Neurotic Senegal behaviour in newly re-homed bird - help

[kmc]

I have recently taken in a 14 year old Senegal parrot who is having neurotic tendencies. She dances back and forth on her perch all day screaming.

First, I will give you some background info... I was told that Bella's previous owner was an elderly woman that had to go into a care home and Bella then went to live with the grandson who had two conures that terrorized her all day which is why she was being sold. She was purchased by the elderly lady when Bella was already 7 years old and so my home is at least her 3rd home now.I was told that Bella was very sweet and did a "cute dance", and she was fed mainly seed and human table scraps. I was also told that she spent her day on a makeshift coat rack turned bird playground and she didn't play with any toys or chew on anything. While it's true that Bella is very sweet so far, this "cute dance" is actually a totally neurotic motion that she starts in the morning and lasts all day long except for a few small breaks for eating and getting pet.

I have owned Bella for only a few days now and she has bonded with me pretty well so far, she doesn't bite and absolutely loves getting pet and asks for it frequently. I am slowly transitioning her to a better diet of mainly fresh food but that will take some time. I put a cover on her when it gets dark at about 4:30 since it is winter and she gets up between 6 and 7:30 in the morning (whenever we can drag ourselves out of bed, lol). She won't accept any foot toys or wood or anything that my other birds love to chew on and she hasn't seemed at all interested in toys.

I am looking for some help or advice on how to fix this neurotic behaviour. I let her out of her cage in the morning and she wants to spend about 10 minutes on me getting pet and talking sweet to me and then she starts dancing back and forth and chirping. I have tried moving her to a different area of me (knee, shoulder, arm, etc), moving her to a play gym, walking around with her on my shoulder, putting her back in her cage, giving her nuts and treats to eat, talking to her, moving to a different room, and putting her on a different person, all to no avail. She can get distracted when given a treat for about a minute and then it's back to the dancing and screaming. She stops for the night once she is covered. I want to get her to start playing with foot toys and exploring the play gyms I have and so I am keeping her in the living room where she can watch my 2 other birds (a very tame Meyers and a green-cheeked conure) which I am hoping will get her interested. I tried keeping her in a room by herself without stimulation but that seemed to make things worse. My two other birds are upset by Bella's behaviour and to be honest, so am I. She has her wings opened very slightly and looks like she is about to fly while she does it. In fact, she looks scared even though she shows no fear of me or anything in particular. I was hoping this behaviour would start showing a bit of improvement but every day I have owned her it has been getting worse. I don't know how long she has been doing this behaviour but it sounds like it started in her last house with the "cute dancing" that was previously mentioned.

Has anyone heard of this behaviour before? Does anyone know anything I can try? Perhaps clicker training? I really want to give her a good life. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

[liz]

the first thing I thought of was that she wanted attention. the wing flipping may be begging. baby birds wing flip when they want fed.
Rambo wing flips when he wants something but he also tells me what he wants.
I am sure other members will give you advice also.

[Wolf]

A video of this behavior would help a lot in determining what she may be doing. Just from the description this could be begging as for food or attention or it could be a defensive behavior. The very first thing to do is to rule out any medical reasons. If she is begging for food there could be an infection in her crop or elsewhere such as a yeast infection or there could be some other digestive problem preventing proper digestion of her food. I would get her a complete physical and go from there. If we are going to make a mistake with this bird it would be best to err on the side of caution and what is best for the bird. Many times there is a medical reason for what appears to be a behavioral issue so that is the best place to start looking. While this is being accomplished we should look at her diet, I know that you are in the process of improving it, but lets see what you are changing it to.
Training may help, especially if it is attention that she is begging for and clicker or target training is a good place to start. Having her in an area where she can see your other birds may also help her to calm down as well as to teach or help teach her about toys and the proximity to humans and what they are doing should also prove helpful. I would probably start with simple foraging toys even as simple as a piece of food wrapped in a cupcake paper or piece of a coffee filter and show her how to find the food in it. These things could help if she is begging for attention and help distract her if it is strictly a behavioral issue. I would probably start with her placed across the room from the other birds as well as close to a window if possible.
You have probably thought of most if not all of these things already, but this is all I can think of at the moment.

[kmc]

Thank you so much for commenting. Any advice is really appreciated. This is my first rescue bird and I want to make sure that I do the best I can for her. I have spent many hours doing research on all of my birds but I couldn't find anything on this particular behaviour. This is also my first time commenting in a forum so I don't know how to put up a video but I will look into it.

My first thought was also that it was for attention but I don't think that's it because she will still do the behaviour on my shoulder and it doesn't stop if I talk to her. It's also not for food because when it gets really bad in the evening (she is easier to distract during the day) she won't take any food from me at all. Her wings don't really flap, she more just holds them stiff and has them in a position where it looks like she is about to take off and fly. She is very slick and, to me, she looks terrified.

I forgot to mention also that she came in a way too small cage, one that is intended for a budgie or a canary but I was told it was only her sleeping cage because she was out all day. I have another cage that is 18x18x20 (which is almost double the size that she is in now) which I am going to transition her into. Based on research I have read that I should give her a bigger cage in stages so my plan is to slowly transition her to the new cage and then in a few months transition her to one that is the proper size for a Poicephalus. Right now the new cage is sitting beside the one she is in so she can get used to it but I don't want to do anything to upset her right now so I was going to wait until she seemed more settled in with improvement to this behaviour before I started transitioning to the new cage.

As for the vet visit, I am just waiting for my appointment and I will know soon. The problem is that my city does not have very good avian vets so I am trying a new one in a neighbouring city and hoping for the best.

As for the food... I was given a big bucket of cockatiel seed with her that did not smell fresh so I have been mixing that half and half with some super hookbill Volkman seed and I have been adding some dried fruit and milk thistle seeds to it. I am going to completely eliminate the cockatiel seed starting today though. Eventually I want to switch her to a mixture of the seed with Totally Organic pellets, which is what my birds are on (this is only to supplement fresh foods in my other birds). However, the main diet my birds get is fresh food with some cooked. I have given Bella a fresh food dish with tons of veggies and some fruit and cooked grain. So far she has only eaten carrot, corn, sweet potato, mashed potato, and apple but it's available to her if she changes her mind. I also hand feed her a nut a day as well as a nutriberry and small pieces of birdy bread. She is an old bird who has lived on a crappy seed diet for many years so I am doing a slow transition so that she doesn't get stressed. She is a good eater so far and it just starting to try the fresh foods.

Based on the advice of a parrot-loving friend, I placed her cage today in the dining room and covered three of the sides of the cage. She can see the kitchen, most of the living room, out of the window, and she has a great view of my friendly green-cheeked conure. She cannot see my Meyer's at all which is better for them both since he was constantly glaring at her. I go in and talk to her frequently and I let her out of the cage for shorter and more frequent periods now in an effort to change the behaviour. Today her screaming has gotten a lot better doing this but she is still doing that weird dance that nothing seems to help. I have a feeling she has been doing that weird and neurotic dance instead of playing or chewing on anything for years, it breaks my heart to think that.

Thank you for the simple foraging toy idea, for some reason I didn't think of that even though I do that for my other birds. I think I will attempt clicker training in a few days.

I'm sorry that this is so long, I just want to try to give as much info as possible in case there is something that I am doing wrong or something that can be improved upon. Thank you so much to everyone that has commented and given any suggestion at all... it's nice to feel like there is some support out there and I'm not in this all alone.

[Wolf]

I like long detailed posts with as much information as possible as it helps us to provide better suggestions for your birds wellbeing. Usually if the bird is holding its feathers tightly to its body, sometimes referred to as skinny parrot or slick, the bird is in an aggressive or attack mode, which is usually brought about due to the bird being scared or sometimes due to hormonal aggression.

[seagoatdeb]

You can tell when its fear, because they hold their wings in the position to take off flying, and the dance will look like fear. You are doing a great job, moving her into a place with less trafic, and covering some of the cage so she doesnt have to check more than two directions during the day. The life with the older lady would have been a very quiet one, since she lived on her own and the move to a home where there are a bonded pair of conures must have been so scary for the poor thing. She is probably still miissing the old lady she was bonded too, so she will bond to you strongly. With birds that arent used to other birds, and have become the solo companion of a human, new birds can be very stressfull, so the move to the dining room will benefit her greatly. It takes time and it is so hard to see them in so much distress. Slowly changing the diet is wise. it really sounds like you are doing the right things and you have to be patient even though that is hard when you see that kind of distress. Hang in there, it will get better, you are giving her what she needs, it will just take time.

[liz]

I like long detailed posts with as much information as possible as it helps us to provide better suggestions for your birds wellbeing. Usually if the bird is holding its feathers tightly to its body, sometimes referred to as skinny parrot or slick, the bird is in an aggressive or attack mode, which is usually brought about due to the bird being scared or sometimes due to hormonal aggression.

holding wings out and straight is what Rambo did when he broke in a new household of animals. if they didn't back off he would spread his wings to be as big as possible and let out a scream.

[kmc]

Thank you for all of your advice. I know it's not aggression... I have a male Meyers and male green-cheeked conure so I definitely know what aggression can look like, lol.

I do believe it is a fear response and she seems to be doing a bit better now that she is covered in the dining room. I have noticed she also does better when it is just the two of us and my husband and daughter are out to work and school, so I am trying to utilize that time. Ugh, I just wish there was a magic fix to make this sweet girl feel better.

I will keep slowly working on her and trying to make her feel more secure. In the mean time, I welcome any and all comments and advice.

[Wolf]

If the cage is not placed so that the highest perch is about at eye level when you stand next to the cage, raising it so that it is may help the bird feel more secure as most predator would attack from above the bird. Patience, love, persistence and consistency often work like magic with birds, but they still require some time to be effective. That is the best that I can do in the area of magic. I think that you are pretty much doing all that can be done to help the bird to adjust. Try to remember that it has just been rehomed and this means that it has lost all that it has known up to this time and has lost everyone that it knew and trusted. The bird will think that its human has died which is the reason for them no longer being there for it and due to this it must go through its grieving period before it can move on, but it will as long as you continue to give it the love, compassion, understanding and reassurance and support that you are. It looks to me like you are doing a great job at this time,

[liz]

wolf is right that the bird will do better at eye level. I would try covering all but the front of the cage so he does not worry about protecting his back. as he relaxes you can pull back the sides a little at a time. with him covered like that you can give him direct attention while keeping your hands away.
mine are in a flock and feel like they have backup. I have 3 that have been with me a long time that come to me and tweet secrets. I don't touch them until they touch me.
[i][/my rescues come to me so scared. all I require of them is to calm enough to be happy here.
i] myrtle was my biggest challenge but now she is part of what I wear most of the day. but it has been 4 years and she only lets me touch her head when she is hormonal.
go slow. your bird will tell you when it is ready for the next move. give him as much freedom as he wants and respect his space.