my senegal hates me =(

[alliethebirdnerd]

hi all,
so today i clipped my 2 yr old nails for the first time since i sexed him when he was about 3 months old. this bird is my baby and he is the sweetest little angel, and he always bites his nails so i have not really had to do it up until now. now i am not a novice at bird grooming by any means, i do it as a side job and have been doing it for years. i do all my other birds as well. but tonight, he was TRAUMATIZED. he has gone back to normal, talking and stepping up for the rest of my family (even though he usually bites them- I'm the favorite) but he screams like bloody murder if i even go near his cage. i don't know what to do. i feel like i have hurt my best friend and he is my little pride and joy and now he hates me. has anyone else had this happen to them?? how can i fix our relationship?? HELP!!!
(needless to say i am having someone else do this to him from now on)

[Michael]

now i am not a novice at bird grooming by any means, i do it as a side job and have been doing it for years. i do all my other birds as well. but tonight, he was TRAUMATIZED.

Perhaps you may want to reconsider your grooming approach before this happens to anyone else.

[marie83]

Go back to rock bottom basics with taming and training exercises, treat him like he is a new, untamed bird until you have earned his trust again.

When you are at this point I would strongly advise you to start working with him and train him to accept being handled gently in the way you would hold him and having his feet handled. When he is fully comfortable with this then you can acclimatize him to having the clippers near his feet (even if you dont need to trim his nails, just get him used to them.)

Its not impossible to earn trust back, I had to do it after Ollie was on medications, he was absolutely terrified of me. In hindsight if I had kept him used to recieving the odd bit of liquid or mushy food from a syringe and spoon I would have had alot less of a problem on my hands when it came to giving him medications. I've learned my lesson and I now keep it in mind to practice things that might not need doing on a regular basis (like nail trimming, pretending to give meds etc).

If your not sure how to go about this read Michaels training blog (links to it on this forum). If you have any questions than feel free to ask. We all make mistakes but trying to foresee potential problems and how you deal with them afterwards when they do arise is important to prevent things getting worse.

Btw, the trust between me and Ollie is alot stronger now than it was before he became scared of me, with effort to continue working on taming and training I can now do pretty much anything with him. So theres even a possibility you can improve on the relationship you previously had with your sennie.

[alliethebirdnerd]

thanks marie,
he is still scared of me, he keeps making a noise at me but is accepting head rubs and treats again. and michael- for the record i have NEVER had a problem with anyone else's bird- every time i groom someone else's bird the bird is friendly to me right after so there is nothing wrong with my approach. i have people who refuse to have anyone else do it but me because i am good at keeping the bird nice and calm. My Vergil tends to be a little melodramatic and takes everything personally. He's one of those birds that will bump his wing on something and act like it's broken, so there is no need to bully me. I'm really sick over this because he's my best friend and he's upset with me. I'm trying to ease him back into our routine and see if that works. Maybe marie, you're right and he'll have a stronger bond than before. If anything good has come out of this, it's that he's making friends with the rest of my family right now when he normally bites everyone else. I just hope that i haven't ruined our bond forever. i'm hoping he's just giving me the "cold wing" for now and that's it. i love my little guy.

[alliethebirdnerd]

and btw i think his problem unfortunately is being restrained. he usually loves to be flipped on his back, tickled, and lets me play with his feet. i think its just when he knows something is up he just freaks out. he doesn't even like to be filed. and if i have to use a towel i don't think he's afraid of towels either because he always towels up with me after we take a shower. regardless I'm just going to have someone else do it from now on, i have had friends have this problem before with their birds and don't do it themselves anymore so they're not the one who the bird takes it out on.

[marie83]

I still feel its all about the taming and training exercises. Theres no reason not to do your own bird if he is trained the right way, sennies are smart.

Ollie didn't just forgive me, if anything his behaviour was getting worse as he realised he could just fly off to avoid me before I started from the very beginning. Our bond only strengthened with the increase in training and taming exercises. I wouldn't leave it to chance that he will get over it on his own. Once I started the retaming it was a really quick process, I had things back under control within a couple of days.

[Michael]

I would still reevaluate your technique if it is even possible for it to lead to something like this. This is why I don't let anyone else groom my birds cause I can't take a chance of them doing this to them.

Now to your misfortune contributes the fact that:

A) The bird hasn't been groomed since it was a baby
B) The bird is already going through terrible twos and possibly into the frightened stage
C) You took your grooming experience for granted and overwhelmed the bird

Salvaging this may or may not be easy. Sometimes it's just a matter of letting them wait it out a few days and things are back to normal. Or you may have to start over again. If the bird has been trained in the past, you're in luck. Re-taming which follows the same procedures but again usually regains trust very quickly thanks to the familiarity of the process. If you never did in the first place, this is a sucky time to start but inevitably you'll have to. This is why I always recommend for everyone to follow the training steps whether their bird is already tame or not.

Truman came super tame out of the box. Still I trained target, step up, recall, and grab to him. Now when he has a moody tantrum and doesn't want to step up or whatever, I just go back to using the training methods and he quickly snaps out of it. Had I not done those initially, I'd be back to square one but in an even worse position to start the training.

[alliethebirdnerd]

yea i realize its kind of my fault because he hasn't been groomed in so long, part of the problem is he always gets away with what he wants because i guess I'm too soft. this is why i didn't do it in the past because i was afraid at him getting mad at me. he is pretty well trained, he can't do crazy tricks like kili but he is very religiously potty trained and he will always step up for me. he is stepping up again, this morning he did bluff at me like he was going to bite but then didn't. he is going back to normal a little because he has been accepting food from me, he's stepping up without a problem, cuddling, pooping when i ask him, and he did take his shower with me. the only thing is he keeps making this weird scared noise but he has talked a little bit which is also good because he only talks when he's happy. i think he's just a little aggravated because last night, he did NOT get his way so he's holding that against me but i think my little baby is starting to come back. he still is hesitant with me but he's acting a little more like himself.

[alliethebirdnerd]

also- what has been your experience with terrible twos? i thought for males they didn't start getting hormonal until about 3 or 4, and it was the females that started early? he hasn't done anything like this before, so I'm chalking it up to him being mad at me. but just wondering how kili was when she went through puberty. everyone else I've met with a male senegal has had it happen around 4. i've heard horror stories about a male that needed hormone shots to control his aggression. but is there another stage around 2? i know in his first year he went through a lot of weird "toddler" phases, and so has my other male. i was always under the assumption that they go through some phases until around 1, and then calm down for a bit then go through more phases around puberty time.

[Michael]

part of the problem is he always gets away with what he wants because i guess I'm too soft.

This is Senegal Owner suicide! Senegals are some of the toughest and most manipulative parrots I have ever encountered. One thing I can tell you for sure is they need a tough owner or they will own you. If you don't take charge, the Senegal will.

this is why i didn't do it in the past because i was afraid at him getting mad at me.

All the more reason to DO it, but in moderation and more gently. Why not play with him, cut one talon and that's it. Then another time cut another. Another time cut two. Why overwhelm him all at once? Especially since you know what to do and are doing your own grooming.

also- what has been your experience with terrible twos? i thought for males they didn't start getting hormonal until about 3 or 4, and it was the females that started early?

It's hard to pinpoint exactly but I'd say Kili was going through the worst from 1.5-3 years. Two comes out to be the middle of it. Things have gotten much better lately. For the last couple years I can see reoccurring yearly hormonal things going on but nothing year round or particularly troublesome. Not sure how it is different in males. But I do know Senegals go through a fearful stage when lots of things scare them. You may have triggered it prematurely from the experience but it may be the age he starts going through it.