Senegal with food abundance issues...

[Sixwing]

Hello, Parrot Forumers!
I got my lovely Senegal, Jetty, a couple of months ago. I have no idea how old he is, aside from "adult."

Jetty's owner died some six months before I got him, and he was left, along with three other parrots, in the care of people who were afraid of him. He was beginning to over-preen and barber his feathers, and was almost certainly still grieving for his owner; being left with the other three birds and a radio for some entertainment was all he got for about half a year. One of those other birds plucked herself nearly bare, and I wonder if he learned something from her.

I have no idea of what diet he got before his previous owner died; he was eating pure seeds at the time I got him. He took to salad like a boss, and now gets about 10% seed in with his vegetables, fruit and pellets (who'd eat pellets when presented fruit?) He gets nuts and dried fruits for treats.

But, if Jetty thinks he is running out of food, he displays a lot of agitation, starts flinging things (any available food, seed husks when he had seeds in his dish) and really biting and shaking his toys (but not people); and starts barbering with an intensity that's a little scary. He's yanked his feathers so hard I'm afraid he's going to really damage them, and starts preening and making this sad little yelp sound.

As a patch, I've given him more food, so he never ever runs out, as that seems to be the main trigger for the behavior. He wasn't running out anyway, but I wonder if he might have during his six months between owners?

In addition, he knows a "chill" trick, which started as "quit screaming at me" and has turned into "stop screaming or feather-pulling." So, if he starts, I've been asking him to chill and giving him a treat if he does. This solves two problems - he quits barbering and eats his treat, after which he generally eats some salad or goes and plays with a toy. If I'm lucky, it's just a few minutes of distress. When it's particularly bad, it can take an hour or two for him to calm down.

Does anyone know of another bird who's done something like this, or have any suggestions on how to handle it? I don't want him to get into the habit of over-preening again, or worse, start plucking.

[Michael]

Sorry, can't help you there. But try getting him onto a more predominantly pellet diet.

[Sixwing]

Thanks for the input, but why pellets?

Edit: he gets about 10% pellets right now, and eats them occasionally, but greatly prefers fresh foods (broccoli, peas, beans of all sorts, and carrots seem to be preferred.)

Edit2: The salads I use follow the basic plan laid out here, though I use less apple/grape/pasta than they lay out there, and mix in 10% seeds, 10% pellets when the salad is served.

[Michael]

First of all pellets will provide greater nutrition than the present diet. Second of all I think they lead to a more even temperament. Since they comprise a steady consistency, the bird doesn't have hormones/sugar jumping around as much. Just a guess. But it can help your food aggression situation cause you can leave pellets in all day since they don't spoil. Also they are more caloric and balanced. If you get the parrot up to 50%+ pellet diet, you'll be able to rule diet out as a contributor to behavior. Also rationing with pellets becomes easier for food management purposes because of the consistent calorie to weight/volume ratio.