Socialization

[ceruleansilver]

I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with the tendency for aggression in some Senegals, and unfortunately I am one of those stupid people who figured the cute baby stage would last forever and got a rude awakening about a year ago. My bird, Tengu, has become vicious, and was very aggressive towards me until I let him grow out his wings. Since then, he flies away from me when he gets upset, and I let him out of his cage and wait for him to come to me, which solved the problem of him biting me shortly after being picked up. I figured he liked things on his own terms.

Now, I also have a boyfriend who would very much like to be friends with my bird. Tengu has always had a preference for females, and has been DNA tested to show that he is male. Tengu will fly to females and will sit on their heads, but males he flies straight at and bites viciously, frequently going for the soft fleshy bits. Recently, I convinced my boyfriend to play on the computer, being vocal, while wearing a hoodie. I sat on the bed, watching, with Tengu. This resulted in Tengu flying to him and sitting on his hoodie. Tengu was occasionally aggressive, so I sprayed him with a squirt bottle (because there is so much at stake, like getting bitten on the face) whenever my boyfriend was attacked. Eventually Tengu gave up on my boyfriend, and started leaving him alone altogether. I told my boyfriend to take down his hoodie, and sure enough, Tengu was still uninterested. If my boyfriend mimics Tengu, Tengu will mimic him back, and eventually attack. Otherwise, they get along fine just with my boyfriend talking while Tengu sits with me on my bed.

And now, the reason for my life's story. I very much need advice on how to proceed. I would like Tengu and my boyfriend to be on good terms. I've played bad cop to my boyfriend's good cop with Tengu, he gives treats, I put Tengu away, my boyfriend opens the cage to let him out, etc. My boyfriend can even get Tengu to do basic tricks like 'wave' and 'bob'. But my boyfriend wants Tengu to be friendly towards him, and so would I. The tension is killing my relationship with Tengu. It makes playtime stressful, and I have to keep it to a bare minimum. But specifically, I want to know what I should do next. Should I encourage my boyfriend to approach him while Tengu is next to me? Should I leave Tengu over next to my boyfriend? Should I leave them in a room together, minus me? Tons and tons of treats? Tengu is very phobic, so one step forward, two steps back, if I screw this up...

Any feed back is much appreciated. I always love reading what you guys have to say, and a lot of it has helped, like the good cop bad cop thing I've heard about from some other sennie owners.

Tengu is roughly 3 yrs, male, and of the nominate species.

[marie83]

It sounds like you have made a good start now.
Have a look through this thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528
Also look to Michaels blog because I'm sure theres an article on there about socialising birds.

If you have any further questions or anything then please post again. I'm sure we would all be interested in reading any updates you have, I know I would be.

Good luck

[ceruleansilver]

Thank you for the wonderful article. I think some of the things I will be unable to do, like take Tengu to a new room (because he flies into windows like a doofus in unfamiliar surroundings, another issue entirely I suppose that also needs dealing with once Tengu stops also trying to eat guys' faces, my priorities are a little lopsided), but I think the training diet is a wonderful idea, and now that Tengu has stopped flying to my boyfriend, perhaps we can start training again. Tengu cannot be handled by my boyfriend, because he's phobic of gloves (literally, if it is in the room, he will just fly in circles, part of the reason for growing out his wings besides decreasing aggression was it also decreased incidents of him hurting himself flopping on the ground away from objects he was terrified of). The only way to handle him if he's not being cooperative is good ol' bare hands grabbing, where I put my palm on his back, put two fingers around his throat, and gently pull him back against my hand till he lets go of whatever he's not supposed to be in. This results in a weird catatonic state, but my boyfriend is entirely uncomfortable with this, and Tengu has a tendency to lunge at lightening speeds just when you think everything is going perfectly.

Thank you so much for the encouragement, I think this is the most progress I've ever had, which is why I'm nervous to screw it up.

[Michael]

http://TrainedParrot.com/Socialization

[ceruleansilver]

My only problem with this technique is I tried it and Tengu immediately flies for the fleshy bits. He comes out, he flies, he flies onto the face, he bites. Even if the person is ignoring him, the only exception now being my boyfriend due to the innnaccesibility of his fleshy bits via hoodie intervention. In fact, my dad poked his head into my room while I was holding Tengu, and Tengu flew at him, I swatted Tengu away, Tengu circled the outside room and came right back for his face a second time (then I caught Tengu). My dad hadn't even said anything. Some girls have volunteered with similar results, of him immediately flying at them, just usually not at the eyes.