rummaging

[fiona5260]

Hi, I am new to parrot care. We inherited our senegal parrot when his previous owner became ill. His name is Mo Farrat and he loves my husband and hates me. He sits on his head and shoulder and glares at me. Recently we put straw in the bottom of his cage to se if it would entertain him. He now spends happy times rooting through it for bits he has dropped and sometimes looks as if he might be making it into a bed but never settles in it and goes to sleep. In the wild would he have foraged on the floor at all? that would seem a pretty risky place to be. He didn't like the furry hanging bed I got him and ate the wooden nest box. He eats a fairly restricted diet although I offer him all kinds of fruit and veg along with his mix. Any ideas to entertain him or make sure he is receiving the best nutrition are welcome.

[Harpmaker]

Welcome Fiona!

My Meyer's parrot (possibly Senegal's closest relative) will toss her less favored veggies out of the food bowl (usually broccoli), and later go down to play with/munch whatever doesn't fall through the grating or leave the cage. I try to remove the ones that are contaminated with droppings before she gets them.

All parrots need toys to destroy. See the thread on this forum about making toys. You can also buy them, but not all manufacturers use "parrot safe" materials, so you might need to replace some parts.
The wooden nest box sounds like a toy he enjoyed. A list of safe/unsafe woods is here http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml

Pajarita is our most experienced member in parrot nutrition, but start by offer a variety of parrot safe fruits, veggies, and whole grains, and keep offering until he tries it. Some of the good and bad choices are here: http://www.upatsix.com/chats/avian-diet-discussion/topic109164.html

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum. Senegals don't need nests, boxes or huts, they would much rather roost in the highest point of the cage on a branch (I always put a branch catty corner and higher than all the other ones for this specific purpose).

As to his diet, I don't know exactly what you refer to as his 'mix' but, if it contains high protein (seeds, nuts, pellets), he won't eat much produce as long as the high protein food is available to him 24/7. High protein is not easily found in nature in abundance and it's absolutely necessary for breeding, raising young and growth so parrots are programmed by nature to gorge on it when they find it - only, in the wild, when it's found, it's not only a finite source but it's also shared by the rest of the flock as well as other animals so free-feeding high protein is not really healthy for them in the long run. Try figuring out how much he eats of it for dinner. I go by the size of the species crop and give them enough to fill it up for dinner. This is consumed almost in its entirety for dinner so, by the next morning, there is none left to speak of and, after the entire night fast, they are good and hungry for the healthier food. This is when you should offer the vegetables, fruits and leafy greens. I mix cooked veggies (corn, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, white hominy, butternut squash, green beans) with cooked whole grains (wheat, oats, barley, kamut, brown basmati rice, etc) and pulses (lentils and small white beans) so there is 50% veggies and 50% grains and pulses (I also add some flax seed to it and, before and during molt, sesame seed), this, accompanied by raw produce (I do one single fruit, one veggie and one leafy green or cruciform -a different one every day- because I've found that, if I give them several, they will pick and choose and end up eating the same stuff day after day). I have a few real good eaters that would chow down practically anything I put in front of them but most of them would pick and choose).

Ny sennies favorites are fresh corn on the cob lightly steamed so it's still very crunchy, baked sweet potatoes, sugar snaps (the female adores them) and beets. They are a bit picky about their leafy greens but they love the red Swiss Chard stalks (they only get it once every ten days or so because it's high in oxalates). As to fruits, they pretty much like all of them but red grapes, apples, oranges and blackberries are their favorites. Tell your husband to get up a bit earlier so he can have 'breakfast' with him and putting him on his shoulder, to eat a piece of fruit while he offers some to him. It might take a few tries but he will eventually start trying them. And, when he has him eating a variety of them, he can start having veggies for breakfast -not my favorite thing in the world but it's just one of the minor sacrifices we need to make for them.

[fiona5260]

Thank you for your help, I am giving fruits one variety a day because as you say he will just root through and choose his favourite. He likes warm food, particularly corn on the cob and I have introduced more greens but he tends to just shred these. My husband is making him dofferent arrangemets of twigs which he destroys but we still buy him some from the shop. His forraging on the floor has tuned into an obsessive digging which he starts as soon as he wakes and then continues until he's tired. Sometimes I catch him with a piece of fruit in his beak at the same time as if he is trying to prepare a place to hide it. He has cardboard on the floor under the straw and we took out the grill on the bottom of the cage . he is cleaned out every other day. He digs so ferociuosly that he almost turns himself over. Should I put some new stuff in to distract him, I'm worried he will exxhaust himself or hurt himself, he must have the thigh muscles of a marathon runner by now. Help

[Wolf]

I would replace the grate in the bottom of the cage as it is not healthy for him to rummage through his poops. I would think that the fruit that you catch him with is probably a piece that he dropped earlier. My Senegal will drop food and go get it later during the day if it has not dropped through the grate, but I have never seen her trying to hide any food for later, this is not to say that they might not, just that I have never seen any inclination to do so. If yours is shredding his greens then there is a possibility that he is eating some of it although you might need to watch carefully to know for certain.
If you live in the northern hemisphere, some of the digging around may be nesting behavior because it is breeding season in the northern hemisphere right now, and so I suspect that he would be cleaning out his nesting hole. Again I wouldn't swear to this because I don't know for certain if the male involves himself with doing this or if it would be just the female that does this activity.
I am curious since we haven't heard from you since last year, is your husband still his favored human or has he changed his loyalties towards you? I ask this because when my Senegal first came to live with us, she chose my Lady over me right from the start and then a few months later she changed her loyalties and I became her favored human. What is his current diet ? Do you have any pictures of him that you could be persuaded to share with us?

[Pajarita]

My male doesn't scratch the floor at all, instead, he looks for little caves ceaselessly during breeding season. And, yes, we are in breeding season and he has already been confronted several times by my quaker and her boyfriend because he keeps on insisting on getting inside their nest (a cardboard box I place inside an empty cage they took for themselves when breeding season started)

Please do not use straw as bedding for parrots. As a matter of fact, don't use anything but paper and change it every day. Any kind of bedding is a breeding ground for aspergillus and if it catches the bird with a depressed immune system (which is, unfortunately, VERY common with pet parrots), you will have a devil of a time getting him rid of it - if it doesn't become chronic! Also, you can't judge quantity and quality of poop effectively with bedding, you need paper for that, and poop should always be checked twice a day because it's one of the first symptoms we get when they get sick.

[fiona5260]

Thank you, we will change the bedding for paper. Though we do give fresh every other day. He still prefers my husband but then he sits with him more. Mo grooms charlie and sits on his shoulder and chirrups with him very happy. He takes no notice of me. Although I bring him fruit and fresh water evrey morning and try to start up a conversation with him I don't ssit with him like my husband does. We do live in the northern hemisphere so maybe he is nesting. He is choosy about the toys and structures we create for him, some absorb him totally and others he ignores. Since we only gave him a a home because his owner became sick he has made a big impact upon our family and we hope to give him a good home

[Wolf]

Well parrots are funny creatures and they choose who they will to be their special human and it doesn't matter to them, generally, if that person is the one who gives them food and water or if that is the person who cleans up after them or sometimes even if that person likes them or not. There are even birds that have chosen for their special person people who are terrified of them. No one has any idea as to why they choose who they choose to be their special person. Sometimes they will change who that person is but not very often.
Based on what you have said your husband is likely to remain as his special person. You can't effectively do anything that I am aware of to change that, but you can still develop a good relationship with him so that he does not attack you and accepts you as a member of his flock.
If you can spend some time with him when your husband is not available, time to just talk with him and offer him the occasional treat you may be able to win his trust and even his friendship. It may even help if your husband hands him off to you when you are all together. But there are no guarantees as to whether this will help or not, but it is usually worth the time and effort to at least try. I am not certain if this is the best time to try this or not because since it is breeding season and some of his behavior is caused by hormones, he may or may not be as receptive to this as he would be after breeding season has past. Or, this could be the ideal time to try this, but I have no prior information related to the timing of this to assist me in making any recommendations. My Senegal switched her special person from my Lady to me after the breeding season was over. But I am the primary caregiver for all of our animals due to the fact that I can no longer work out in the marketplace, and have been so since the beginning which means, in my opinion that you are already halfway there.

[Pajarita]

Yes, they will choose who they choose... even people who are terrified of them and that's the case with two of my parrots who chose my husband But both of them are fine with me, it's only that if my husband is around, they would much rather perch on his shoulder and will bite me if I try to get them off (which I never do anyway). So don't lose hope and keep on trying (do you open his cage so he can come out on his own when your husband is not around?).