New senegal parrot in few days HEEEEELP!!!

[chelenka]

Hi everybody,

I am getting a baby senegal hen in a few days.
She is going to travell for about 4 hours until she gets to me.
What should I do when she arrives. I am sure it will be frightened after hours spent in a van.
I have 5 years old daughter. Any suggestions???
I think it is too early for her to look after a senegal after I read articles about them.
What should I do???
What should I not do???
I have read that I have to be careful with her diet. Can I leave seeds in her feeder? Or how often or how should I feed her?
I have a year old cat. ?!?!?!?!?!?!
The plan is: I get home at abou half past three and let the cat out. At about seven or half past our parrot girl will have to go to sleep because I read that she will need about 12-14 hours sleep. I will let my cat in then.
That is the plan.
It is supposed to be my daughters parrot so I am counting on that it cannot fly yet so she will be able to interact with parrot without giving the parrot a choice.
I want them to develop a bond. I need some advice on this.
I am qutite scared about this idea. I mean my daughter handling this lovely little bird. I am aware that I will have to teach her how to handle her and I will not leave them alone until I am fully satisfied with my daughter's actions.
What should I focus on? I want this parrot to be happy!!!
We got her quite a larg cage which is on the top of the wardrobe in the livingroom due to owning a cat. I was told that it could be dangerous for the parrot even when it is in the cage so we made sure the cat cannot get to the cage when I am at work or asleep.

I would rather my cat and my parrot to get along but I am not expecting this because of cat's nature. Birds are their food. I have a strong bond with my cat but I want to own that little girl and I do believe that if I am careful enough it is possible to own a parrot while owning a cat as well.

I want our girl to spend time out of her cage every day.

I buy parrot toys for her so that she is not bored while I am at work.

I am worried about this decision but trying to be as carefull and as thoughtfull to our new pet as I can.

I want her to be happy, talking and learning trics on a daily basis.

Please give me as much advice as you can!!! I am new to parrots.

Thank you very very much for your support!!!

Helena

[liz]

You scare me.

You don't get a bird as a pet for a 5 year old. If you are so afraid you can't care for it why did you get it?

Short instructions because it is past my bedtime:

Get RoudyBush small pellets - birds do not live well on just seed.

It will need fresh veggies - go into nutrition to find out what and why.

Don't overpower it by moving too fast - put the cage where it can see you and talk to him a long time before you even think of taking him out. He needs to calm down from the trip and adjust to you and your house.

Don't take him out - hands reaching into a cage that belongs to him will tramatize him - open the door and let him come out and investigate on his own.

Don't let your 5 year old near it - after it has bonded with you it will start going to her too. A birds bones are very fragile.

[pennyandrocky]

i'm scared too.first my son is almost 7 and was born with birds and i would never buy him his own bird unless it took batteries. the bird not having flight so your daughter can handle her without choice is a good way for you daughter to end up scarred for life or loss of a finger.they don't eat seeds unless it's a treat.like liz said they eat veggies,fruit,and pellots.cats and parrots can live together i have a cat, a dog, a and a everyone gets along fine.

[chelenka]

Stop scaring me

Thanks for your quick reply.
Yes I said it will be hers but it will be my responsibility she will be able to play with it in my presence and I will teach her how to handle it and everything. She played with my friend's bird and she was very carefull and everything. But it is different to play with a bird for 10 minutes and have it at home. DO NOT WORRY THAT IS MY JOB! I have not paid a fortune for a bird to let it get hurt or to let my daughter to loose a finger!!!

I am not scared that my daughter would squeez the parrot. She is very sensible but still she is a child and I have to be aware of that because as you said birds are very fragile.

My husband is a lot older than me. His step daughter from previous marrige had a cocatoo when she was 5 and he said that she was this bird's favourite person because she played with him the most or maybe because that parrot choosen her.

I just want to do things right. I think it is good not to be over confident and not to look at things ''it will be fine''

The parrot girl is hand reared.

The bloke who I will get her from said that I should open the carrier after about 10 minutes and see what happens but not to put her to her cage straight away. He said that I should let her explore on her own. He also said that if she wants to get out of the carrier she might want to step up on my hand. I am not sure about this. Liz's idea sounds more sensible to me.

I am reading meny different articles to get as much information as I can and everybody says somethinf else... So I am trying to get an opinion from experienced people.

Thanks Helena

[pennyandrocky]

we aren't trying to scare you i just want to help.when you said you want the bird not to be able to fly away that scared me. when i got the birds i have now they were clipped, i did not allow my son near them until they were flighted. the reason is they do have a fight or flight reflex when scared,birds are terrified by hands,they will bite if they can't fly away with beaks made for cracking nuts.i inherited an amazon from my grandmother at 16 who was great with my son at 3 he started taking the bird in his room to play cars and army men so i'm not saying it can't be a good thing for kids to have a bird around just be aware of what can happen.and i have 19 years with birds if that helps.

[chelenka]

I do want it to fly but because it just got fully weaned I am assuming it can not fly yet. It is just a baby. Can it fly already? If it can that would obviously a good thing.
I did not see Coco in person but I saw a video of her and three picture of her.
In video she is stepping from one hand onto another like on the ladder and she is very gentle.
That man lifted her wing to show me her colors and was strokinghim her head against her fethers.
She was happy to let do that and in one picture she is lying in his hand on her back.
Coco seems like she likes to be handled and played with.
What I meant when I said that it would be good if she could not fly away is.
My daughter would not feel the need to chase her which would scare Coco and she would be able to find out for herself that she can trust my daughter by seeing that she is not harming her.
I will be present at all times to ensure that everything is ok.
If Coco will want to step up on my daughter's hand I will let that happen.
If she will not want to I will not allow this and I will definitely not force her to go to my Mia.
Everything takes time. I know that.
I didn't think that when she is hand reared stepping from one hand onto another, she might not want want to step on Mia's hand. So this might happen as well. Can it?

[pennyandrocky]

parrots as long as they are treated well ALWAYS want to be with you. even when they don't want physical contact,they'll let you know with body laguage tail twitching,eye pinning,among others.they almost always give some kind of warning first just pay attention.explain if she does bite your daughter or even a nip she should never scream,or jump around, if she reacts the bird will think it's a game or get scared and bite harder.i think you and your daughter are going to do great by the way. sorry i'm trying to type while mya's on my lap deciding whether to nap or play

[cml]

As it seems that you havnt read up that much beforehand, I urge you to read this article, and then continue onwards with the rest of Michael's articles.

http://trainedparrot.com/Taming/

If you are comitted, willing to work and research, this can work out.

I strongly suggest that you dont let your daughter handle the parrot for the first couple of weeks. Children move in different ways compared to adults, and are unreliable in the eyes of many birds.
In fact, I wouldnt reccommend a parrot as a pet for a child at all. I dont think they will be able to withhold all reaction from bites, and trust me, there will be biting.

That the parrot is hand reared is by no means any guarantee that you wont have biting problems, screaming problems or that it loves humans. It merely makes them more used to humans, its down to the individual bird.

Please, continue to come to this forum and ask questions, it will help both you and your bird.
Also, do read the WHOLE article I linked as a starter, then dig into the real research and start reading everything you can.

If you arent prepared, getting a bird can turn out quite bad!

[chelenka]

Thank you very much for all your support!

Yes it seems like I didn't think about it beforehand properly, but yes I am prepared to do my homework. I could never have pets when I was a child so now I am compensating that.
I could't have even 1 fish.
Now I understand why because I have fishtank full of tropical fish and I now I know that having a fishtank is an alchemy lol. It was like being in labour until I got everything right.
I have cat as I mentioned before and I want the parrot very much. If I didn't want it I wouldn't get one. So yes I am prepared to do whatever it takes to do thing right.

My husband works in a private company that breeds falcons. His boss let our daughter to hold a baby falcon and bare in mind that they really cost a fortune. Thousands of pounds and still he let her hold that baby and he let her feed it with tweezers as well.

I was shocked when he said yes you can when Mia asked him if she could feed it and hold it.

I contacted the breeder and asked how old Coco is exactly and if she can fly.
He said that she is 11 weeks old and that she can fly although badly.

So my question is, because you said I should not let her near Coco for three weeks.
Are you sure? lol
I would like to put two chairs close to each other and teach it to fly with Mia. I have ordered a clicker and Mia would give her a treat for good performance.
What do you think to this idea?
If you say it is a bad idea I will not do it.

Now I am going to get cracking on with articles anyway Coco is not here yet so I have some time to educate myself.

Thank you all again!!!

Helena

[pennyandrocky]

letting your daughter is a great idea,but i do agree about keeping a distance between her and the just so the bird can get used to your daughters movements 3 weeks seems right to me not alot of time when compared to how long birds live.like cml said birds are more wary of children than adults.wow a hawk your daughter is a lucky girl