the healthier the diet.

Reaction versus no reaction to their bites... I never did understand why people say you should not react. It makes no sense to me. Parrots are not cruel, quite the contrary, they are very loving, and they never bite us because they get some sort of sick pleasure from hurting us so why would it make any difference not to react to it? I react. As a matter of fact, I make it a point to over-react. When one of them bites me (always the male Senegal, Sabu), I make a loud noise of pain and say in a very firm and loud tone of voice: 'Bad bird. Bad, bad bird. No biting'. And every single bird freezes and turns to look at me in complete silence. They know it's bad to do this and I want them to know it is. And I know they know because two of them (Cowboy, a female senegal and Sophie, a female grey) fly over to my shoulder to kiss me and console. It works for me and it has been working for years and years (I get a lot of aggressive birds -it's the number one reason why they give them up).

What you need to do is to learn their body language so you can avoid bothering the bird to the point that she feels she needs to bite you. Sennies are actually pretty good at it because they just fly away if they don't want to do something you want them to do (not that I ever really ask) but they can be pretty insistent about doing something they want to do and which you don't want them to and get mad at you if you don't let them (like following you around the room and playing with your feet) so recognizing the signs is good. Whenever they start getting testy you will see they kind of freeze and stare at you while pinning their eyes. They also roll their heads and believe me when I tell you you will recognize this with no problem because it's a very exaggerated movement. I sometimes wonder how is it that they don't 'unscrew' their head off their bodies they roll them so hard

The other thing is that there are bites and there are bites. There is the aggressive bite when they bite real hard and hang on to your flesh like a little bulldog. And then there is the lovebite which doesn't feel like any kind of love to us because it still hurts like the dickens but which are not really supposed to. Parrots bite their mates and family members (a flock is like a large extended family to them) to warn them of danger or to warn them to stop doing something they shouldn't (like a wife elbowing her husband in the ribs when he is looking at another woman ). These bites are not meant to hurt and would not if they were aimed at another bird but we don't have the reflexes to move out of their way fast enough and we also don't have a thick coat of plumage to protect us. So they nail us very easily and they reach our skin which hurts. Not their fault but ours for being such inadequate 'birds'. These bites hurt us and although they don't mean to do that and we should never punish them for them, we should still teach them not to do it too hard. They are very smart and they learn to do it softer. Cowboy does it all the time because although she doesn't mind my kissing other birds, she doesn't want me to pay a lot of attention to Tobita so she would fly to my shoulder and nip my cheek to warm me. She doesn't do it hard and I never say anything to her but she still flies away as soon as she does it because she knows I don't like it.

So, observe her and learn what she likes and what she doesn't like and how she looks and acts right before she bites so you can avoid it and you will be OK.

I think your right,now that we have named the bird "willy" I think she is a girl!
Anyway I can only thank you so much for all your great information,you sound very educated on this subject. Do you run a rescue?
I am hoping I have not bitten off more than I can chew. My husband,son and I have all been talking to the bird everyday and we all feed (her) treats thru out the day. What are your thoughts about millet?
We have other animals in the house so its not safe to leave the cage open all the time. However we do put the other animals away at least twice a day and leave the cage open,she has come out on her own 2 times.She likes to sit on the play top.
Again thank you for your time spent on educating me!

Well, pretend you always meant her name to be Wilhemina and call her Willie for short. All you need to do is change the spelling and voila! a feminine name! And a fancy one at that! I do that all the time because, for some particular reason, most people assume their birds to be male.

And yes, I run a small, private rescue called Bea and Birds in the Poconos in Pa. I've had birds my entire life and got my love of them from my grandmother who not only kept song birds at home but would also buy quaker babies in the flea market every summer to handraise and release once they were grown (people kill them because they are an agricultural pest -my very first bird was Pelusa, means something like fuzz or lint in Spanish, a female quaker I handraised under her supervision when I was around ten -I was born and raised in one of the five South American countries where quakers come from). I also used to breed canaries for years (I don't any longer, too hard to find good homes for them but I still keep a number of Spanish Timbrados) and, through the years, have studied and done a lot of research on birds. I have my own website where I give advice to bird owners, give chats to school children and used to conduct workshops at a NYC bird club when I lived closer to it. But most of my knowledge comes from observation. If you spend enough time just looking at them and trying to guess why they do certain things, you eventually get to understand them a bit.

Wow thats very cool! I will have a look at your web site.I have now figured out how to put a picture on here and wondered if you could tell for sure... male or female?
We live in a small lakeside town called Sorrento BC Canada. We have always had dogs and cats, we have a pond that has goldfish. And now we have the senegal. I have not only found your information interesting,but also much needed.Believe it or not I have read a ton online.Alot of web sites suggest many different points of view and I was uncomfortable with some and not sure which way to go with others.Thank you again.

Check your pms (personal mail). I sent you one.

Hi Beatriz,
I am sorry I haven't replied,I have been very busy latley.
I have looked at your web site and its wonderful! I have an Aunt who lives in a neighbouring province and she has a small rescue, I tried to rescue a bird rather than buying a breed baby bird..however where we live the nearest rescue to adopt was Vancouver (4 hours from here ) they would not let me rescue a bird as they could not check on the bird(home visits).
Today I was busy cleaning the kitchen and had left the cage door open (on purpose) Willy flew out of the cage and then kinda hung out around the cage bottom...thinking about flying back in. I layed down on the kitchen floor and started to talk to her! And she came right over to my face and sat there for quite along time listening to me talk to her. It was great fun!!! I again thank you sooo much for your great advise! She still won't step up,she will only let me touch her when she first flies out of the cage to the floor and then will let me touch her for a minute.Its hard to get her back in. I have a very large cage for her and many toys, and safe wood with the bark to chew.
Thank you for the info on the sex...we will still call her sillywilly.

The little ones don't like to 'step up' but, if you wait until she is on the floor, she will be more agreeable to it. Mine like to 'ride' on me. Not only on my shoulders but also hanging on to my pants, my shirt, my chest (usually hanging upside down), etc.