senegal parrot advise please

[matthewsmiss]

hi everyone i have a beautiful senegal parrot called gracie-lou
shes approx 1
ive had her since august and she is my pride and joy. her previous owners kept her in her cage as they were elderly. as time goes on i would love to be able to have her out with me. since ive had her shes come on in leaps and bounds. when we got her she could just whistle but now shes very vocal and already starting to pick up new words she really is my pride and joy and she adores me shes not keen on many other people but loves me ands forever dancing and blowing me kisses when im home
anyway thats a little bit about my baby now my problem...
i have to put my arm in her cage to get her food and water out the foods not a problem as i can just scoop it in with her water though i have to unscrew it.. wen we first got her she was timid but now everytime i put my arm/hand in to change her food and water shes trying to bite me!
does ne1 no how i can stop her doing this? we havent changed nething in her cage etc..
any advise welcome
xx

[Wolf]

I would love to help you with your bird. She sounds pretty much like a normal Senegal parrot, is she clipped or is she able to fly? Most cages that I have seen that you have to change out the food and water through the main door are too small and not really designed for parrots . Mind you that I have not seen all of the different cages so I could be wrong, would you mind letting me know the size of the cage? Also if you would tell me what you feed her and when you give her the food as well as when she gets up in the morning and when she goes to bed in the evening, I would greatly appreciate it.
Now she sounds like she is just being territorial, but it is possible to be more than just being territorial which is why I have asked the questions that I have. Each and everyone of these questions could be either a major or minor factor in why she is behaving in this manner. These birds, because of their intelligence are very complex creatures, much like a human child between the ages of 2 and 6 yrs. of age.
Under the circumstances, I would normally recommend that you open the cage door, step back a little and let her come out of her cage and then clean and change out the food and water, and it is likely that is what you should do any way. If so it might be best if anyone else were in another room where Gracie-lou can not see them to begin with and until she gets accustomed to the new way of doing things.
If it is not too much to ask could you post some pictures of your cage and of Gracie-lou?

[liz]

The inside of her cage is all she has and even changing food and water is invading her space. Open the door and offer to share your space.

There will be nips.

[Pajarita]

There might be other reasons for her aggression but, at one year of age, I doubt it would be that she is overly hormonal, Wolf. Personally, I think the reason is that she is not allowed to come out at all (you said, and I quote "as time goes on i would love to be able to have her out with me"). And that's why she is so vocal and active (dancing, picking up new words), she is trying her very best to communicate to you that she is unhappy living in a cage all the time but you are not listening so she bites you when she has the chance. She knows you are the one keeping her in a cage and she resents the heck out of it (and who can blame her?). Senegals are aggressive little things when they are unhappy but, when they are content, they are the most loving birdies.

Be careful what you do because your treatment of her in the first few months is the foundation for your long term relationship. It's like when you first meet somebody and start dating - you are always checking out his/her behavior to see if he/she will work out or not and, if he/she fails, you can choose not to date this person any longer but captive birds don't have that luxury so they will turn on you and, by the time you realize your mistake, it's ten times harder and longer to win them back.

[Wolf]

Actually, I wasn't thinking of her being overly hormonal, although with the way people feed their birds and keep them to a human light schedule, I can't rule that out as a possibility. I was and am leaning to the possibility of her being in too small of a cage and no time out of the cage. I said that I would normally suggest that the cage be opened and let the bird out, and that that would probably be the correct course of action anyway. I don't know if this bird is clipped or not, nor do I know how aggressive this bird is, but I do know that there is more than one person involved.
My Senegal, Kiki, was kept uncaged the majority of the time since she came to live here but when she decided to not bond with my Lady, she would fly over to her if she were anywhere in the same room just to bite her. Which is why I was being cautious.

[Wolf]

It is possible that the reason that Gracie-Lou is biting is due to being confined for too long in a cage as this has often been shown to be true with many birds. It is also, in my opinion, just as likely that she is territorial and is just protecting her space, this is an instinctual drive, I believe, in some species of parrots and not hormonal. In both of these cases the answer is the same, which is to let her out of the cage.
Sometimes, if the cause of her biting is that she is being territorial, you can ease the behavior to some degree by giving her something else to do such as ringing a bell placed away from the food and water dishes. This does not always remedy this, however, in which case the only way to effectively handle this type of aggressiveness is to let her out of the cage and let her watch you while you clean her cage and service her food and water dishes.

[Ilvi]

You might check at Wal Mart. The one where I live has millet in their pet dept. You may want to slow down a bit as your new bird needs to acclimate to you and its new surroundings. What you do want to do is to place the cage so that it is at about eye level and keeping your hands away from the cage just talk and sing to your bird. This will help to calm your new bird as well as begin to get it accustomed to your presence and the sound of your voice. Try offering this little bird apple as a treat or a small piece of swiss chard, if you try the apple just offer it a very thin long piece of it through the bars of the cage and the same with the swiss chard. Don't worry about it if the bird doesn't take it at first as it doesn't know you yet. Also you really don't need any treat for the first two or three days, just spend lots of time talking and singing to the bird until it shows that it is looking forward to seeing you.