New Rehomed Senegal Parrot Question!!

[NathanDesnoyers]

Hey guys im new here! Ive been on this forum looking at questions and answers for my own personal curiosity lol.
But now ive finally purchased my beautiful 1 yr old Senegal Parrot
And i have a few questions for you guys/gals

1) is it necesary to leave him in his cage to adjust to his new home? If so how long? I still give him treats by hand so he gets used to my hands being around.

2) his cage was dirty and the owner said its best to leave it because of his scent.
Is this fact or fiction and if so should i clean it asap? I dont like the fact hes in a messy cage but i also want him to feel safe and at home.

[Wolf]

Birds like to live in a clean home, and it is much healthier for their cage to be kept clean.
I like to let my birds out of their cage as soon as possible, but I recommend that the first time be just a couple of hours before his dinner time so that the presence of his food may act as an additional incentive for him to go back in the cage on his own, if he doesn't want to step up for you. If he will step up for you this precaution is not normally needed. It all depends on how the bird acts as well as your level of confidence. I would also make sure that there are no cats or dogs in the room when you let him out. I also would make sure that there are no open containers of water that he can get to, the bathroom door should be closed as well as you don't want him to panic and fly into the bathroom and land in the toilet, no cups or glasses left out with any liquid in them for him to get stuck in, Covers on any pots or pans with anything in them, all fans off, general bird safe practices.

[Saerphe]

Most birds actually don't have much of a sense of smell. Their respiratory systems can be sensitive to dust, dirt, and pollutants associated with a dirty living space though, so make sure their space stays pretty clean. If you want to make his cage familiar and comforting, try and keep the set-up (dishes, toys, perches) as close to how it was prior to the move and keep the bird's old toys in there for a while.

Giving the cage a wipe-down with diluted white vinegar solution or a bird-safe cleaner purchased from a pet shop should do the trick. I find Poop-Off works wonders.

[NathanDesnoyers]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
Like i said before ge still seems pretty cautious about coming to my hand. He will reach out and grab a treat but when i present my finger as a perch he backs off. I adsume thats very normal concidering its his second night with me.
He seems to bw making good progress though, playing with a few toys and his eyes no longer "pin" when i come to the cage to talk to him.

Ive read that alot of forst time bird owners make the mistake of trying to rushhis trust, and that is what i DONT want to do, but at the same time id like him to know he has nothimg to fear from me you know?

[Wolf]

We all know exactly what you mean. You have to go at his pace and that sometimes taxes one's patience a little but in the end it is the only way to proceed as trying to push will often backfire on you.
The first 30 days is often referred to as the honeymoon phase as the bird is on its very best behavior, due to being scared. When you bring a bird home with you it loses everything that was familiar to it and even if it was a bad situation, it was familiar to it. It is in a totally new environment which is dangerous enough when you have your flock with you, but is almost certain death to a lone bird. And then there is this strange giant human that pokes and prods it and doesn't listen very well to the bird, but the bird also knows that it is dependent on this strange human. As a result, despite being terrified of this new situation the birds tries to be as nice as it knows how to be. It usually takes the bird a month or two to begin to relax in this new environment and to start acting normally. You can help with this process by keeping your hands out of his cage except as needed to service the bird, you know, food, water and cleaning. It also is helpful to let the bird out of the cage when cleaning it, putting the bird at least 3 foot from the cage while cleaning it. I like using vinegar for cleaning as well, but you need to be aware that if you put vinegar in hot water that is gives of fumes that are dangerous for your bird to breathe in. It does not take much to harm a birds respiratory system as it is about 20 times more sensitive than ours.
Another thing that you can and should do is to learn to read your birds body language as it is the birds primary means of communication with you. Your bird will nearly always try to communicate with you before things reach the level of biting in self defense. So here is a link that can help you with this http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww15eii.htm
Give him treats through the bars of his cage at first as it does help him to feel a little safer, until he starts to understand that you aren't trying to hurt him. Talking in a soft and slightly higher pitched tone than you normally use along with lots of praise will go a very long way to help reassure him and that is exactly what he needs the most from you at this point in time.
The next thing that we should really discuss with you is your birds schedule especially with how it relates with your schedule and your new friends diet as feeding the wrong foods or the wrong foods at the wrong times can have a negative effect on your birds health as well as your relationship with it.
I hope this helps you and am looking forward to hearing from you again, soon.

[liz]

Yes, he is afraid of hands like every bird starts out. Hands can hurt a birdie. They do like faces.

Make the room bird safe and open the door. Even if he does not fly he will climb to the top of the cage and you can clean it.

[NathanDesnoyers]

Update-

So this morning i went and uncovered his cage whistled good morning and gave him a treat. Great bird took the treat didnt seem scared at all!

But to my dispair and ignorance i took that as a "hey your an ok guy" and tried an up up command lol
Bad idea, buddy tore my hand into leatherfaces hand trophy very much hurt and quite a few bandages. But as i read in here i reacted as little as possible containing all pain aside until he got back on his perch.
Closed the cage whistled and got his water and food.
And walked away.
Tried too quick and now i know hes not ready,

[Wolf]

The first 30 days or so are what we call the honeymoon period as it is the time that the bird is on his best behavior because they are afraid of their new and potentially dangerous surroundings and the bird doesn't know you and has no reason to trust you at this point. Despite the fact that the bird fears for its life it knows that it must depend on you and tries to communicate with you before things reach the point of biting in self defense. Read the link that I supplied you with on body language and while you hang out and talk to your bird watch hat is happening with his body position as well as what he is doing with his feathers. Watch how they puff up and are all ruffled when you start getting too close and how they snap down tight against his body just before he attacks. Watch how they are when he relaxes enough to stand on one foot. This is body language and can prevent you from getting a nasty bite. Senegals are absolutely fearless when they decide that they must defend themselves and they don't play any games so when they bite know that it is going to hurt and that there will be blood and missing flesh. My Senegal bites harder than my Grey does and my Grey is nearly three times larger.
While you sit outside of Buddy's cage talking to him, singing to him giving him the occasional treat and watching his body language take note of when he quits retreating from you when you begin and starts coming to the side of the cage that you are on as this is probably the first indication that you will see that he is willing to start trusting you.
You have said some things that pique my curiosity about him. Because of that I really would like to hear as much about his background as you know. Still need to know what his schedule is as well as yours so I can see what kind of time you are going to have to work with him and when that time is. We really need to discuss his diet so if you can share what you feed him as well as when you feed it we can start working on that at this time.

[NathanDesnoyers]

Thanks for getting back to me @Wolf
Undortunately his last home i dont know too much about. His owner said he took great care of him etc but lets be real here if he wanted to get rid of him fast anyone will say he took the best care and hes a great bird.
My thing is i would much rather put the work in on a bird or any pet that deserves the honest love and trust from their owner. I feel itll pay off more in the end.

As for his diet, at the moment hes on pellet food, clean water and pear slices because he loves them.
I gove him treats anytime im talking to him or go to his cage so that he can trust that my hands are going to be for a pleasant reason. (I do know that giving him treats constantly without reason isnt the most effective, but i hear its not such a bad thing when first transitioning)

Schedule might be aomething you may think isnt the best i will admit.
I work 3-11pm daily besides 2 days through the week.
Meanwhile at about 8am ill wake up uncover his cage and let the sun in so he is in some natural lighting and place his fresh water and food.
Unfortunately letting him out right now is iffy because he doesnt step on to me it would be near impossible to get him back in his cage. As much as id love to let him out and WILL when hes comfortable enough.
When i return from work i open his cage door and spend time with him. He climbs out to explore a little, bobs his head and chirps at me.
Bed time is at around 1ish or later

[Wolf]

This morning when you tried for the step up was he inside of the cage? Based on how you worded it and on the fact that you do let him out of the cage to climb around a bit, I am thinking that he was inside of his cage at the time. If this is true then you may want to try opening the cage door and letting him climb to the top of the cage and asking for the step up from there. It is very possible given his age and probable background that he has already developed a degree of territorial behavior concerning his cage.
A 3 to 11 schedule is not the worst schedule I have had to work with, but keeping him up until 1 am is going to cause some problems probably beginning within the next 6 to 8 months. I don't know where you live but in the winter where I live it can be pretty close to dark by 3 pm., which can be used to your advantage. The ideal schedule for your bird would be the same as for the wild birds that live outside in your area. This usually entails that the bird gets up at sunrise and goes to bed at dark. He should also be uncovered early enough to be exposed to the twilight period the occurs at dawn as well as having exposure to the corresponding twilight period that we call dusk as this is what sets and resets his internal biological clock. This will be one of your biggest challenges to taking proper care of this bird. This should not be too much of a problem in the winter depending, of course, on where you live, it is the remainder of the year that presents the difficulty. So this depends on how much you can bend your schedule to allow you time with him and still have time for you to sleep. This is very important for his health and well being that you should really give it some thought and find a way to make this happen. It is much easier to recognize this now and prevent its repercussions than it is to deal with them after they begin.
Allow me to give you a bit of a heads up on this and what is coming up shortly for you and Buddy. I don't know when his hatch date was so when you say that he is a year old he could be closer to a year and a half old and this could mean that he is going into puberty or that he will go into puberty by spring. This is the period that hormones start kicking in and cause him to transition from a baby bird into an adult bird with all the stressful changes that it entails. He would lose the parent/ child bond that he has had up until this time and with the mental and emotional changes going on he begins to think as an adult bird and tries to find and establish a mate bond which once established remains pretty stable for the majority of his life. Since you haven't had him very long and he does sound like he could be a bit hormonal ( this could be the real reason that he was rehomed), it may not impact you too much with the exception of a bit of aggression during this period. But there are also some significant internal physical changes occurring at this time as well. When these hormones kick in and the bird is ready to become sexually active hi gonads, which are internal, begin to grow in size. They can grow up to more than 100 times their normal size and this causes some crowding internally, not only for the gonads but also the other internal organs. In a bird that live free and wild this is not an issue, but in companion birds that are kept on a human light schedule this can present a major problem. If the birds internal clock does not give the signals to the endocrine system to stop the production of the sexual hormones, the bird does not cycle out of breeding mode and its gonads continue to enlarge and this produces pain, a lot of pain. This in turn causes the bird to become increasingly aggressive until it is in so much pain that it can't bear to be touched. The internal, biological clock is set and reset by the light that is only found in the two twilight periods at dawn and dusk. Exposure to these two periods of light are the only way to prevent this from happening and in those cases where this is already occurring it is the only known way to reverse the process until the bird is again normal.
I do not feed pellets at all to any of my birds. I feed them a fresh vegetable, a fresh fruit and a fresh leafy green first thing in the morning and an hour later I feed them a cooked food that we call gloop ( it consists of 40% cooked whole grains, 40% cooked mixed vegetables and 20% cooked white beans and lentils) they are given enough of this to last all day and then I feed a seed mix for dinner and remove them when the bird goes to sleep at night.
I don't give a lot of treats to my birds, mostly when I put them in their cages and sometimes just because they are with me, mostly I rely on head scratches and praise and affection as rewards for good behavior.