First blood bite.

[notscaredtodance]

The day has come. She has drawn blood. Just a drop on my thumb.

I was flight harness conditioning and it is actually going really well, she's really comfortable with it. But she loves to chew on the thing, and apart from not wanting her to think it's a chew toy, I just paid 30 bucks for the thing and I dont want it to break. So I put my thumb between her beak while she was gnawing on it, which usually makes her stop and open her mouth, but ouch, not this time.

Today's been a pretty exciting day for her in general. This morning she went outside in her cage and took her first outdoor bath. She takes a shower with me twice a weak but today she got to stand under a little stream of water in the sunshine and hop around in it. Then we made Chop. Or a mix between Chop and the Circus diet. I overestimated, and now have enough to last her a year haha. So I'll be giving plenty of it to my rats, and bringing in baggies of it to the petstore for treats. She got to watch me make the chop in the kitchen, and have a taste while I was bagging it up. So all that, and the flight harness training, she's been a busy girl today.

And funny enough, the first thing I thought when she drew blood was, I hope it isn't poisonous to her!

[Michael]

Ok, big difference between this and an act of aggression. It's just your fault for putting your finger where it doesn't belong!

Seriously though, be careful with Senegal Parrots because they have a very strong fight reflex. Even Kili will bite first, think later. So usually I try to get her attention before approaching quickly cause if I come up on her too fast she'll turn to bite too.

[Brittanyv326]

Maybe it was a bad day for Senegals yesterday. Sadie drew blood for the first time too yesterday... on my boyfriends finger.

[lzver]

Sorry to hear about your bite.

I find that whenever I get bitten now it is usually my fault. I'm usually rushing and not paying attention to the signs/signals they are giving me. I do a pretty good job of getting my finger back and walking away without reacting. Most of the time I wind up thinking 'okay, I deserved that'

[independentminded]

The one and only time that my (now almost-3 year old) Congo African Grey Parrot, Aziza, ever drew blood when she bit me was when she was really feeling out of sorts. I attempted to take her out of her cage for playtime, and she gave me a nasty bite that drew a substantial amount of blood, but not enough so that I had to go and get it sutured up in an Emergency room. It was painful, and embarrassing, to say the least. I later realized, however, that Aziza had been telling me something. I ended up taking her, on an emergency basis, to the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital over in Boston's Jamaica Plain section, because it was a Sunday. The veterinarian on call took a test of Aziza's droppings, found that there ws some abnormal bacteria there, and prescribed a ten-day, twice-a-day course of a widely-used, wide-spectrum antibiotic for birds called Enrofloxacin. I also gave her a pro-biotic along with it once a day, to help restore the normal balance between the good and the bad bacteria within her gut. The ten-day course of Enrofloxacin cured Aziza, making her feel like her old self again. While this was 2.5 years ago, it was such a relief to have her back to normal again!

So, I learned a lesson: Always be attuned to your bird's behaviour and, if she really isn't acting like herself, chances are that there may be something going on that should be checked out and treated as necessary.