My Senegal hates new cage

[deedlebugs]

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I have an now 9 month old Senegal Dennis (have had him since 3 months old) and have recently bought him a lovely big cage!
He used to have a bigger than normal cockatiel cage and slept in an upside down beanie. Since moving him to the "palace" King Dennis will not go to sleep in his beanie no matter how hard I try to get him to ... He seems afraid of the beanie all of a sudden and stands on the perch in a very stiff frightened looking position all night ... he is exhausted! I really don't know what to do.

He is fine in the day ... plays and eating well ... just at night when it's bed time he seems scared?


Do I put him back into the smaller cage again and sell the big cage?

Please if anyone can give me some advice ... worried about the little guy

[Wolf]

Hi;
If you think that he is that tired then set the old cage back up the way that it was and in the same place it was. Let Dennis have a good nights sleep. Then you can begin to introduce him to his new house. This is not an uncommon problem, Senegals tend to be frightened of new things like toys ,perches, dishes or just about anything new. The only new item that I have found that my Senegal is not afraid of is another animal of any kind or size. Introduce an animal and she is right their saying ' I am your new friend and if you don't agree, I am going to bite the *&$%^ out of you.' But give her a new toy and she will run the other way and if she can't run from it she will freeze in terror of it.
The way I see it is you can do one of two things or both. you can keep the old cage and use it for a sleep cage or you can introduce the new cage to Dennis, slowly.
Start by setting up the new cage with perches and food and water bowls and place it near the old cage open the door and hang one of his favorite toys in it along with a treat or two. When you let him out of old cage for play time place him in new cage with door closed for a few minutes. Watch him, when he relaxes and goes after toy or treat you can open the door. Let him come and go in and on it for a couple of days. Next day add another of his toys from old cage to the new cage and so on, trying to place things in the new cage the same as in his old cage. When he is ok with the new cage let him sleep in it during the day. When he will nap in it you should be able to complete the transfer from old to new. Anything new that was not in old cage must now be added one item at a time. Add one item, wait until he is comfortable with it before you add another.

[deedlebugs]

Thanks so much for that Wolf

He has been in the new cage for almost three weeks ... I will take your advice and put him back in the old cage for a goooood nights sleep ... and slowly slowly try the big cage at night in a few days ... will keep you posted as to how it goes ... he is fine in the cage otherwise .. plays, is eating just no sleep

[Pajarita]

Yes, Wolf is right, he needs to have a good night sleep and taking the 'new' stuff out of the new cage and putting his old toys, perches in the new one will help but I think that, if you put all the food and water in the new cage and just leave the door open of both after he sleeps in his old cage, he will eventually start going into it by himself. I would put both cages side by side and open both doors in the morning. Put a perch outside the new cage, next to the open door and put the food dishes right by it. Once you see him eating from them without a problem for a few days, start very slowly moving them inside: first just inside the door, then a little bit more to the back and so on and so forth. Don't force the issue and let him set the pace and he will soon be going into it with no problem.

But, please, observe him carefully to see if he chews the bars of the new cage because that's not a parrot cage, it's a finch or canary flight cage, and those don't usually have safe paint because passerines don't chew.

[Lady]

Oh I wonder how the little guy is doing with his new palace.....
I have been thinking on getting a new cage for lady as well and came upon this post.

[mehak]

Nice post. I like it. Thanks for sharing these information. Keep it up.