Cassie's Training Blog - My First Senegal Parrot

[jksmith5151]

Hi everyone,

I have a now 9 month old Senegal Parrot named Cassie. This week is her 5th week home. I was given a pretty good idea about starting a blog for Cassie so everyone can read about her progress. I think this will be interesting to keep up on and share. I'm going to post my experiences, training successes, my mistakes, funny stories, and other things about Cassie here. I have had parakeets and cockatiels for many years but Cassie is my first parrot. I have soooo much to learn but I hope in the end I'll get to say that I've had the best companion for many years. This is our beginning....

Here is a short re-cap of the past few weeks. Then I'll share our exciting breakthrough this week.
Week 1 and 2: Cassie was very scared and wouldn't eat for the first few days. She learned to step up at the end of week 1 and I was so proud of her. She didn't have very many out of cage experiences so I started slowly introducing her to more each day.

Week 3: Cassie was still adjusting to being in a new home. Every now and then she would get scared. One evening she got scared of something (I think) and tried flying to me. It was either that or she thought I left her alone too long. I only went into the kitchen for 10 minutes. lol. I was so happy to realize that she learned to trust me a little more. I also had to teach her somehow not to chew on my shirt and hopefully be a little less nippy. We made a lot of progress but we're still working on that.

Week 4: We started target training this week. I think she's getting the idea of touching the stick very quickly. Her favorite treats I discovered are sunflower seeds, dried corn and grapes. I also started touch training her. I read one of Micheal’s articles on “Basic Taming and Handling” and I liked the idea of working with Cassie’s comfort zone so I gave it a try. Cassie was very fearful of being petted. At first she would try to dodge and get away with anything above her head no matter how far I held my hand above her.

Week 5: Since then, First off I would like to say….

THANK YOU MICHAEL!!!

Since week 4 I kept working with Cassie to have her accept my hand over her. With every try I would make sure that I ended on a good note. I don’t recall how often I worked with her on it but I would say at least a few times each day. Yesturday was the first day she finally allowed me to place my hand over her back for a few seconds and for the first time for a very tiy bit she allowed me to rub her head a tiny bit. I was holding my breath because I so wanted to love on her. I was very much hoping that she was discovering how nice it was to have her feathers rubbed.

I think she did enjoy it because TODAY, Cassie gave me the biggest surprise. After allowing me to finally lay my hand on her back for a tiny bit longer, she suddenly became the biggest cuddle bug!! This morning she allowed me to rub her head and after that, it’s all she wanted every time I held her. It only got better and better. This evening just before I put her in her sleeping cage she was cuddling on my shoulder. She decided to tuck her head under my chin and she fell asleep. Every now and then she would nudge me in asking me to rub her head feathers. She is sooooo sweet. She even lets me hold her beak and kiss her. I think I finally won her love today. So thank you Michael being so helpful and providing your articles and videos.

I very much look forward to what she’ll learn by next week. My short term goals for Cassie: Get her less scared of everyday things. Be more comfortable and confident on the floor with me. Get her to be okay near a window. (She is very scared of the outdoors.)

---- Kimberley Smith

[GlassOnion]

I look forward to reading it!!

Ps... Budgies and Cockatiels are scientifically parrots too.
The term, 'parakeet' defines a 'parrot with a long tail'.

[Michael]

That's fantastic! Keep up the good work. Just don't get too thrilled about progress and stop. Think of training as a way of maintaining relationship for life (since parrots are wild and not domesticated) rather than a means of achieving good behavior and that's it. Many people get excited about training at first and do it regularly then loose interest and stop. But then the relationship slowly deteriorates as well. Get into a routine and maintain it. As long as you keep challenging your parrot with requirements for better and better behavior, your relationship will only grow and good behavior can almost be taken for granted. I'm thrilled that my demonstrations have proven successful for you. That's the reason I created them. I found these methods so helpful with my parrots so I figured they'd help others as well.

[zazanomore]

Ps... Budgies and Cockatiels are scientifically parrots too.
The term, 'parakeet' defines a 'parrot with a long tail'.

"A person's a person, no matter how small"

[Kathleen]

On the forum, we usually hear about people having troubles with their parrot(s) and needing help but it's nice and refreshing to read a success story too sometimes!

[jksmith5151]

Thanks! Oh I am trying my hardest to understand her and do the right things from the start. And I definitely look forward to teaching her tricks in the future. Today she was once again a cuddle bug BUT, it was she who told ME where she wanted her head rubbed. lol. If I wasn't in the right spot, she'd let me know. I had to laugh at her. This morning she lifted her head way up to tell me she wanted her chin (under her beack) scratched. lol. She also tried grooming me in return which was so cute. She is definitely becoming less nippy but I still have to work on getting her to step down when she doesn't want to. Today she wanted to stay with me more than she wanted on her play gym. She nipped my fingers a bit or held onto my finger. Once she steped down though I made sure I gave her her favorite treat. What is really cute though is when I give her a kiss on her beak she's making a kissing sound back at me most of the time. I didn't even start rewarding her with treats for that, she just started doing that. I love it.

We worked on more taming sessions today. She got a little nervous when I wouldn't take my hand off of her back today (soon enough) but this time I kept it there gently until she settled down again. (Hoping it was the right time to try for longer.) She is accepting my hand more easily now. What is funny though is quite a few times today when I put my hand over her head and back she would again make those kissing sounds. lol. What is she thinking?? So far that is her only sound mimic. Maybe soon she'll let me start touching her wings. I also need to work on touching her feet too so it will be easier to trim her nails later on. I tried today but she had no idea what I wanted.

I also got to introduce her to rain today. There was a big storm and when it let up a little I took Cassie in the screened in back porch to watch and listen to the rain and wind. She wasn't too scared so we stayed there awhile. She didn't want to go as far as touching any rain drops on the screen or explore any. Maybe later on she'll be more curious. She doesn't like the outdoors yet but I hope she'll like the outdoors with me someday. Later on I'm going to try to get her used to a harness.

---- Kimbrley Smith

[musskulls]

Can't wait to hear about your progress, I'm trying to train a senegal right now too!

[jksmith5151]

I have a quick EXCITING update! Cassie Talked Today!!! I was doing dishes with her on my shoulder. I think she liked the sound of the water running or she just felt full of herself and lovable. She kept making kissing sounds (her first mimic) and then out the blue she started talking. Not the clearest but understandable. She said.... "Love you... Love you.." a few times. Her voice sounds like a person talking with a very sore throat. lol. I am so happy she's starting to talk. WOW, just amazing.

---- Kimberley Smith

[Kathleen]

Aw, that's such an adorable thing for your bird to learn to say!

[jksmith5151]

The bond between me and Cassie is now pretty obvious I think. lol. I have to laugh at her at times. She now begs for my attention when I'm in her sight. She's also trying her hardest to talk more and more although.... she still sounds like a duck trying to talk a little bit. I hope with more practice she'll talk a little clearer but oh I so love her trying. There was one time today that she said "Love you" much clearer and I made sure she got a treat for that. I think I caught her trying to say something else too but I couldn't quite make out what it was. She LOVES it when I put a higher pitch in my voice. Her pupils get so tiny and she seems glued to what I'm telling her. lol. She also begs for her cuddle time every day, esspecially in the evening before I put her to bed. After dinner I often sit with her while watching a little TV. She gets so cuddly that she often turns her head completly up-side down and lays her beak against my cheek or chin so I rub under her beak or her cheek feathers.

As for her training, I think it's now time to step it up a notch!! I think she's ready. Since I wrote last I've been working slowly to tame her more and more to where she is completely comfortable with me touching her and holding her. I remember it wasn't that long ago that she was really fearful with my hand anywhere above her. Now she could care less if I have my hand completely around her. She's even letting me lift her wings a little bit now. Tomorrow I'm going to hold her more and start picking up from the table. When she's okay with that, I'll start teaching her to lay on her back.

Today Cassie did her first trick! Well... only the start of it anyway. I think a few times she understood what I wanted. She's getting more comfortable with me touching her feet so I thought, hey I'll teach her to shake. I asked her to step but said "shake" instead. What she didn't notice when I started though is that my finger wasn't in position to pick up both feet... only her left foot. So she started to step up, I lightly held her foot, and moved her foot up and down as much as she'd let me, then let her put it down. After about 5 minutes I noticed she let me hold her foot a tiny bit longer. I gave her lots of treats and we had a game of that for about 15 minutes. I think I need a better key work though... maybe "how are ya? ... lol. Not too thought out yet.

I did find new favorite treats to use for training. I bought my son a small bag of dried fruit trail mix snack today and thought, ya know, I've seen this in her seed sometimes (a piece or two here and there) so I decided to let her try some. I gave her a dried banana chip, dried papaya and dried pinapple. She LOVED it! Esspecially the banana chip which surprised me because she won't eat fresh banana. I hope the dried fruit is good for her because she doesn't seem to want to switch to a pellet diet. Her breeder had her on a 80% (or more) sunflower seed diet. I think we're doing much better than at first but I'm still hoping she'll eat more of a variety of fruits and other foods that are good for her. So far, besides seeds, just fresh green grapes, watermelon, chicken, peas, corn, and she seemd to liked scrambled eggs.

I very much look forward to what she'll learn in the next couple of weeks!

--- Kimberley