Help with an anxious Senegal

[Senniefriend]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post and I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some pointers to help with my Senegal. She was a hand raised baby but has never been overly cuddly, more of an adventurer/playful type which is fine. However she's recently started to seem quite nervy and I have no idea why.

She was always 'my' bird from the day she entered our family but was happy enough around other people. However our ?Nanday conure (now she was a cuddly bird!) had taken to preferring my husband. Unfortunately our Nanday passed away sometime ago (old age, nothing medical) and ever since my Senegal attacks my husband. We've tried him caring for her and giving treats and through the cage she's fine with him. But if she's out she flies for him and really bites! He's even got a scar or two she latches on that hard. The weird thing is when she flies to him it seems like she wants to see him then gets nervous and bites, rather than she's agressively seeking him out but maybe I'm perceiving that wrong. She doesn't fly to me at all, just to him nd her cage. She generally seems to be getting more nervy as well, so I feel like we're almost going backwards. Is there anyway I can help her feel more confident and comfortable? I'm hoping that may help with her biting of my husband too

[Wolf]

I think that I may know what is going on, but since I am not sure based on the information given, I need your help with more background, after all I could be wrong or be missing something important here. To begin with how old is your Senegal? and just because I am curious about it how old was your Nanaday conure? Describe briefly what your relationships with your Senegal are like, I do mean yours and your husbands relationships with it. Also what about physical contact between your husband and yourself in front of the bird?

Nervy is probably a pretty good word but is not specific enough as it could mean too many things, so if you would please clarify nervy for us. Does your Senegal have a name? Names are very important to parrots. One last thing, if I may, how long have you had her?

[Senniefriend]

Hi my Senegal (Cocoa) is 7 now, I've had her since she left her breeder, so nearly 7 yrs .My Nanday lived to 19 and I had her from a baby (she was a present for me when I was little).

My relationship with Cocoa is a very playful one she's constantly chatting or whistling to me. She'll lie upside down in my hand, or let me pick her up that way like a telephone, she likes head tickles and will let me look at her wings but she isn't a snuggle into your neck type. She doesn't stay on me either, so if she's on my shoulder and I sit down she gets off to go exploring. But recently during these explorations she acts nervous and jumpy at the slightest noise. She has started doing dances in her cage with her wings dropped but I thought that was breeding behaviour so I don't interact with her when she does this.

Cocoa was never bothered by my husband while Charly was alive, she would stay with me and Charly who was a super cuddly bird was just snuggled into my husband. We'd watch tv or do whatever and everything was fine. Cocoa lives in the dining end of the kitchen so she pretty much sees us all the time. She'll chat happily to my husband and if he goes over she pops her head down for a tickle but she can bite then too seemingly without warning. Basically she appears to like him when there's bars to divide them. But if I get her out she'll fly over to him, then a second or two later bite really hard, it's often his head that gets attacked.

By nervy I mean she seems edgy, leaping at sounds or people entering the room, just unsettled and easily spooked but she isn't this way when she's in her cage only when she's out.

[Wolf]

I should also have asked how long ago did Charly pass, but it sounded like there had probably been sufficient time for Cocoa to have finished with mourning over her.

It is normal for Cocoa to feel more secure when in the cage as this is her home and is also usually considered to be their nesting area which is why so many parrots become territorial about their cage. There appears to be a couple of more possibilities than I had expected from your first post ing, but that is fine and I will try to cover all of them.

Based on what you said in your first post I suspected and it may still be a large portion of what is going on, but I do not think that it covers all the bases from your reply to me. The first and probably the strongest possibility is that Cocoa is trying to make your husband leave the area. This has to do with the nature of the bond between the bird and its special human as it is the same as the mate bond between two birds. This is why I was asking about the nature of her relationship with both you and your husband. I was basically trying to figure out to whom she was the most bonded to. since the nature of the bond is that of a mate bond Cocoa is trying to defend her rights to her human mate, If that is you then she is trying to make him leave you alone as you are hers, If he is the one that she is bonded to then she is again trying to get him to leave you taking her with him. Again this is to protect her rights to her mate. The best way to discover which one of you that she is trying to protect her rights to if you don't know, may be to simply leave the room where she does not see you and have your husband to let her out of her cage and see how she responds to him.

It sounds to me that she is most bonded to you. You are correct that the dance is probably a mating dance, but it is not just used for mating but also as a very happy to see you although it is usually reserved for her mate it is still a special greeting, I do not encourage my Senegal to do her mating dance, but I do not discourage it either. It is a normal behavior for them and I do not see where it does any harm, it is only when she attempts to actually have sex that I respond by putting her down. Most people would not actually recognize that the bird was trying to have sex if they saw it unless you were to tell them.

I do think that this addresses what is happening with your husband as far as her biting him. The best answer that I can give you about this is to try not to let her see the two of you making physical contact or she will get jealous over that. You can also try having your husband take over at least one of her daily feedings and have him offer her treats and spend more time with her without you being there in an attempt to have her trust him more and to accept him as a good second to you in her flock of giant funny looking birds ( humans).

Because of what you described as nervy and the information concerning Charly, I think that all of this is related and her jealousy over you has kicked in partly due to hormones but also by the absence of Charly. Until Charly's passing, Cocoa had you and Charly had your husband and then both birds had each other as well as you both as flock mates. The whole range of the flock dynamics has changed with Charly's passing and Cocoa is still mated to you, but your husband is now unmated and this is what is the basis for the new behaviors. It is possible that Cocoa is looking for either Charly to show up or that she is looking for the predator that ate Charly. I can't tell you which it is but think that this may be why she is "nervy". All of these would be normal behaviors given the circumstances as described, that is if I am reading the correctly.

If the two of you are into it and have had enough time for your own grieving over the loss of Charly, you might consider getting another bird, perhaps from a rescue.

If you have a bird rescue close enough, you could visit it and perhaps even volunteer at it for a while with an eye out for adopting an adult bird that will accept and bond with your husband. Such a bird that bonds to your husband might help to restore the previous flock dynamics to something close to what was after it goes through quarantine and introductions and begins to be accepted as part of the flock. A young juvenile bird might be able to do this but you don't know to whom it will bond with and it would also take much longer as the age difference would be such that Cocoa would have nothing to do with the juvenile bird until it goes through puberty.

I hope that this will help you.