my senegal hates me =(

[alliethebirdnerd]

yes, i am fully aware this is senegal owner suicide, and you're right, he completely owns me. =( thats a good idea maybe ill do one toe at a time because he loves being flipped and having his feet played with. i guess i need to be a little more strict with him because he is starting to get at that age. he is a very smart & manipulative little boy and pretty much has my whole family "trained". the good news is though that he is starting to come back around.

[Wayne361]

I have a male sennie and Michael is absolutely correct. You have to be tough. I would go so far as to say some people do not have the disposition to be a sennie owner PERIOD. He needs to know you are the boss. Like a child if they are used to being the boss it will take a bit to reverse the scenario but it needs to be done.

In regards to the nail clipping what I have done is first desensitize to the clippers in general as he was a bit scared of new shiny object. After he didnt show any fear i would place clippers near his feet while he was on his back. After he showed no fear I would touch his feet with clippers and then reward. Touch and reward. Touch and reward etc. At this point he was happy to see the clippers. (Clippers touching feet = reward). Then I would gently squeeze clipper on end of nail, ever so slight at first, then reward. That process was repeated and Oscar realized clippers squeezing nails = reward. I have gotten now to the point where clipping is not any big deal and Oscar will remail calm while doing it. As a precaution I only do a couple nails at a time so i dont overwhelm him and have to start back to zero.

Hope this helps,

Wayne

[Michael]

In regards to the nail clipping what I have done is first desensitize to the clippers in general as he was a bit scared of new shiny object. After he didnt show any fear i would place clippers near his feet while he was on his back. After he showed no fear I would touch his feet with clippers and then reward. Touch and reward. Touch and reward etc. At this point he was happy to see the clippers. (Clippers touching feet = reward). Then I would gently squeeze clipper on end of nail, ever so slight at first, then reward. That process was repeated and Oscar realized clippers squeezing nails = reward. I have gotten now to the point where clipping is not any big deal and Oscar will remail calm while doing it. As a precaution I only do a couple nails at a time so i dont overwhelm him and have to start back to zero.

Hey, that's a great strategy and a great application of positive reinforcement!

I don't bother doing that and just get it done with mine, but it's only because it's infrequent and they tolerate it. But ideally your approach is the way to go!

[marie83]

In regards to the nail clipping what I have done is first desensitize to the clippers in general as he was a bit scared of new shiny object. After he didnt show any fear i would place clippers near his feet while he was on his back. After he showed no fear I would touch his feet with clippers and then reward. Touch and reward. Touch and reward etc. At this point he was happy to see the clippers. (Clippers touching feet = reward). Then I would gently squeeze clipper on end of nail, ever so slight at first, then reward. That process was repeated and Oscar realized clippers squeezing nails = reward. I have gotten now to the point where clipping is not any big deal and Oscar will remail calm while doing it. As a precaution I only do a couple nails at a time so i dont overwhelm him and have to start back to zero.

Hope this helps,

Wayne

What I was trying to say but a million times better. Why I have to make everything sound so complicated I don't know... Lol

[Wayne361]

Hey, that's a great strategy and a great application of positive reinforcement!

I don't bother doing that and just get it done with mine, but it's only because it's infrequent and they tolerate it. But ideally your approach is the way to go![/quote]

Michael you are more than welcome to include this in your new book. I only want 10 percent royalties

[alliethebirdnerd]

yea see its weird because I'm so used to clipping birds who are clipped regularly, by me, so they're used to it and its usually a positive experience for them. even my other senegal,Louie, he's only a year but i just did him for the first time as well because he's good with keeping his nails short on his own too and he had no issue. i agree vergil was probably overwhelmed being 2 yrs old and never having it done before, and like i said the only reason i never did because i never needed to with him. for the most part he's back to normal, and he's for some reason more social with other people which is great . the only thing that has been off still is that he's been giving me a hard time about coming out of his cage which he's never done, and when he's out and calm he snuggles a lot and makes those baby clucking sounds. not sure if he's reverting back to a baby phase for comfort? sennies are such oddballs which is why i love them, and i really think no 2 are ever alike because every one i've met is different. even my two are complete opposites with their personalities. i know they're both very headstrong, and they are both decently trained, vergil obviously just gets away with probably a little more than he should because he's usually so good with me.

[Michael]

i said the only reason i never did because i never needed to with him.

This is a very bad approach. This is how people land themselves in big trouble with their birds eventually. They don't take their bird out of the house, use a carrier, use a towel, and things like that until they need to. Then when the bird is sick (or whatever the thing is), they overwhelm it further by doing these things all at once. This is why I can't stress enough how important it is to introduce birds to anything and everything preemptively, even if it's not an important skill for them now (or even foreseeably). The more things you introduce them to, the safer it is if you forgot something because they are simply used to changes in general. This is why I take my birds on trips and to [url=trainedparrot.com/Carnival]carnivals[/url]. If they can manage hectic things like this, anything else I oversaw would be minor by comparison.

[alliethebirdnerd]

ok but the thing is i DO take him places, i take him everywhere! i take him to family events, have play dates with my friends birds, vet trips, pet stores on some very rare occasion- so he IS socialized, he just has some people/birds he doesn't like, some he does- I'm the same way with people! and he has NO towel phobia he snuggles under towels/blankets with me all the time, he is NOT afraid of carriers or cars, he actually loves car rides. he likes to be flipped, played with, and tickled so i never thought getting his toes done would be an issue. i know what you're saying, but please don't just assume things about me and my birds because i take very good care of them they're my kids, and pretty well behaved ones at that! i really know what you're saying, i see it every day with people who never take their birds out of the house, and bring them in to get groomed and the bird is already nervous because they never see anything but the 4 walls of their cage. i get that, i lecture people on NOT doing that every day! vergil is back to normal anyway he's his normal silly self- brains of a grey, personality of a caique, all wrapped in senegal feathers. like i had originally thought, he was just mad at me but now he's fine. lesson learned- we need to work on him getting over his phobia of toes and clippers. yes, sometimes he gets away with things he shouldn't but i work with him every day, isn't that part of living with a parrot? to work on behavior and learn from each other? i'm not a bad/inexperienced/new owner, this was just something that i never knew he was afraid of because i've never had an issue with my other birds.

[Michael]

Not specifically criticizing you. Just saying the approach of not doing something because you don't need to is a bad approach and I made general examples. This is why I tell everyone to do stuff with their bird that they may not need to so that the bird could do it at some other point.