Senegal at Home Alone While I'm at Work

[Macayla]

I have a 3-4 month old Senegal parrot that I have had for almost a complete month this is our general routine with her:

Mornings - my boyfriend feeds her in the morning before he goes to work, I spend 10-15 minutes with her before I go to work.
Evenings - we take her out for about 2 hours when we get home from work, we then go to gym for an hour and then take her out again for about and hour or hour and a half (it depends how sleepy she is).
Weekends - we take her out as much as possible, we are generally at home most of the time so she gets a lot of out of cage time and time to spend with us, there is no real routine on weekends (besides her breakfast and supper being served at the same time as during the week) so we just spend as much time as we can with her as we obviously do need to leave the house at times, whether it be going out or visiting family etc.

My question is; are we spending enough time with her? / is she getting enough out of cage time? / what can we do to keep her from getting bored during the day when we aren't there?

I have done so much research into this but am still unsure as to what would be the best thing to do for her. I have read about things such as leaving the radio on, leaving the TV on animal/bird channels, a good variety of toys etc. We thought about getting her a companion but have been told that Senegal's do not take well to other birds (even another Senegal and even if the other bird is in a separate cage). We also keep her next to a window which she seems to like as we've seen her standing on her highest perch looking outside, enjoying the sunlight and even chirping at wild birds, or the birds in the flat above and next to us, I'm not exactly sure but she is very aware of other birds, she literally stops what she's doing to listen to them if they're loud enough and then will carry on with what she was originally doing when they go quiet again (we keep a net curtain over the window and the cage is not directly in front of the window, we also keep the window closed in case of predators and because I have heard it is not good for a bird to be in the way of a draft from an open window).

Please let me know if you have any advice regarding my questions. Thank you.

[Wolf]

Putting times to the various things that you mentioned would have helped us to answer you more accurately and would still help a lot.
Basically your bird needs a minimum of 3 to 4 hours out of cage time daily, with one hour of that being direct one on one time with he bird in physical contact with you. Birds don't do as well if they are alone for too long of a time as they are never alone in the wild from hatch until they die. This is where things like toys and radios come into play. They are there to help the bird not feel so alone. Toys are good and you will find that it is much cheaper if you do some research and learn to make some toys for your bird. They can go through toys pretty fast at times. I recycle all toy parts that I can. Another thing is that you may have to teach your bird to play with toys and be careful of putting new toys directly in their cage, give her a chance to see the toy and make certain that she is not afraid of it. Although my Senegal is not afraid of anything alive, she will wig out over a new toy in a heartbeat.
I do on occasion leave the TV tuned to a music station when I have to go out, I don't do it often as I have three other birds and they do talk to each other and are all housed in the same room. I think that they do much better if they have another bird that they can talk to. None of my birds are of the same species and so there is no question that they must be kept in separate cages, and are under constant supervision when they are out at the same time. With mine, size differences are a major reason for the constant supervision when they are out as mine range from 1 ounce to just over a pound in weight, with the Grey and the Amazon being the only ones close to each other in size.
I have some tall bushes growing in front of the windows in the room my birds are in. This makes a great place for small song birds to nest and come to play and it provides a sight screen so that predators, avian or otherwise cannot see my birds. So I do open my windows a lot and in the warm part of the year they are always kept open. The only time that drafts appear to present any problem for mine is if they are wet from bathing or if they were to get sick.
I hope that this will help you.

[Macayla]

Wow, thank you so much for all the information.

Sorry, I start work at 9am and return home just after 5pm as I live 5 minutes from my office. I tried going home during my lunchtime some days but it's just not ideal as I don't want it to become a pattern as I may be moving to an office further away. I would love to bring her with me to my office as I'm usually just here alone and we have empty offices for if there were to be people around or anything that may frighten her, but unfortunately I walk to work and just couldn't imagine how scared she would get from all the cars driving past etc. Not to mention that I cannot carry her cage for a 10 minute walk as well as her in a travel carrier, & I also don't want to get her into a routine with coming to work with me everyday for fear of not being able to bring her anymore and causing her stress.

I would love to get her a companion but besides the issues I already mentioned, I don't really have enough space for another cage. So that would be a problem. We will be moving into a bigger place next year September which would allow for another cage but that is still a year away.

So should I rather try leaving the radio on for her or bird cd's? (or would too much bird chirping drive her nuts?) I have played some of Michael's videos on my phone with her on my shoulder and she seems to love watching other birds because that's the only time she'll stand still instead of attacking my phone so I'm thinking of finding a good bird compilation video on Youtube to mix up with cd's and the radio every other day, what do you think?

I do introduce her to new toys as I read about how it may frighten birds but she's not phased at all, she has a real personality on her. She's not scared of anything, that's what makes me so paranoid. & when she's set her eyes on something she wants (usually my phones, remotes, human food etc.) she won't stop until she gets it, so I usually just have to cover whatever she's eyeing or hide it otherwise she's relentless.

It's interesting for me to hear about other people with different types of birds, does your Senegal get along with any of them?

[Wolf]

She keeps trying to make friends with my Grey, but the Grey will have nothing to do with that. I am able to have both of these on me at the same time much of the time. That lasts until the Grey decides that she wants me all o herself and then she chases my Senegal off of me. That usually only occurs after they both have been perched on me for a couple of hours. They spend about 4 to 5 hours out of their cages each day, most of the time, in the same room along with the Amazon. The Parrotlet is out less and then is either on me, either alone or with the Senegal or the Grey or she is wandering on the floor in her own little protective bubble, which is an 8 inch diameter hamster ball. But back to the topic, she tolerates the other bids rather than actually getting along with them, with the exception of that she wants to be friends with the Grey.
She loves to listen and watch parrot TV as I call it. It is really me playing various you tube videos on my computer for her. She likes the ones where they are talking either parrot or human.

[Macayla]

Everyone I've come across has said to rather keep my Senegal alone and not get another bird, so I'm glad to hear that there are cases where people have a Senegal and socializes it with their other birds. So I think maybe in the future we'll get another bird and see how that goes. At the moment, she seems to be very happy, we spoil her with new toys and lots of attention. & every time we have people over, she can't wait to get out of her cage to play with them. She loves being among us and other people, even if she doesn't know them, she's very social, that's why I think we should get her a friend (even if they just chirp together from their separate cages). Thank you for all the information. One last thing, has your African Gray ever tried to bite or attack your Senegal? I'd quite like to get one in the distant future but I just thought it wouldn't really work out because they're bigger than the Senegal and I don't want to take any chances of her getting bitten by a big beak.

[Pajarita]

My female Senegal hates all other birds and that's the rule when it comes to them (Wolf's is an exception). My male ignores the other birds and just stays out of their way. Senegals are actually quite possessive of their chosen human and will often attack other birds, dogs, humans or whatever and whoever strikes them as competition for their love. They can be trained to ignore them but it takes time, repetition and utter consistency - you can't train them to like them. And grays are not known for bonding with another bird, they are even hard to bond to another gray (I've had two for 8 years and they just tolerate each other).

My sennies do well on their own but the male live cage-free in the birdroom and my female comes out for, at least, 5 hours a day (at the right times) and pretty much has me all to herself the entire time. I mention the right times because you say you interact with her in the evening and at night and that's a no-no with birds as they need to be kept at a solar schedule (think chickens, up with sunrise and to bed with sunset) so they don't become overly hormonal and you are keeping her up when it's already night.

[Wolf]

My Grey doesn't want anything to do with my Senegal and will mostly ignore her. I think that this is the main reason that it woks for mine. The Senegal that I have is an exception, in that she actually wants to be friends with my Grey. This is unusual in this species. She will also ignore my parrotlet when they are both on me, again this is not the normal reaction from a Senegal.
I think that it is good for you to see that there are exceptions in all species, but you should also be fully aware of what is normal for the species that you have or are considering. If I was into breeding, which I am not, my Senegal's attitude would make her a definite candidate for a breeding program.
Birds of differing species can be fine together but you have to consider the individual attitudes as well as what is the norm, you also need to look at the sizes of the birds. Another factor that has an influence on my birds is my presence, none are ever out unless I am there to intercede if needed and their cages are all in the same room too.

[Macayla]

I do not keep her up at night time, she is full of energy when I get home and it would be cruel to force her to go sleep at 5pm when the sun is still up and she wants to be with us. Unfortunately, like most people, I work normal office hours so it is impossible for me to be at home during the day as I need a job to be able to take care of her and myself. I never force her to be awake if she's tired, she has no problem letting us know when she's wide awake and wants to play, as well as when she's tired. If I see her getting sleepy then I usually put her back into her cage, but sometimes I allow her to sleep on my shoulder for a while before I put her away, she loves to be on my shoulder and would probably live there if she could. I am sure that most bird owners work roughly the same hours as me and their birds are fine. I was just trying to find ways to make it nice for her during the day so that she doesn't get bored, but I know that we treat her very well and she gets all the love and attention she needs. I realize that she is still a baby so it might change but she has never shown any type of aggression towards anything or anyone, she loves to be around people and it doesn't matter if she doesn't know them, she's never shown any kind of fear or nervousness towards anyone. If anything, she can't wait to be taken out of her cage when she sees any human. She is a happy and friendly bird, she has a lovely personality.

[Wolf]

Hi! I'm baaaack!

No reason to put your bird to bed before the sun has set and there is full dark. This is especially true when the only time that you have is in the evening. We understand that you have to work to support yourself and your bird, and this creates some unique problems for the bird owner. But for every problem there is a solution and often more than one. More on that in a minute.
First, please allow me to reword a statement of yours. You know other working people that have birds and the same time problems and their birds appear to be just fine. Now, I feel that while not exact it is more accurate and also give me room to reply to you. Please keep an open mind and after reading what I have to say do some research of your own and see what you come up with.
The effects of not enough sleep or the wrong amount and type of light does not show up right away as the effects are cumulative, or in other words they take time to build up. At the present age of your bird the first noticeable effects will probably be aggression as the bird starts to get more irritable. Also the time when the effects are probably show in full may be masked by puberty in your bird, although you can also look for things like molting at an odd time or for longer than normal, look for the presence of stress bars on your birds plumage, also pay attention to any unusual or out of character screaming in your bird. It would be much easier if the physical effect were not internal where they are easy to miss or to dismiss altogether, but that is not the way that it is.
Birds use temperature, food and light to regulate the breeding cycle within their body, and food and light are the ones that we have the most control of. It takes both the amount of light, which is the length of the day, and the actual wavelengths of the light to regulate and adjust the birds biological clock and endocrine system. These two factors of light cue the birds body to start the breeding cycle and to start dumping hormones associated with this into the blood, where it is distributed throughout the body. The birds sexual organs sort of wake up and begin growing so that they can fulfill their function and all is well and going smoothly and everyone is happy and doing just fine. Now comes the rub! As the season progresses and the light signals the body to change and shut down the breeding cycle, the birds that are not on a solar light schedule don't get this message because their days are longer than normal and they don't get the right wavelengths of light to keep their systems properly regulated and as a result they are stuck in breeding cycle. As this continues their sexual organs keep on growing and since there is only a very limited amount of space inside the bird these organs start putting more and more pressure on other organs which inhibits all of them from functioning properly and this also begins to cause pain and the longer it goes on the more growth of the sexual organs and the more painful it becomes. This pain can lead to aggression as the bird can't stand to be touched, it leads to feather plucking and self mutilation, excessive screaming, you would scream too if you hurt that much. Eventually the pressure will become so great that it kills the bird in horrible agony.
Unfortunately for the bird the only remedy for this condition is to restore the correct lighting patterns which will slowly reset the biological clock and allow the bird to shut the breeding cycle down when it should. This takes a long time and does nothing to ease the pressure and pain for a long time. Now you know what happens, why it happens, the only cure in existence, and why some of us make such a big deal about proper diet and a solar light schedule.
Now, there are people living so far north in the northern hemisphere or so far south in the southern hemisphere that a solar light schedule will not work on their birds. But we have the technology to change this and make it work for these birds. We have, in addition to the normal lights that we use, full spectrum lights. But for this to work out for your birds benefit you must use the right full spectrum bulbs so the right ones have a CRI of 94+ and they have a K temp of 5000 to 5500. Don't use any other ones and then hook them up on dimmers and timers so that the can be brought up to full operational brightness and back down to off at the right times. This is a possible solution for your situation. This is not as good as the natural lighting but it is both doable and workable. It is now up to you to do your research and choose what you need to do.
I hope that this will help you.

[Macayla]

Hi Wolf,

Thank you for your reply.

I have been stressing myself out about this and think I have found the simplest solution for my problem. I have read that a bird needs to be awake for 12 hours and asleep for 12 hours, and reading up about them waking up at sunrise and going to sleep at sunset. I have also read an avian vet's opinion on their sleeping schedules, and his advice for people who work late. BUT I don't want to turn her life upside down to suite ours, because that wouldn't be fair.
So I thought, if we wake up early enough or just after sunrise (which is at about 6am at the moment) then we can open up her blanket and let the light in to wake her, which gives me about 2 hours that I can spend with her before I need to get done for work. Then after work we can spend about 2 hours with her and put her to "bed" again before we go to gym. I'm worried that we won't get enough time to spend with her but I'd rather make the time we have fun for her and let her go to sleep earlier, instead of her having any of the problems that you mentioned.

So now I just need to decide whether I should wake her up at 6am or 7am, because that would mean she'd have to go sleep at that time in the evening.. OR, is it possible to wake her up at 6:00/6:30 and let her go to bed around 19:00/19:30 as she obviously does have a nap during the day. What do you think, could this work?