senegal biting

[eunnied]

My 10 year old Senegal bites me! I have had him about 3 years. He loves my adult son who visits almost every day. He has never particularly liked me although I do all the feeding, toy buying, cage cleaning etc. He will land on me and bite. Today he landed on my hair and started biting my hand. He would not let go and I am afraid I will hurt him while trying to shake him off. I am thinking about giving him away because I cannot continue to live like this. He is afraid of an empty paper towel roll. I have to have one next to me all the time. I never hit him with it, just raise it. I don't know how to repair this relationship. It breaks my heart to think about giving him away because I think he has a pretty good life with me, but I don't know what to do. I am retired now and at home a lot. Help.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum and I am sooo sorry you are going through this with your bird! But don't feel bad about it because I have cared for hundreds of birds (I used to run a rescue), including aggressive macaws, cockatoos and the meanest male ekkie in the world (bird would come after me growling like a dog!) and the ONLY bird that I was very afraid of -to the point that I literally dreaded going into the birdroom- was a male senegal. They are INCREDIBLY aggressive when they are not happy - and, to put the icing on the cake, they are super smart, almost fearless and they bite like pitbulls -once they grabbed hold of your flesh, they won't let go! I had this bird biting my left eyebrow, with blood running down my face and I was pulling from his body with both my hands and he would NOT let go. So, my dear, I understand EXACTLY what you are going through. But there is hope because this senegal (his name is Sweetpea) is now my friend. I cannot use my hand to ask him to step up but he is perfectly handleable with a stick and he not only no longer attacks me, he actually allows me to scratch his head!

My senegal had three problems:
1) He had been terrribly treated in his previous home (he had spent the best part of 11 years in a small cage)
2) He was overly-hormonal due to incorrect light schedule and diet
3) He had fallen in love at first sight with a female senegal I had who loved me to pieces and I was competition for the object of his affection

So, let's review the possible causes of your senegal's aggression because once we identify them, we can then solve them.
1) this is the time of the year when they start producing sexual hormones (they breed in the fall) so I am sure this is something that is maybe not causing the problem but definitely making it worse (and I know because Zoey Senegal, his female, is now picking fights left and right with other birds over me and my husband's attention).
2) Is your bird kept at a strict solar schedule with full exposure to dawn and dusk or is he kept at a human schedule (artificial lights on before the sun is high in the sky or after the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the afternoon)
3) do you free-feed any type of protein food? Like pellets, seeds, nuts, avicakes, nutriberries, etc.
4) does he only bite you and not your son or does he show aggression to other people aside from your son?

There is nothing anybody can do about their being hormonal during their breeding season BUT there is a HUGE difference between an overly-hormonal bird and a 'normally' hormonal one. A bird that has been kept at a strict solar schedule for a year or more will not become overly hormonal even during breeding season (sexual hormones = aggression in males) but, when they are kept at a human light schedule, they continue producing sexual hormones all year round (something that NEVER EVER happens in nature) and year after year causing their gonads (sexual organs) to become unnaturally enlarged which, in turn, causes the bird chronic physical discomfort and, after a number of years, chronic pain. An animal in pain is going to show it with aggression. Nature never counted on people making pets out of undomesticated species and screwing up the guidelines she came up with during the fine-tuning of evolution.

So, tell us what light schedule, diet and daily routine he is under and we will be able to give you pointers that will fix the problem.