My Senegal suddenly becoming frightened of me

[Elija]

Leah, my 3 year old Senegal that I hand reared from she was 4 weeks old, suddenly started to become frightened of me. She has always been very very cuddly, especially with me, but two weeks ago I tried pick her up and she panicked and tried to fly away from me. Since then she has tolerated my presence at best and will scream if I come to near and try to get away. She is still the same with the rest of my family, very friendly and playful.

In the past week or so she has been getting a bit better. She is still frightened of me, but not as panicky as she was. She gets very anxious to go to any person other than me if the option is available, will sit with me if we are alone. I try to spend as much time as I can with her, and since I work from home we spend large amounts together. The vet checked her out and said she was fine.

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, well, there are two possibilities:
1. something happened that scared her - and this doesn't have to be necessarily something you notice or even did, a change in hair color, style, etc could be the problem.
2. she is now sexually mature, wants a mate (it's breeding season) and doesn't want her momma babying her any more.

[Elija]

The thing is her change was almost instantaneous. In the space of one afternoon. We were cuddling in the morning, the afternoon was panick. . It seems as if we made up this afternoon, but I want to make sure I can prevent it from happening again.

As for becoming mature, would it have happened so quickly? I didn't change anything in my style or clothes.

[Wolf]

When my Senegal parrot first came to live with us she attached herself to my Lady and although I took care of all of her requirements, she refused to have anything to do with me. This was not a big deal to me as I was happy to give her a good safe home. About two months later she dropped my Lady like a hot rock and from that point on velcroed herself to me. This was not a big deal to either of us for the same reason given above, but it does illustrate that once they decide what they want to do they do not waste any time in implementing their decision.
When I looked back over this change of humans I was able to see some subtle changes in her behaviors with both of us and then the big unexpected change in chosen humans. This was our very first bird and we had absolutely no prior experience with parrots of any kind. It seemed to the both of us that it was sudden and was not expected by either of us. It occurred in what appeared to both of us to be an overnight occurrence.
If this change is due to your Senegal reaching maturity then as long as you don't change anything at all concerning her care, she may still decide that you should remain her special person. There is no guarantee as to what she will decide but this is not unheard of when they go through puberty and is actually quite normal for them.

[Pajarita]

I don't think this changes actually happen from one minute to the next, I think there is a mental process that parrots go through but they just don't show it or maybe we are not good enough 'readers'. But, sometimes, we do things that bother them and they put up with them until, one day, they just decide they had enough and no longer do. Parrots are actually very patient animals when it comes to things they don't like and tend to hope things will change until they finally have some sort of a epiphany and then they just make the switch. But, regardless of what actually happen, the important thing is that, if are patient, loving and pay attention to what she is telling you, you can get your close relationship back.