New to the Parrot ownership world!

[Jesscat]

I have the most beautiful Senegal Parrot! She or he is so sweet and just over a year old. I have a million question but will start with a couple. What kind of Senegal parrot do I have? I can't post a picture yet but is there a good website to tell? She is pied, I read this is a mutation of genes. Is this something to be concerned about? She says a few things for the previous owner and did a few tricks. She has been with my family for a month now and has adjusted very well. I do have two children that will not leave her cage. We leave often enough to give her brakes from us. I am literally spending all my free time with her and reading up about her. I have been watching Senegal YouTube videos to understand her reactions and behaviors better. I think she loves me. I just got her wings, beak, and nails done. She got super off balanced and fell twice to the bottom of her cage! That was yesterday and today she hasn't fallen but is that normal? Any advice on music for her? I know she likes music and we have dance parties all the time with my kids. She has danced three times for me! I mean her head and her body. I'm really trying to help her adjust but she won't talk for me and I haven't been training her I just want her to love me and get comfortable first.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.

Wolf will reply to your post and ask you more questions to get enough info to help you.

The question I have is how old are your kids? Birds are scared of hands and loud noises.
Birds are prey animals and must learn first that you do not plan to eat him.

[mmeager]

A very big welcome to the forum! For you and your bird.
This is a place with a wealth of information, and many experienced people here to help you, please listen to them, as being a new bird owner can be very daunting, to say the least! There are so many things we don't understand as new bird owners about our new feathered friend, things we may think innocent may not be. Its definitely a journey! But one of the most rewarding journeys you can have, if you do your research and put in the effort needed for your bird, your bird will truly reward you!
I am slightly concerned about your bird falling off his/her perch, but there will be more experienced people here to help you with that.
There is one thing we all have in common here, and that is a very deep love and respect and care for our beautiful birds.

[Wolf]

Your bird is still just a baby and it does not have the foot strength of an adult bird so it is better to leave the nails alone The points may be a little uncomfortable until you get used to them but they help the bird to hang on. Yes, the nail do need a very minor trim and for mine I simply use this perch
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=15079 If you look closely you will notice that the sides are rough and the top and bottom are smooth, this makes the perch comfortable on their feet and the sides wear the points of the toe nails down and dull them. My Senegal like to use them as a sleeping perch, but I also put them by the food and water dishes and have not had to file her nails in the past three years.

Unless there is a medical reason for trimming the beak, pleas leave it alone as it will not need to be trimmed as long as you provide things for the bird to chew up, things such as untreated pine or fir, lilac bushes also provide them with great perches and they will chew the bark off of them so they serve a dual purpose. There are many options for chewing toys as well as foraging type toys in the toy section that will be cheaper than purchasing bird toys. My Senegal, Kiki, loves to chew on plain blocks of pine wood fro the home improvement store, I just buy an untreated pine or fir 2X4 or smaller and cut it into blocks at home. You do have to make certain that they are untreated wood. She also likes cardboard pieces and small cardboard boxes to shred, I just make sure that there is no tape or anything else on the box and make sure that the box is too small for a nest.
The beak is full of nerves and the bird uses it to explore the world around it as well as to hold onto things while climbing and except for if the beak is malformed or the bird has major liver damage causing the beak to grow out of proportion it never needs trimming. I have no idea as to where or how this practice of trimming the birds beak came from but it is not needed and can cause more harm than good, if the beak needs trimming due to medical reasons it should only be done by a certified avian vet and certainly not by a bird groomer.

Wing trimming is another area that I do not recommend to have trimmed unless there is a valid medical reason for it. Letting your bird grow its wings back will give you a much healthier and happier bird. Removing the capacity to fly reduces the birds ability to breath properly because the flapping action of the wings of the bird in flight works like our diaphragm and moves the air through the lung and air sacks of the bird. Birds need this as they do not have a diaphragm to perform this function. Every major system in a birds body is connected to the ability to fly. Flying is your birds primary means of going from one place to another, it is the birds main form of self defense and their only means of escaping from danger. The ability to fly affects the birds sense of well being, it affects their level of intelligence. This single ability affect the bird in every way imaginable from mental proficiency to emotional stability and self confidence and in all sorts of physical manners beginning with the proper functioning of all of its internal organs. For these reasons wing clipping should be avoided if at all possible.

We should also discuss such things as lighting and the birds diet as these things also impact the birds overall basic health and there is a whole lot to learn. All of these before going into the aspects of training, but I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information too quickly. Right at first spending lots of time in the room with the bird talking to it using its name, without asking much of anything from the bird is what is called for to allow the bird to adjust to its new environment and to you. Earning your birds trust is by far the most important thing that you can do. The first month or so is the time that I use to start teaching the bird to eat a healthy diet and to get the bird accustomed to my presence and work mostly on earning its trust and bonding.

Even if you have done a lot of studying about your bird before you got it there are so many areas that you are still not prepared for and so much that the pet store or breeder should have told you about but they usually don't because they are in the business of selling birds not caring for or about them.

Ask lots of questions about everything and we will do our best to see that you get the best information available. The more that you tell us about your bird and its environment the better we can help you.

[Jesscat]

Thank you Wolf!! My boyfriend and I agree that we shouldn't have clipped her wings because she was doing so well here and last night she was acting upset and flapping her wings. I had no idea about the nails and beak. I have a file perch in there so I won't do that again either. Joe was In a home before where an African grey big off a couple of the ends of her toys. I feel like that is why she was falling. It was defentialy go much and with her feet being damaged she had a hard time with balance. When the trainer rescued her from the house with the African grey she had a really bad beak and a lot of her feathers were missing. She looks a lot better and she is so sweet that I have just wanted to make her comfortable. I did introduce her to the avian vet and had her checked. I haven't done the X-rays and all the testing yet. I will in a couple months though.

One thing I am really concerend about immediately is lighting please is the room suppost to be lit up all day? I dim the lights around three usually and she doesn't usually seem to care. There are four windows in the room with heavy curtains on them.

I know it's a bad idea to have him around kids. But Joe really loves my kids. They. Are young children. Me or my boyfriend is around the bird and the kids at all times. We talk with them and teach them about our bird everyday. Most kids probably wouldn't be able to be around parrots but mine are very companionate and caring, very well behaved children. On that note Joe really loves them. They give her the favorite treats. Not all the time just once a day.

[Wolf]

I understand and with what you have just told me, it is possible that the Grey may have also bitten her beak, if so then her beak may need to be trimmed now and then due to the damage, but without pictures it is hard to tell, but a bird groomer is just not qualified to trim it correctly. A bird groomer also doesn't usually do a wing trim light enough to be practical, the almost all just do a severe trim that removes the birds ability to fly which has resulted in many birds injuring themselves because they try to fly and end up dropping like a rock, which we all know is not good. Not all of the perches that are sold for the purpose of trimming the nails are worth having. The one that I posted the link for is the only one that I will use and a big reason for that is that the one I use has the smooth area so it does not bruise or abrade the foot pads that bear the weight of the bird.

Lighting for a bird should be pretty much what you see outside, it is the same as the lighting that the wild bird receive. Most people don't know how light works with a bird, and unfortunately it is one of the things that pet stores and breeders don't tell people about, I suppose that since most pet stores use untrained clerks to sell the birds, that They may have an excuse, although I think the clerks should be trained, but then most breeders don't tell people about the lighting needs of these birds. What makes it bad is that the bird simply can not adapt to a human light schedule and remain healthy. First of all the light that they require begins while many of us are still asleep as it starts when the first light of the coming day begins to lighten the night sky and continues of through the twilight period of the dawn and they must receive this light without the interference from artificial lights, this twilight period work together with the twilight period in the early evening called dusk which runs into the full dark of the night. These two twilight period are different that any other light and are used by the birds internal systems to regulate hormones especially those that are related to reproduction and feather molting. Then there is the normal sunshine that we need to consider, this light is used by the birds body to enhance calcium absorption and for the production of vitamin D-3. Our bird do not require being in direct sunlight as this could easily overheat them so do not place a cage directly in front of a window, rather place the cage to the side of the window. Our birds should be taken outside in a small cage for at least 20 minutes each day so that they can receive unfiltered sunlight. set the cage under a shade tree or in some other shady spot so they do not get over heated. We have to do this because the UV part of the light spectrum is filtered out by the window screens and by the window glass and it is this portion of the light spectrum that is used to make the vitamin D-3. And lastly, our bird should be fast asleep by full on dark just like the wild birds.

Unfortunately, they also don't tell us what our birds should eat either, leaving us with the impression that we should just feed seeds or pellets.

[Jesscat]

You have already given so much great advice! I really appreciate it. I have a really small cage I am using for transfers but I'm getting some extra money soon and I will defiantly invest in another cage. I like the one she has but it's a medium one and I think she needs more room.
When I figure out how to post pictures I will. She is a beautiful bird. I do think she has been doing to much preening. When she does it I ask her sweetly to not hurt her beautiful feathers. Thank you again and I will post more information soon.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Jess! Welcome to the forum! Now, before I go on, let me see if I understand correctly. You have a female bird that is called Joe? Also, you got this bird from a trainer or a rescuer? And how do you know your bird is one year old? Does it have a closed leg band with 2015 engraved on it? Because, if it doesn't, then you don't really know how old it is and, hopefully, it's older than that. I say 'hopefully' because if your bird is indeed only one year old, it would be considered a juvenile and juveniles don't pluck unless they have a very serious medical problem. I also doubt it's a pied. There are pictures on the net of senegals that appear to be pied but, in my personal experience, the 'out of place' yellow feathers are a direct consequence of plucking and not a genetic mutation. Not that there could not be such a mutation because Lord knows it seems that parrot breeders are mostly concerned about getting weird mutations and nothing else...

Now, further to Wolf's posting on light. He talked about the light schedule (photoperiodism -and you can do more research on it, lots of info on the net, just put avian photoperiodism on the search engine and you'll see) but the quality and placement of the light source is also very important. I like good quality full spectrum lights in the ceiling fixture. I recommend Dr. Mercola's full spectrum bulb because it has a high CRI and the right Kelvin temperature (the right specifications would be CRI 94+ and Ktemp between 5000 and 5500). There are avian lamps that clamp on the top of the cage as well as avian bulbs for sale but I don't recommend them. For one thing the avian bulbs tend to have too high an UV output and putting a light so close to a bird can result in burning of their corneas (and rendering the bird blind in the process) or their skin. Always do your own research about bird stuff because the pet industry is completely unregulated and they can say something is good when, in reality, it can be real bad for them.

You might also want to evaluate its diet. The thing with senegals is that they tend to be one-person birds and can be VERY aggressive toward anybody/birdy they perceive as competition for their chosen one's affection - and this aggression is intensified with a bad light schedule (which Wolf already covered) and a high protein diet. Their aggression is also what prompts me to ask you to tell your children not to overwhelm the bird (I would actually tell you to tell them to ignore it but I had children and now have grandchildren and now it would be futile to ask them to do that ). Joe is now on what we call the honeymoon period and that means the best behavior you will ever see from it. This is the period of time that the bird is super nice and analyzing the situation and new people so this is the actual foundation of what his relationship to anybody in the household will be and, when it comes to a senegal and children, you want to do everything exactly right. I used to have a rescue and would take in aggressive birds and of all the mean birds I've had (and I am talking macaws, ekkies, amazons, conures, lovebirds, etc), the worst was, without a doubt, a Senegal. Both of mine were given up because of aggression, the male toward mankind in general and the female against the owner's wife and his other birds until the wife gave him an ultimatum, her or the bird. Senegals are not naturally sweet-tempered birds, they are intensely jealous and completely fearless and a child would not stand a chance against an aggressive sennie, they might be small but their bites are real bad (I have one on each arm right now, courtesy of the male Senegal which is a bit peeved because the female is not 'putting out').

I agree 100% with Wolf about the beak and wing trimming - only when there is medical reason and only done by a professional (groomers are not formally trained for this and, besides, they are service providers so they will always tell you their services are needed whether this is true or not). I worry about Joe losing its balance twice... Unless the nails and wings were trimmed super duper short and the perches are completely inadequate (which I doubt), this should not have happened. Babies are a bit clumsy but at one year +, the bird is no longer a baby so there is some other reason for this instability. Was this bird never vetted by the person who rescued it and later gave it to you? Because, usually, birds only fall from a perch when they are having a seizure or they have neurological problems (their feet actually lock in the perching position if they squat a bit -that is what enables them to sleep without falling while standing on a perch) so, if it hasn't been vetted, if I were you, I would take it to an avian vet asap and not wait a couple of months. Better safe than sorry, right?

[Wolf]

Thanks for the information about this bird's balance issues, While it concerned me and still continues to worry me, I could not really say much about it yet as my knowledge about the causes of it is somewhat lacking and I wanted to do more research before saying anything.

[Jesscat]

Hi well Joe was thought to be a male from the trainer I bought her from. The avian vet I took her to actually all of them there think he is a she. That is were the name Jolene comes from. I think she is pied she is spotted all the way up her head, down her back, and in her front. I hope she isn't imbreaded and that's how she got the color. Because her stripe goes all the way down but there is prominent yellow all over the green I think I just need to find out through a DNA test. My kids and I love the song Jolene please don't take my man. Haha she seems to love it to!

My children have very strict rules around her. They have held her a little bit but only a handful of times with us right there. Her temperament is very calm. She gets a little high strung when chirping but it seems to be all out of happiness. She is very welcoming to my boyfriend. I get her off the cage with a towel on my hand then automatically put her rite on my hand. She hasn't really bit me or my boyfriend. Just little I don't want to do that nips. She did bite my son. She got him good but it was her warning to her to leave her alone. He plays a little with her. I will make it more clear he needs to back off.

The trainer I got her from trained with her probably everyday. He rescued her from the African Grey. Joe would do all kinds of tricks for him. She will say hello to me. I have not tried to train her because I do not have a perch yet.

She does not have the band on her foot. I really don't even know what those are. I have read good and bad things about them though. So the trainer said she could be around a year old.