New Senegal - assorted questions

[Chris&Akilah]

Alright, well I posted in the introduction forum, but my name's Chris and I just got a 10 week old Senegal Parrot. His name is Dino. I thought I was pretty well-prepared, but of course, now that he's here I'm like AHHK! WHAT DO I DO?? Well not really, but here are my immediate problems

- Here's his cage. As you can see, he has a window view. Is that OK? This location receives no full sunlight, the deck is right above the window and blocks all but the last few rays of the setting sun. The window is very well sealed, no drafs. I just want to make sure he's not going to become so obsessed with looking out the window that he'll ignore everything else - 'bond' to the window, if you will. Can that happen? He saw some wild birds today and was very interested, but didn't freak out.



- next question; diet. He was weaned onto Zupreem pellets, that's what the breeder gave me to take home. Opinions on this food? The bright colours suggest dye, which I would guess is not good. What pellet is the very best for Senegals? I took him out of his cage today and offered a bowl full of mixed fruit and veggie...great success! He sampled everything, but really liked carrot, mango and pineapple. Very happy that he tried fresh food on only his second day with me! With the pineapple, he took a piece in his beak, tilted back his head and squeezed out the juice, then spat it out and took another piece

- his java wood perch is too slippery...Dino has trouble keeping a grip on it and is therefore moving about very gingerly and slowly, what can I do to help? Sandpaper the perch?

-finally, I am interested in clicker training Dino BUT my dog used to be clicker trained...I eventually stopped using the clicker with him, but he still remembers the noise very well. I don't think it would be fair to him to be hearing the clicker all the time and getting nothing from it...so what could I subsitute a clicker with, something with the same general idea but a different noise? Any ideas?

Thanks! (love the emoticons here!!)

[lzver]

- Here's his cage. As you can see, he has a window view. Is that OK? This location receives no full sunlight, the deck is right above the window and blocks all but the last few rays of the setting sun. The window is very well sealed, no drafs. I just want to make sure he's not going to become so obsessed with looking out the window that he'll ignore everything else - 'bond' to the window, if you will. Can that happen? He saw some wild birds today and was very interested, but didn't freak out.

I don't see this being an issue. He'll probably enjoy the view, but I don't see it as obsessive. My birds spend the day on the deck with us at our trailer in the summer (in cages of course) and enjoy seeing all the birds and wildlife. I would just be careful with the sunlight and ensure that he always has somwhere to go in his cage to get away from the sunlight.

- next question; diet. He was weaned onto Zupreem pellets, that's what the breeder gave me to take home. Opinions on this food? The bright colours suggest dye, which I would guess is not good. What pellet is the very best for Senegals? I took him out of his cage today and offered a bowl full of mixed fruit and veggie...great success! He sampled everything, but really liked carrot, mango and pineapple. Very happy that he tried fresh food on only his second day with me! With the pineapple, he took a piece in his beak, tilted back his head and squeezed out the juice, then spat it out and took another piece

You are correct in assuming that the colored pellets are not the best. There are several highly recommended pellets out there: Harrison's and Roudybush are usually the top recomennded pellets. I feed a combination of Hagan Tropimix Low Fat Bean Mix and Pretty Bird Gold pellets with a variety of fresh vegetables, sprouted beans, fruit, etc. If you do decide to switch pellets, don't do it too quickly and keep an eye on him since he is a newly weaned baby.

- his java wood perch is too slippery...Dino has trouble keeping a grip on it and is therefore moving about very gingerly and slowly, what can I do to help? Sandpaper the perch?

I don't have a java wood perch myself (not yet anyways), but there is a vet wrap you can get that works well. Another member Natacha uses that on hers, so she may be able to provide more details.

-finally, I am interested in clicker training Dino BUT my dog used to be clicker trained...I eventually stopped using the clicker with him, but he still remembers the noise very well. I don't think it would be fair to him to be hearing the clicker all the time and getting nothing from it...so what could I subsitute a clicker with, something with the same general idea but a different noise? Any ideas?

Thanks! (love the emoticons here!!)

I can't offer much advice here, because I haven't gotten into clicker training too much. But Michael (the forum owner) may be able to provide you with some suggestions.

[iknowwhatiknow]

Regarding the clicker training, I've read in several places that if you're training two birds, they quickly come to realise when the clicker is relevant to them, or to the other bird. I imagine your dog will be the same - though I'm sure someone who actually has two animals will give you some better information.

[notscaredtodance]

To give another view on the perch question, birds, especially young ones, move sort of slowly and clumsily anyways. It's probably not the perch he's struggling with, but just his footing in general.

I know my bird will step on her own feet when she walks across the table. So cute

The words "Good bird", a kissy sound with your lips, a click with your tongue on the roof of your mouth, are just a few things that will work, but you'll have to be careful not to use them outside of training, especially the kissy sounds.

[Michael]

Sorry, I don't have much time right now to answer all of the questions but I wanted to mention that I don't think the clicker should become too much of a problem. The animals will learn that the clicker only means something if you are directly looking at them or something like that. You can find videos of me clicker training my two parrots side by side and clicking for whoever did the correct behavior. This might be slightly less effective than isolated training, but the modeling learning rectifies or even outweighs the confusion. Of course the parrot won't be learning from the dog, but essentially they can learn when it is meant for them. Another thing you can do is give something to the dog to keep it busy, then it will ignore the clicks. And of course as suggested, you can simply substitute with something else.

Check out the new taming/training article I released, it may be of some help to you.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Love the new avatar, Michael! LOL!

Anyway, I've been told putting a cage against a window can cause the bird to feel insecure, but that a view is good. So if the bird seems comfortable I can't see a problem with it. Just be aware that light through a glass window isn't full-spectrum, the glass blocks UV and infrared (note, never wear a nylon blouse when demoing an infrared camera -- but standing behind a glass sheet would save your dignity). So you may want to look into full-spectrum lighting.

You can wrap vetwrap around perches as a temporary way to increase grippiness.

Zupreem Fruitblend had a whole thread somewhere on the forum recently, you might want to check it out. I think the coloring is human-grade, but that may or may not ease your concerns.