Rehomed Senegal barely been out of cage

[Alyssa92009]

I'm adopting my first bird within the next few weeks. He/she is a Senegal, about 25 yrs old, and was barely taken out, ever... (dogs) They say he talks a lot, he belonged to an older woman who recently passed away and she constantly talked to him and liked to feed him fresh foods so I'm supposing he's in pretty good health. Her daughter says that he likes being scratched on his head and will step on her finger and has about 20 phrases.
I'll be taking him to the vet to get him checked out and if I can afford it I'll get him dna tested and find out if it is male or female. I'm meeting him on Saturday so I'll find out if his wings are clipped or not.
I have no pets other than my fish so I really want to work with him so he can come out and fly. However I'm not sure if I should clip his wings while I tame him so he doesn't hurt himself.

I work at a Petco, so I've been handling every conure since I started last September, I've really worked with the sun that we have right now. He runs for the door as soon as I get near it cuz he wants out so bad, he lets me touch him everywhere, his feet, wings and tail feathers. I am careful not to stimulate him though I don't want him to think I'm his girl lol. He will step on to everyone I set him to. even kids I've only been working with him for a month, he loves his neck rubbed. I've started working with the green cheek too. She's a little more timid. she'll come up and nibble my fingers and let me scratch her a little. I got her to step up for the first time yesterday She sees me with the sun and probably wants in on the action lol. She's a little sweety though. she's about 10 months old while the sun is about 8 months. we get them when they're around 5 months.

I'm worried about how I should adjust the Senegal. I've never actually owned a parrot before and he's been in the same house for his entire life. I have a feeling he'll need at least 3 days before he starts calming down. Mine is a quiet household but I'll probably put him in the kitchen where all the action is so he can get use to my husband and my 3 yr old son. I probably won't try to tame/train him for a week or two, just let him get use to me, scratch him and give him treats. I hope he likes me Saturday, I would love to be able to adopt a parrot. If I can tame him and he behaves himself with other people I can take him to work with me then he never has to be alone, he's allowed to just sit on me all day at work, That's what I do with the sun conure right now lol. The sun just sits on me, preens me, nibbles my ears and birdy kisses me for my entire shift lol.
Here's a picture of Boo, the Senegal.

senegalboofix.jpg

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I am pretty inexperienced when it comes to birds so if anyone has any suggestions or comments about the Senegal or the conures at work I appreciate all feedback
Thanks!
-Alyssa

[rebcart]

If the photo is recent, it's likely that he's unclipped. He's more likely to hurt himself if he's clipped, in not being able to break his fall. I've only heard of one bird in my life that was a serious danger to himself when fully flighted (he had a broken wing that healed funny, so with full flight feathers he could get a lot of speed up before going lopsided and crashing), whereas I've heard heaps of stories of clipped birds falling off perches or otherwise hurting themselves.

I don't know what Petco's policies are about quarantine, but I would highly recommend not bringing your bird to work. The last thing you want is for your bird to regularly catch diseases off one of the store birds. Avian vet fees are expensive.

Number 1 priority with regards to your kitchen is to get rid of ALL Teflon cookware, as the fumes are toxic (canary in coalmine etc.). Apart from that, I would place his cage in the far corner of the kitchen, or in an adjacent room - somewhere where he can see you coming and going, but not so close that you're constantly walking next to his cage and potentially startling him. Give him a day or two to watch your routine, and then follow Michael's taming article on the main site and you can't go wrong.

[Alyssa92009]

Thank you I wasn't sure exactly what to do with boo about his wings and socializing him. I'll probably put him in the corner of the living room for now then. I've been researching about keeping parrots so yeah, had to throw out most of my pans lol

All the parrots at Petco have to go through a well bird check before they're sent here. Occasionally one will catch a chill but Petco's policy is to take any ill animal, even if its a mouse, to a vet within 24 hrs of finding them sick or hurt.

I've been snooping the forum for about a month looking at ideas for training and taming for the conures at work. its been super helpful especially with the green cheek, she use to hide in the corner as soon as you opened her habitat

[pennyandrocky]

my was kept caged for almost 20 years. when i got him after my grandmother died i had to teach him to fly. he had wing atrophy from being caged so long he did fly but he couldn't fly farther than my neighbor's house. parrots don't normally like small children with their fast hand movements make sure your son knows he has to be calm around the especially the first few days while he's settling in. make sure he can't poke his fingers in the cage we used to do that with my when we would go to my grandmother's house lucky for us he had an unusual love for small children or i would be missing a finger.

[Alyssa92009]

Thanks Penny Michael (my son) is pretty good with small animals but you're completely right, I'll make sure he leaves boo alone til I'm ready to start socializing him. I hope his wings are ok. That's so sad that yours atrophied

[Alyssa92009]

I met Boo yesterday. He's a little sweety. He was so shy he didn't talk while I was there. Lots of noises tho and he let me scratch his head and he flipped over to get his belly rubbed lol. When I opened the cage he didn't want anything to do with the door. He hid in the corner I'll work with him though. He stepped on my finger, liked doing "elevator" the only word I heard from him was "wee" when I was taking him up and down lol He also laughed whenever I did lol.
I'm getting him in two weeks. So I'm stocking up on food and toys right now. I have 2 giant lilac trees out back so I'll be able to make my own perches and destruction toys. I hope he doesn't throw a fit over an all pellet food though. He's eating parrot food from walmart right now, yuck, mostly seeds and there are tons of sunflower seeds.
He's never been to a vet as far as the lady knows so I'll have to get him checked out. He looks to be in good health, feathers are glossy and nice, no abnormal noises or behaviour. Hopefully the vet can read his band and tell me how old he is and maybe sex him for me if I have the money.