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senegal parrot

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senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Wed Feb 08, 2017 6:51 pm

Hi guys,

I've got a 3 year old senegal parrot named sol. Just looking for some opinions/advice really. I bought him as 'hand reared, cuddly tame' from a breeder over the internet for £400 back in 2014 anyway to cut a long story short he was anything but and in my humble opinion he was parent reared as he looked like he never seen a human before and viciously bit anyone who approached and i was basically conned to within an inch of my lol.

Anyway 3 years later after spending 12 hour days with the bird as i work from home im finally making big progress as he now flies to me for scratches, affectionately kisses me and steps up. He actually now to the naked eye resembles somewhat a hand reared bird and he has gone from a vicious biter to a bit nippy.

I just wondered what you lot do when your parrot bites? I have changed my approach from totally ignoring it to now looking him in the eye and telling him firmly 'No!" because i want no secrets between us, in the wild if he annoyed his partner then the partner would let him know. 10 seconds later the bite is forgotten and i go back to scratching him and sweet talking him.

He comes on my shoulder and gives me kisses but all of a sudden he can nip my ear out of the blue, what should be my reaction when he does this? Ive read a few books on them and im fully aware how much they thrive on drama hence most parrot people advise no reaction to negative behaviours whatsoever. Im bonded so tightly with him now that i only want to use positive reinforcement just with a firm no if he steps out of line, would you agree with this approach?

Lastly i just wanted to say i admitt i used to get quite frustrated but since ive been reading about parrots and seeing things from sol's perspective ive been amazed at how he responds to patients and also how better i feel when i dont take his actions personally. the second you show frustration these little guys feel it.... Its true when they say they are basically our mirror.

Anyway sorry about the long post and if you got this far thanks for reading.

Steve
stevesjk
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby ParrotsForLife » Wed Feb 08, 2017 7:08 pm

I would not agree with that approach as he is bonded to you so you should let him know it hurts whenever he bites you because by ignoring it your showing him its ok to bite.None of my birds bite but I do have experience.
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:33 am

I used to ignore it but now i give him a firm no if he bites. Will that suffice?
stevesjk
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 220
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal parrot budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: senegal parrot

Postby ParrotsForLife » Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:28 am

stevesjk wrote:I used to ignore it but now i give him a firm no if he bites. Will that suffice?

Not really unless he knows the meaning of the word you have to show him its not acceptable behaviour.
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Mango, Plum headed parakeet
Tiko, African grey, Oscar, BFA
Flight: Yes

Re: senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:36 am

How do i do that?
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Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Types of Birds Owned: Senegal parrot budgie
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby Pajarita » Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:16 pm

Hi, Steve and welcome to the forum! All parrots learn what NO! means very quickly (mine even understand subtle nuances of the No! command - things like "I am watching you!" or "Are you CRAZY?!" :lol: ). I would still say 'No' but I would first make a pain 'sound' like OUCH or OWWWW or AY or whatever is your 'personal' cry from pain. They are extremely smart and masters of the human body language and tone of voice so he will understand very quickly what that means to you.

But, if I may, you do NOT want to keep a Senegal at the old 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness light schedule because they are short day breeders so, if you do that, he will be hormonal all year round. Yours is still fairly young and have just gotten to the age of sexual activity but as he gets older, he will become VERY aggressive if you are not careful with the light schedule and the diet (you are not free-feeding protein food, are you?).
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Thu Feb 09, 2017 12:34 pm

Hi paj. I dont really know what you mean by free feedinh protein means. I give him a little bit of meat occasionally. What do you suggest?

For the other part what schedule should i put him on? He currently doesnt have a fixed schedule, does that need to change? He currently gets 12 hours of sleep every night and 12 hours of light every day but the times are not fixed... Is that wrong? Im very eager to learn.

Thanks
Steve
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Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Types of Birds Owned: Senegal parrot budgie
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby Pajarita » Thu Feb 09, 2017 1:03 pm

Free-feeding protein is putting their protein food (seeds, pellets, avicakes, nutriberries, nuts) in a bowl early in the morning and leaving it there all day long. And, PLEASE!, no meat! Parrots, with the exception of one and possibly two species, are all classified as herbivores, they do not consume meat in their natural diets. They might eat a small amount of insects (well, some cockatoos eat more than a small amount) but insect meat has virtually no fat or bad cholesterol and, because they did not evolve to consume any bad cholesterol, nature did not give them a mechanism to get rid of it (as carnivores and omnivores have) so it accumulates in their system and ends up killing them. We have a good member who adopted an amazon with high cholesterol and although he spend thousands of dollars in vets, tests and treatments and worked like a maniac trying to provide her with an excellent diet, medicating and special housing (the bird had fatty tumors in her feet and body), she did no make it. I had birds in my rescue who had been fed meat and their cholesterol was so high that it ended up as deposits in their eyes! My senegals (I have a male and female) and all my parrots eat gloop with raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a measured portion of a good seed/nut mix for dinner.

As to the light schedule... well, the thing is that all birds are photoperiodic, a long word that means that their endocrine system (the one that controls the physical reactions to the seasons) is governed by the amount of light they receive daily. As the days get shorter or longer with the different seasons, the bird's body reacts to the changes by starting or stopping production of different hormones, the sexual ones being the ones that most concern us because when a bird produces them all year round, year after year, they end up sexually frustrated and in chronic pain. This is because their gonads grow during the breeding season and shrink during the resting one BUT, if you feed it high protein and keep the days at a certain length all year round, you end up with a bird that continues to produce hormones non-stop and whose gonads continue to grow until they are so large, they start displacing other internal organs. And this is when they start screaming, biting, plucking and even self-mutilating. Senegals breed in the fall, after the rains stop, so 12 hours of light is perfect for them to breed. The other thing about photoperiodism is that the whole thing works kind of like if the bird had an internal stop watch to measure the length of the day. This watch gets turned on with the dawn and stops with dusk -this is because it's the different spectrum we get at twilight that actually activates or deactivates the 'clock' so for the solar schedule to work, the bird needs to be exposed to both dawn and dusk so its body can 'count' the number of hours in between the two events and 'mark' which season it is.
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Thu Feb 09, 2017 2:21 pm

Thanks very much for taking the time to write all that. So starting tomorrow ill give him fruit for breakfast, reasonable portion of pellets seed and some nuts for lunch and some veg for dinner. Does that sound ok? Oh and he cant have access to his lunch all day maybe for an hour?

Now regards light how do i expose him to dawn and dusk? Im in the uk and its a freezing here now, my bird lives in the house.

Thanks again.
stevesjk
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 220
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal parrot budgie
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Re: senegal parrot

Postby stevesjk » Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:56 pm

Had a few hours to let your post sink in, specifically the natural light part and living on a solar schedule...i think i know what you mean now. Get up at dawn, let natural light in the house and basically let the bird live on the natural light of the day? Yep got it..... Just one question, how do i do that in summer when dawn is naturally very early and dusk is very late? Natural light is a lot longer than 12 hours during that season.
stevesjk
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 220
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal parrot budgie
Flight: Yes

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