Senegal parrot unpredictable aggression

[LightFlashA]

My senegal Yui is about a year old and female. When I first got her, she was an absolute doll and wouldn't dare bite a single thing. I still love her all the same, but around 9 or 10 months old she began to bite, only occassioally. To this day, it is still occasional. However when it does happen, it's an attack, quite literally. I consulted the family-run aviary from which I purchased her, and the highly experienced owner told me that the attacks were hormonal behavior, and that when she exhibits such things, I should put her in the cage and ignore her for a whole to discourage the behaviors. I went home that day and researched about hormonal behaviors, and I learned that they are seasonal and when they come around, I should reduce light and high potency diet. I proceeded to do this, and it seemed to help a little. Now that it is fall going on winter here, I am assuming hormonal season is over, and began giving her her oven baked pellets.

I have grown up around many animals including horses, and I know very well about the importance of body language. And I have learned to read Yui's, and I am able to avoid aggression from her; that is when she displays warning signs. My point being, sometimes, and this is most recently, she will attack me without warning. She bites viciously, drawing blood and causing me to shed some tears. There is absolutely no warning, no fluffing of the feathers, no eye pinning, no posture change, nothing. And I'm extremely stumped, along with hurt feelings, especially after an episode she gave me today. Today I was working on taming her, my goal was for her to be comfortable on her back in my hand. It only took a few tries with her favorite treats to get her comfortable for a few moments, but as soon as I ended the training session, she went about her play business, but then began flying around randomly and frantically, as if scared. I would call to her and ask her to come to me to try and comfort her, but all that resulted were vicious bites. I cannot pinpoint what she might be afraid of, although I have guesses. It could be the fruit fly infestation, or it could be that I moved a homemade perch into the room. She's terrified of this tree, despite all my hardwork, and I've placed it far away from her cage so as to desensitize her., however I'm going to assume its a problem, and will remove it.

Before watching The Parrot Wizard's videos, I had not trained her, nor tamed her. When I got her, she seemed plenty tame to me, with the exception of me touching her wings. And at the time, that untameness was not biting, just signs of being uncomfortable. Which was fine with me, I thought, I just won't touch her wings. HUGE mistake of mine. I regret not reading farther into training a parrot. I really should have started her off right away, I feel.

I came across The Parrot Wizard and I became inspired to train Yui. This was about two days ago, and since then I have began to recall flight train her, and also get her completely tame so I can touch her in any spot without aggression.

So I've strayed from my points, as I often do. So I will ask simple questions.

Why is she attacking me with no warning signs? Is she scared or aggressive?

How long should I give a training session?

Could the fruit flies be harming her or scaring her? (I can't seem to get rid of them )

I recently gave my parakeets to my boyfriend. Should I bring those back for her?

I am often occupied and not at home. I am in high school and I have a job after school. Do I need to spend more time with her? Is she resentful?

Thanks to everyone who gave their time to read my lengthy post.

[Wolf]

I will begin by assuming, not a good thing to do, that you gave the budgies away as your Senegal didn't seem to like them. Probably not the whole reason but influenced the choice. I won't say that it is good or bad, because it is normal for Senegals to not like other birds and indeed getting them to tolerate one of their own species can be a major undertaking in its own right. But even birds that she doesn't actually like can be better than being alone all day, and no parrot was ever hatched equipped to be alone at any point in its life.
Kiki, my own Senegal hen gets bitey for no apparent reason on occasion. But on closer examination of the incident, I can usually figure out the why of it and yes sometimes it appears to be without warning, but for a bird her size a short warning is all that is required and so it can be so quick that we miss it.
I know that the more time spent with my Senegal, the less likely she is to bite and they seem to like nothing more than sitting around perched on you. Other factors that affect their behavior are lighting and diet, so they need to be on a low protein diet and on a solar light schedule.

[Michael]

I would say to solve the biting you know the cause for directly. Like poking the bird in this spot makes it bite so don't poke there. For the biting you genuinely can't explain, the best approach is to solve everything else and build a great relationship. If the bird wants to spend time with you and enjoys the time together (with rare exceptions) it won't bite you. Training, socialization, diet, and ither topics I cover help you achieve that.

[Pajarita]

First of all, what an incredibly ignorant breeder you got her from! To tell you that she is SOOO hormonal at 8 months of age that she would attack over it and for the solution offered to be 'just put her away and ignore her for a while' shows a HUGE lack of knowledge both in Senegal physiology AND behavior. Please do not consult this person any more because I can assure you that he/she is not going to point you in the right direction.

Now, as to the problem at hand, when you say 'attack' what, exactly, do you mean? Her flying to your head, grabbing your hair or clothes on your shoulders with her claws and bending over bite hard not letting go like a little pitbull (face, ears, neck)? Or do you mean her flying around, landing somewhere, you putting your hand for her to step up and her biting it? Because the first is an attack but the second is not, it's her telling you she is not happy with you which is not the same thing even though it might sound to us that it is. So describe exactly what you call an attack, what her diet is (exactly and for what meal), what her daily schedule is (time she wakes up, socializes, goes to bed, etc) and we will take it from there (by the way, randomly reducing the daylight hours and protein don't do the 'trick').