New to the Parrot ownership world!

[seagoatdeb]

Pois are not among the parrots that pluck the most, and I believe the reasons are different from the majority. I have only seen two plucking Senegals in all my time in Sanctuarys, and none of the other Pois species. Pois are a very active and independant. Mine spends time on me several times a day, and the rest of the time they are independantly playing. Sunny is obsessed with foraging toys right now, and loves to pull any "stuffing" out of them. Gaugan is opening her food dish door from the outside and climbing back in her cage from there a lot and spending time knocking jars to the ground....lol..... They are constatly hanging upside down on toys, spending hours sometimes foraging in the seagrass mat I stuffed. The rescue Senegals I have had, loved the playgrounds and toys and played independantly on them. Even if it took a while for them to be fine with me, they were always fine with enriching toys, and happy to be busy.

Michaels Senegal performs tricks and is often excited and happy to have complicated tasks to do, and all Pois love complicted tasks. They get very depressed, when there is not enough enriching activity and that may be the main cause of plucking in Pois. If your Joe, is a parrot who is afraid of the outdoors then you do need to go very slow. if she feels safe going out in a cage, then that is very enriching for a Poi too. Joe is still settling in, but the more enriching her enviroment the better for a Poi.

When i brought Sunny home, My baby Meyers, he was afraid of people, but the minute he got to my house he came out of his cage right away and was so excited by all the playgrounds and hanging toys he saw, and i never had a problem with him coming out of his cage, he just didnt want to go back in his cage untill night time. He had been traumatized and was afraid of people but not of toys and he spent a lot of time from the very beginning on all of the toys. The first time he he went on my shoulder and started preening me with happy little chirps was actually when i had taken him out to my daughters house, were he was so happy to flock with her parrots and have different toys to chew on.

[seagoatdeb]

I looked at the lamp that you are talking about and to tell you the truth since it is a full spectrum lamp, it is of far more importance than anyone was saying. It it not the lamp itself that is important it is the bulb that fits in it. That is a specialty lamp and only takes certain bulbs, so here is the thing a full spectrum light to be safe for your bird must have the following specs printed on the bulb, usually on the base, 94+CRI and 5000 to 5500 K Temp. Anything different that this could easily blind or severely burn your bird and it does not take a lot of exposure to do either. I do not let my bird get closer to mine than 3 feet. I use it for the small amount of UV that it produces as they will enhance your birds vision. The full spectrum lights sold for birds claim that it helps them to produce vitamin D-3 and assist in calcium absorption, but this has been refuted by a few independent studies.

You bird does need a bit of unfiltered sunlight on a daily basis ( about 20 minutes) and it is better if it is either indirect or in the shade rather than full on sunlight as the latter could overheat your bird. If the sunlight that your bird receives comes through window screen or glass then the UV portion of the light is filtered out and it does not have the same effect on the bird as the indirect unfiltered light does.

It is normal for your bird to want to eat whenever you eat as this sharing of food is a bonding activity as well as a social event for parrots, instead of giving the bird seeds or pellets at these times, unless that is what you are having, this is a great time to offer them pieces of fruit and vegetables. Of course you should be having some of these at the same time so the bird can see that you are sharing the same foods with it as you are eating, this is important to them.

Just wanted to point out that screens do allow UV in, although some is reflected off. The amount depends on the thickness of the weave. if you have your parrot in screened light for long enough they can get enough sun.

[Wolf]

Well, it might be a geographical thing, but when I bought new Storm doors with the built in screens so that when you open the window the screen pulls down and when we had new screens made for the windows the only screen wire available here in the South was marketed as UV blocking. This is the reason that I include screens in with window glass as filtering out the UV. I am pretty sure that all window screens and window glass let some UV light through, but would not count on it being enough.

[Pajarita]

No, there is nothing that we can do when we keep the birds indoors that would provide them with enough UVB for them to produce sufficient cholecalciferol, they always need to be supplemented D3 but one also has to be VERY careful about not giving them too much (and I also follow the old canary breeder rule of not supplementing it every day). But, of course that even when the sunshine that gets through the screen might not have enough UVB, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy it.

And, Seagoatdeb, ALL species of parrots, including pois, pluck, it all depends on the circumstances and the individuals. Besides, senegals are not as independent as redbellies, the females can be quite Velcro, as a matter of fact -at least, all of mine were and I had three.

[seagoatdeb]

No, there is nothing that we can do when we keep the birds indoors that would provide them with enough UVB for them to produce sufficient cholecalciferol, they always need to be supplemented D3 but one also has to be VERY careful about not giving them too much (and I also follow the old canary breeder rule of not supplementing it every day). But, of course that even when the sunshine that gets through the screen might not have enough UVB, that doesn't mean they don't enjoy it.

And, Seagoatdeb, ALL species of parrots, including pois, pluck, it all depends on the circumstances and the individuals. Besides, senegals are not as independent as redbellies, the females can be quite Velcro, as a matter of fact -at least, all of mine were and I had three.

All Poi females can be on the velcroe side at breeding time and when they are on honeymoon, or traumaticially bonded from the affects of the home before, but I havent noticed them being more velcroe than my other Pois. Resuce Senegals i have had in the past, liked their attention and they played independantly a lot. If they have less toys they will seek you out more. I always make a new toy when a Poi is looking at me for all its interest. But all parrots are different and maybe you got a really velcroe batch. My daughters Senegal, likes her attention, but in her house right now her Meyers likes more and the Conure likes the most. Of course all parrots pluck, I just meant less than some other species. When I have been in rescues, I see a lot of other species like cockatoos, plucking more.

One good way to see if your screen lets enough sun in is if you get some tan colouring from sitting by the screen they are getting some. So if they are getting the screened sun for 6 hours a day, then it is giving them some of their requirements, it is better than not having it. I take my Pois outside, but they get light through the screens too.

[Wolf]

I have my birds where they get sunlight everyday and the windows are open as long as the temperature allows for it. Like everyone else, Even if they don't get enough UVB, they are near the windows and all appear to enjoy it so that is at least still, a benefit for them.

[Jesscat]

I have been putting her rite by a window. There is shade at the window from big trees outside. She is acting on edge even by the window. She is ok being there but making her alarm whistle that tells me she wants something. I will take her outside in her cage again today.

I will research the vitamin rite. I think it's a good idea since she is not getting enough UVB. Any suggestions on brands or places to get it from?

[Pajarita]

I use ABBA's powder one that you sprinkle on soft food.

[Jesscat]

My sweet Joe is letting my boyfriend and I pet her beak, neck, and head! I'm so excited! She is doing very well. I never ended up getting her that light. I do bring her to a couple of different Windows around the house now. My favorite is the kitchen where she sits with me while I do dishes.

She is eating way to much I feel like. I'm going to get one of the scales soon. I think it's time to dab into training. I want to make sure she is at a healthy weight though at all times. She says pretty bird, hello, and I finally heard her say how are you! I think she is also saying thank you! She clicks for me to come over, she also makes a sweet and short quite wissle, it's almost her wining sound I think she does this because she wants something.

She us doing amazing with the kids. She will go rite up to my son for him to hold her. He won't though he is scared to hold her since she bit him one time. It's all good though I don't want him caring her around everywhere. One thing that is weird though is she seems to like my boyfriend and I pretty equally. I think she likes him more because she says more to him. She steps up great with me now from the top of her cage. She is a lot better with that. I found if I put one hand behind her a little she won't run and is very willing to step up to me. We are past the darging at my hand finally!

[Wolf]

I would stop placing a hand behind her to get her to step up. It will work for a while, but it will backfire on you soon enough. Why? First of all because it traps her so that she has no other place to go other than to step up. Secondly it tells her that you are not listening to her when she says no. These things both reduce her trust in you. So what to do... I would start off with just asking her to step up and if she moves away, let her and go do something else for a minute and then come back and try again, simply asking her to step up. If she still does not step up, I would show her a sunflower seed and hold it in one hand so that she must step up onto the other hand to reach the sunflower seed. When she steps up give her the sunflower seed and walk away with the bird on your hand giving her lots of " Good Bird" praise and a head scratch or two. This manner of approaching the step up will help her to trust you more instead of reducing her trust in you. Without a bird's trust you don't have anything that you really want, so stop and think about how you approach any problem and ask if what you want to do will build her trust in you. Of course it helps if you try to do this from your birds perspective.

The next thing that I wanted to ask is what makes you think that she is eating too much? This also causes me to ask you what are you feeding here and when?

I know that I don't have as much experience as some of the other people here on the forum, but it seems to me that if you are feeding your bird the right diet then it is very hard to overfeed them. That is not to say that you can't, because you can, but then it is usually from the overuse of treats more than anything else other than a lack of exercise. With a Senegal flight is their primary means of moving from one spot to another and for all birds is is their primary means of exercise, so the recent clip doesn't help in this regard, but you really did not know and were advised wrongly by people that really should have known better.

Well except to congratulate you on the improvements that you have made in your relationship with your bird, I don't have much more at this time. I do hope that what I have said will help you to continue to improve this relationship.