unpredictable behaviour????

[roccoloco]

Hi, I have a year old senegal, I've only had him about 2 and a half months, sometimes he is the sweetest bird, but his behaviour is so unpredictable!! sometimes he'll be in the kitchen (he is unclipped so we let him follow me round the house in the day) and i'll do nothing but open the fridge for example, or answer the phone, and he'll take a run and jump and clamp onto my neck to the point of bleeding even if i dont react, then sometimes he'll step up without a problem, then others pretend with one foot to step up then clamp onto your finger! I find him hard work because whilst I dont ever want to restrict his freedom it is extremely aggravating to keep dealing with his irrational behaviour.

I can read what he's feeling sometimes but others its just off the scale. any help?

thanks,
steph

[Michael]

You should try to bond with the parrot more by using positive reinforcement training and taming. It may not solve the problems entirely but will certainly help.

Also it wouldn't hurt to introduce the parrot to more objects, people, and places to desensitize it to different things. Show the parrot that these are harmless and it won't get scared and want to bite you cause of them.

[roccoloco]

He is completely comfortable with my two flatmates, he is closer to me and comes to me when he's scared/hungry/playful so that shows a bond, I intended on starting training soon as I wanted to give him 8 weeks to get used to the house and my flatmates rabbit ( I brought him from a gentleman whom couldn't keep him because he bullied the macaw ) who he gets on with well.

He is really spoilt, and does not understand no with other peoples food, or drinks. But I think that is learned behaviour from his previous owners and we have started keeping a small bowl of grapes and kiwi for him that he recieves whilst we eat so he understands the concept of we wont touch his food if he doesnt touch ours, do you think this will work?

I will try the object introduction, thankyou

[lzver]

He sounds like a typical Senegal to me. They are very prone to fear of large/loud/unknown things and will show aggression when scared. As Michael said, desensitizing him will help and working on positive reinforcement training.

My Senegal is very leary around things he isn't familiar with. I have to spend a lot more time desensitizing him compared with my Red Belly, who doesn't really seem to have a care in the world.

[Jessica_rabbitt]

I agree my Senegal is terrified of painted finger nails I had my nails done for grad and it threw him off for three days!!!:)