Senegal Parrot Biting and toy tips.

[Korpen]

Hi all!

This is my first post in the forums, and just to make it clear, i have read some of the thread about senegal parrot biting and aggression issues. I did not however find anything similar to the problem I am having, but i found some good tricks and tips about training.

I basically have two issues:

1)
Our 2,5 years old Senegal Parrot, Katla, has begun to bite me. We got her last summer, read up on everything we needed to know about these birds so we could give her a nice home, bought a big cage and lots of toys and brought her home. She was very curious and accepted both me and my girlfriend as caretakers and we had no problem taking her out of the cage from day two, or putting her into the cage. She climbed onto our hands without hesitation once we pushed them towards her. A generally happy bird i think. I was working a lot during the first months so my girlfriend became the "favourite" but i still had no problems taking her out of the cage when we were by ourselves and she hung around with me and allowed me to scratch her and play with her.
Then came fall, and I was forced to work abroad, I was away for periods of two weeks, then came back for three days, then back away for another two, this kept going for 9 weeks. It was during one of my three day weekends I got my first bite, I just chalked it up as nothing serious and did not react so much to it. Now however I am back home, and she bites me as soon as she sits on my skin, she still does not mind sitting on my forearm if I am wearing a sweater or my shoulder (but I am not comfortable having her there since she is biting). She avoids my hands, I can't ask her to jump up on them since she will just react with a bite.
The bites are very uncalled for in my opinion, they seem to come out of the blue. And it is not just one bite and the flying away, she kind of gets a hold of a piece of skin and starts chewing, trying to get through.
We have tried letting me be the one that fills her food bowl, giving her the good treats etc, but her behaviour has not gotten better, and now I am uncomfortable taking her out of the cage when I am alone home with her, since I have no way of controlling her.
So why did it come to this? She is nice to other people that come to visit us and I seem to be the only one she bites. I can still do many things with her, click training I do 4-5 evenings a week and she does enjoy those, but even during the sessions she can give me a bite if she needs to sit on my skin for some reason. Any tips welcome!

2)
Katla is not so playful, she seems to like eating, pruning herself and then our training session that is around 20 min every evening somewhere between 7-9 pm. We have tried many different toys, one toy with many colorful ropes she sometimes hung in and chewed through the ropes. That one eventually got chewed through, so we replaced it with a similar toy with even more ropes for her pleasure. She does not touch it. And when out of the cage, she only wants to be with us. Any tips on toys that seem to catch the eye of a Senegal Parrot?

Thanks for all useful replies!
Korpen

[GreenWing]

Your bird is probably going through sexual maturity, as she is at the age. I could be wrong but it sounds like she has bonded with your girlfriend and may have chosen her as her "mate"... are you affectionate with your girlfriend in front of her? If so, yep, your Sennie is probably jealous and perceives you as a threat.

This age is a trying time when dealing with parrots, don't give up on her. Check out Michael's videos as to how to get your parrot to not be afraid of your hands. Start by rubbing and scratching the beak. Parrots LOVE this, and this really works because I have gotten parrots to LOVE me by doing this myself.

As for toys, Senegals, like other parrots, love to shred and my own Sennie loved sparkly toys with beads large enough that are safe and that she can't swallow. Make sure your Sennie is getting adequate sleep and enough nutrition. Once your bird is a little more comfortable with your hands, use a clicker and start rewarding good behaviors with treats and a click. You may have to accept your Sennie prefers your girlfriend, BUT Senegals can be fickle birds and she could go back to preferring you over time.

[Pajarita]

Your bird is hormonal. She is now sexually mature and you are keeping her to a spring light schedule all year round so she is producing sexual hormones when her body should be resting (winter). To compound her sexual frustration, your absence made her bond deeper with your girlfriend so she now perceives you as competition for her love. Senegals do tend to bond with one person once they become adults and they can be real nasty when they bite (I well know the hanging on and grinding the beak into the flesh you describe -I call it the sennie pitbull syndrome -LOL).

Keep her to a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk, reduce her protein intake during the winter and wait a couple of months before you put your hands anywhere near her.

[GreenWing]

Your bird is hormonal. She is now sexually mature and you are keeping her to a spring light schedule all year round so she is producing sexual hormones when her body should be resting (winter). To compound her sexual frustration, your absence made her bond deeper with your girlfriend so she now perceives you as competition for her love. Senegals do tend to bond with one person once they become adults and they can be real nasty when they bite (I well know the hanging on and grinding the beak into the flesh you describe -I call it the sennie pitbull syndrome -LOL).

Keep her to a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk, reduce her protein intake during the winter and wait a couple of months before you put your hands anywhere near her.

*applause*

And omg! Senegals really ARE the pit bulls of parrots!

[Korpen]

Thank you for your answers.

It seems now so obvious that this is indeed the problem. Now there have been a few days without any bites, but then again, I have also kept my distance, only been close when we are click training and giving her some food. She even fell asleep on my knee a couple of evenings ago.
Taking it slow for now, trying to work on her diet.

Thanks again!