Hello!

[Danni]

Hello everyone!
My name is Danni and I'm new to the forums and parrot ownership.
Although I am a beginner, I have worked with many smaller birds (No macaws or anything yet!) Right now, I just have a young Senegal named Jasper.

I look forward to meeting all of you!

[Pajarita]

Welcome, Danni and Jasper! You do know that Jasper is a girl, right?

[Wolf]

Yep, Jasper is a girl and a very pretty one at that. How old is she and how long have you had her?

[Danni]

Welcome, Danni and Jasper! You do know that Jasper is a girl, right?

Thank you!! I don't know for sure yet. I haven't yet had the money to DNA sex her. I've been too busy buying her lots and lots of toys. I plan on doing so very soon though.

Yep, Jasper is a girl and a very pretty one at that. How old is she and how long have you had her?

I think so too! Everybody I've ever had spend time with her assumes she's a female as well. I don't know for sure but she was much smaller than her confirmed brother!
She's very young; only 18 weeks. I've had her for a week and a half now, actually. However, I have visited her and spent time with her as early as four weeks old. As I said in my post, I'm VERY new to this. Ahaha!
I still have a lot of learning to do but I'm ready for the challenge and the long journey Jas and I have together!

[Wolf]

You can spend the money for a DNA test, but Senegals are sexually dimorphic, so they are easy to tell apart. The " V" of the vest is short and only goes partially down the front of the male, about halfway down to the legs usually, On the female it often extends down to the legs. I have a 7 year old female Senegal.
What are you feeding her?

[Danni]

You can spend the money for a DNA test, but Senegals are sexually dimorphic, so they are easy to tell apart. The " V" of the vest is short and only goes partially down the front of the male, about halfway down to the legs usually, On the female it often extends down to the legs. I have a 7 year old female Senegal.
What are you feeding her?

I've heard that from a lot of people. Some tell me that it's not always true but I'd like to believe that saying as well. Most of the females I've seen have that deeper 'V' like Jasper. I'm 99.8% positive she's a female. Just because of her behavior, size, and colors.

I'm feeding her what she was on at the breeder. The Zupreem Fruit Blend in Medium. I may switch her over to a less colorful pellet though...? I have to do more research on the brand. Not sure if the artificial coloring and sugar is a problem. I've heard great word of Roudybush.

In the morning she gets fresh fruit and veggies, although she doesn't seem interested in them.I'd like to start training her but I simply cannot find a food that she's crazy about. Cashews, safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, millet spray, dried papaya... Closest I've gotten is corn.

[Pajarita]

No, she is a female, no doubt about it. As to her diet, you should be feeding her some soft food on a daily basis but, most of all, you need to get her off those pellets as they are the worst ones in the market. I have 2 senegals right now, a male and a female, but I had four in total and they all do very well on gloop (although you can also do mash or chop -I don't because my birds don't like them while they all love gloop) and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking, and a good seed/nut mix for dinner.

I would hold on the training until she is a juvenile and bonded to you. It doesn't do to send toddlers to school and it doesn't do to train a baby bird to do tricks... There was a trend some years ago to start teaching kids while they were still babies/toddlers and everybody was astonished at the fact that their IQs were so much higher than the kids that were just playing games but, as they grew up, the kids that just played games did not only catch up both in IQ AND knowledge but were actually much better adjusted and had higher developed social skills than they ones that were taught when toddlers. There is a season for everything in life and trying to speed things up doesn't work out in the long term. So, please, just love and enjoy your baby for now. Mind you, step up and step down is not really training as they do it on their own and, in truth, that plus trust and love is all that is needed for a good relationship between a parrot and its human.

[Danni]

No, she is a female, no doubt about it. As to her diet, you should be feeding her some soft food on a daily basis but, most of all, you need to get her off those pellets as they are the worst ones in the market. I have 2 senegals right now, a male and a female, but I had four in total and they all do very well on gloop (although you can also do mash or chop -I don't because my birds don't like them while they all love gloop) and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking, and a good seed/nut mix for dinner.

I would hold on the training until she is a juvenile and bonded to you. It doesn't do to send toddlers to school and it doesn't do to train a baby bird to do tricks... There was a trend some years ago to start teaching kids while they were still babies/toddlers and everybody was astonished at the fact that their IQs were so much higher than the kids that were just playing games but, as they grew up, the kids that just played games did not only catch up both in IQ AND knowledge but were actually much better adjusted and had higher developed social skills than they ones that were taught when toddlers. There is a season for everything in life and trying to speed things up doesn't work out in the long term. So, please, just love and enjoy your baby for now. Mind you, step up and step down is not really training as they do it on their own and, in truth, that plus trust and love is all that is needed for a good relationship between a parrot and its human.

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I'll spare myself the $40! Haha.

I had a feeling that these pellets weren't the best... The colors of it just send up a huge red flag for me. Looks more like a fruit flavored sugar cereal than parrot food in my opinion. I'll have to see if I can find some recipes for this Gloop! If it'll keep her happy and healthy, it's worth a try. All the pellet brands I've been researching have had positives and negatives.

Thank you for you input on the training aspect as well! There is so much conflicting parrot advice. I love hearing about what works best for everybody else. I'll stick to just bonding with her for right now. Training can come much later.

Being completely new to this, I'm probably trying a little too hard to get everything right! I really appreciate your time to help steer me in the right direction. Thank you again!

[Wolf]

Yes, they are sort of like the puffed up dyed, sugar loaded cereals that some people give their children, and just like the kids they like to eat this junk food. All pellets have pros and cons, with more cons than pros, in my opinion. Starting with the dryness, the chemicals used to preserve and enhance flavor, then there is the artificial vitamins which are hard for the bird to use and of course soy products which some birds are allergic to. We can add the lack of micronutrients to the list and these are just off the top of my head. I guess that one could say that I am nota fan of pellets.
Look in the diet section for a thread called Gloop for dummies, that will help you get started.
One of the biggest reasons for all of the conflicting information is that up until the 1970's there was little to no research having been done on parrots, this only came about because of the boom in the exotic bird trade as no one would fund the research until there was a demand for it. So almost all of the research on parrots has been done in the past 20 to 25years and is all new.

[Pajarita]

Wolf is correct on the research aspect and I'll add something else to it: all the research into pellets as a diet used only seeds for the control group and were short term studies (11 to 18 months) which renders them completely unusable as parrots will not really show any kind of deficiencies or problems in their internal organs (birds were then killed and opened up to see how the diet had affected their livers, kidneys, muscles, etc) in such a short time. It's like feeding a child McDonalds for the first 8 years of his life and saying there's nothing wrong with eating this for the rest of a human being's life because the kids test results were all normal... Ridiculous!

Now, let me clarify the training part. You will be training her, only it will be done as you go along without any real sessions and by repetition and persistence - the way a parent teaches a kid not to touch the stove, play with knifes, lean out of the car open window, etc.