Dora the Senegal Parrot

[Delrosario]

Dear everybody,

Since yesterday i have a Senegal Parrot of 12 weeks old.
Her name is Dora. she can be very sweet and very funny,
but sometimes she bites. She bites in my fingers, hands and even ears if she sits on my shoulder.
When i walk to the cage, she always falls down of her place, and she gonna run from left to right.
I wait and when she is calm and move forward, she does the same thing.
When i wanna to get her out of the cage, her head is almost out if i want to step her up my finger.
When she's out, and im gonna walk with her or gonna sit on the bank, she is very nice,
but when i want to stroke her, her beak is open en want to grab my fingers.
Does someone have any suggestions or tips how to fix this?

With love,
Delrosario

[Pajarita]

My dear, you have a VERY young baby in your hands but it seems to me (if I misread your posting, I apologize) that you expect her to behave as an adult. Are you handfeeding her? Because the beaking of your fingers is, most likely, hunger. You should just be cuddling her (four to five hours a day for now) and feeding her (different types of soft food as well as hand-feeding her twice a day). Didn't the breeder explain to you how to care for a baby bird?

[Delrosario]

Pajarita, I feed her with some porridge and syrup, she eats by her self out of the manger.
We cuddle her very often. Is it a matter of wait, you think?
The breeder said she didn't did this when he had her.
The breeder said also that we have to feed her by hand for 2 weeks, but i want to feed her longer than that, do you think that is better?

[Eric&Rebecca]

Ideally you shouldn't have been sold the senegal that young. No bird should still be handfeeding when you get it. Its ok for a smaller bird like a cockatiel for example to be that young because they are fully weaned mostly by 6-7 weeks and then are left until 12 weeks to learn to be fully independent. A senegal should be older than that before being let go.

You have the bird now, so listen to what Parajita has to say because she knows what she talking about. We have different opinions and ways of doing things but she will be one of the best people to help you right now. What she has said so far is correct.

[Pajarita]

Porridge and syrup does not have enough nutrients, my dear. Can you get some hatchling formula where you are? If not, you can make your own. There are several recipes on the net but, in a pinch, you can always mash up a hard-boiled egg, add a bit of whole grain flour (like whole wheat, rice, potato, oat, corn, whatever you can get your hands on) and some fruit juice but not from concentrate, freshly squeezed if at all possible. You can also add pureed carrots, pumpkin, sweet potatoes (you would have to cook them first, of course). Baby birds need a lot of cuddling and just sitting with them on your lap with your hand lightly covering their body is good enough as it resembles the mother bird sitting on the baby to keep it warm and that's another thing you need to take into consideration: temperature! Babies need high and constant temperatures (85F - 90F) so I always recommend using a heating pad. Some people like to use a lamp but you would have to cover the light (it hurts their eyes -parrots' nests are very dark and they need the darkness to develop their eyes which are not fully finished when they are born). It seems hot to us but it's not to them because they have a higher body temperature than we do and the warmth helps them digest their food better.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I agree

I make my own but EMP is a good enough premade alternative.

[Delrosario]

The breader gives me this porridge, he told me to add some juice concentrate, (here in the Netherlands is it RoosVicee) just for tast of sweetness and vitamins, he told me this would be enough for 2 weeks of hand feeding. In my living room its always the same temprature, the cage is on a spot where there will be no sun. The beaking to my fingers has become less, she only now nibbles. I ordered a harness for taking her out, I think that will do her good.
I also have a dog, and when my dog needs to go out for a walk, she begins to squeak very soft, about 2-4 weeks i have my harness and we can try a walk with everybody!

[Eric&Rebecca]

Concentrated juice?- as in fruit juice?

Also you're jumping way to far in with the harness training. This is definitely something you should be looking at so that's great but there's a huge amount of preparatory training needed before you can start harness training. You should also wait until the bird is a few weeks/months older which will give you time to start preparing th basics of the trainings- this should not be done until after the handfeeding has been completed for at least 2-3 weeks.

Also to get fresh air you can get a travel carrier or smaller cage and palce this outside or take it with you, take a cover in case. I do this with our cockatiels in the garden and they love this equally.

You need to use or at least read through Michael's training guides on how to get to the stage of harness training. Its not just a case of put the harness on and off we go- unless you want to be missing a finger

You will have to wait until your bird is a few weeks older and not being hand fed at all to start even basic training- even if he's hand reared.

[Delrosario]

Of course, i ordered the harness by Michael
I already saw some training movies on youtube.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Oh good, sorry for my misunderstandings. But really you can get them used to the outside in a travel cage. Its nice for them