Need help with Senegal issues

[terry]

Hello.

My girlfriend adopted a Senegal about 6 months ago that hasn't had a very good past. In particular we were told that it doesn't like males. And indeed, it was clear right away that I wasn't going to be able to have it step up on my hand -- she bites immediately. So I resigned myself to having to use a stick, which worked pretty well at first. (We don't live together -- I'm at her house 2-3 days a week.)

But things have slowly gone downhill. The bird always prefers my girlfriend, of course, but it used to be that if we put her on my shoulder (while watching TV for example) she would stay there. Then it got to the point where she would immediately fly back over to my girlfriend, only coming to me when I had a treat for her.

But now it has escalated -- the bird will fly over to me and attack me whenever I'm in the house. With pinned eyes it lands on my shoulder and bites my neck, hard. This started a few weeks ago when I was alone with the bird -- I tried to have it step up onto my hand, and instead of just biting it, the bird attacked until I pulled it off.

The bird had attacked my girlfriend's brother like this a few times -- he occasionally visits. But never me until a few weeks ago. What's interesting is that when we're at my house, she's fine. I just watched her for a week (the week after the initial attack) while the girlfriend was out of town and there wasn't an incident. So I guess it's something territorial?

We are at a loss as to what to do. A fellow bird owner has suggested clipping the bird's wings so that it isn't free to fly around the house and attack people. I hate to do this but we're at a loss. Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Michael]

How to Teach Parrot to Step Up and to Come Out of Cage

Senegal Parrot Biting and Aggression Issues

*How To Overcome One Person Parrot Aggression*

Also check out the answers given here as they will be relevant as well.