New, and my Senegal has some "Issues"

[Noodlecakelol]

Six months ago, or a little more I bought a 18 year old Senegal Parrot, named Xilo.
I bought him from a lady that no longer had the time for him, and he adjusted to us really well!
but in the six or more months that I've owned him he has not once played with any of his toys, we've tried everything..
He came to me in a really small cage, because they usually always had him out, but I bought him a really nice new parrot cage that he loves (:
So he has a lot of room! and a play top on his new cage!

But in his old cage he only had one really old toy, that looked like it hasn't been played with once..
So as soon as we could when we bought him we got him a verity of new toys and introduced them to him slowly, But he refuses to play with them.
in the six months, I have only seen him touch one of them once, and it was only him hanging from it, to see what I had in my hand.
the other times I've seen him interact with them is when they bump into him and he attacks them out of anger..
he acts like he has anger issues?
he is extremely territorial over his food, when ever I change his food or water, he fly's across the cage trying to attack me.
or even when I put treats in his dish he will fly and try attack them..

When we got Xilo he had a bald spot on the back on his head and still does..
He does not have mites or anything, we read about it and it may be because he has been attacked by another bird before? ( when we got him the lady did say he doesn't get along with other birds )
I can't eat with him near me because He will try to get it, and if it's something he can't have and I tell him "No." he will usually bite, or get mad.

we have no idea what has happened to him in the past..

the only time I have seen him " Play" or anything along those lines, is when he in on me.
he will get happy and lick all over my face and make kissie noises to me and play with my earrings, he will also play with decorative things on shirts and break them off and scatter them everywhere..

we have tried to play with the toys in front of him to show him how to play and "How fun it is."
but when ever he shows interest and tries to interact with it, all he does is attack it out of anger and scream at it..
I have also tried getting the foraging toys and showing me putting his favorite treats inside of it so he knows they're there and he ignores it completely.
we have also tried playing with toys with him, and still nothing
all he wants is to be on me or my moms shoulder, nothing else..

he also refuses to take a bath! we have also tried everything with this, and he just straight up does not like water, or toys..


is it possible for a parrot to be bipolar..
because if it is I'm pretty sure he is..
he has never bitten me Hard ever though, just a warning bite if I have food and don't give him any of it..
all he want's is human interaction, and he is out all the time.


I also think he semi has separation anxiety, because he will Scream and freak out every time me or my mom go out of his sight..
we move his cage to our living room during the day so there is always someone around him but once he's alone he freaks out..

he also makes this one super high pitched noise that scares my dog so bad and we can't figure out a way to get him to stop? my dog is really old and we're scared he may have a heart attack.

anyone know how to get him to play with his toys? because the times where he is not out I feel horrible because all he does is sit there.. :/

also anyone recommend anything else..?
I really don't want to get rid of him because He is my baby!
and I've had birds all of my life,even raised them! and he is the first bird I've owned to be like this?

there is still a lot more about Xilo that is not on here (:

[liz]

He has been moved to a different world and all he thinks he has for himself is his cage. It isn't food possessive but cage possessive. You have to be fast and get away from his cage to teach him that you are not taking it from him.
It is sad that he does not play with toys. I didn't even think of giving Rambo a toy because he spent his time with a flock of humans. Myrtle came with on dirty toy so I got her more. She taught Rambo to play with them.
I take food off my plate to set up a plate for my Amazons. I put what they can have of my meal on their plate and they think I have shared it all. When snacking Myrtle will try to take it from me. I have taught her "mine" and she understands but will throw a tantrum until my snack is gone.
Before this she would grab my dish and drag it to her or grab my cereal bowl and make me spill it.

[Wolf]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

May I ask what birds you have had in the past? I really must ask because with the possible exception of a minor issue , I am seeing a normal Senegal and a bit of misunderstanding. The misunderstanding may be due to the differences in the species of parrot/ bird that you are more accustomed to.

I know that I am doing this without a lot of detail to back me on this but allow me to attempt to explain any way. First issue was toys. Since neither of us know what his past was it is possible that he does not know what these toys are and so is either afraid of them or just doesn't bother with them If he doesn't know what they are and has not had many toys to play with in the past, at 18 yrs. of age it will probably take more time to teach him about them. As for the foraging toys, it might be worth trying to put the treat in the toy and then showing him how to get the treat instead of just showing him the treat going into the toy.
When you say that he attacks his toys and you describe him as being angry, I just about fell off my sofa laughing( I don't mean to be rude) because this is normal for Senegals and also for many other parrots. In the wild, they don't have toys, but they do play with things, the majority of the time a human would think that the plaything is his worst enemy and that the bird can't live until he kills it. Which in a way is true because most parrots play with toys sort of like a life and death fight, he is excited and I would not put my finger down there while he is attacking his toy or you will get bitten, hard, but he is not angry. This is normal parrot behavior.

Senegals are territorial and will protect their things beginning with their nest area ( the cage) and anything in it. You can't really win on this one so accept it and clean the cage when he is occupied elsewhere and have food and water ready and don't waste time changing them or he will be right there trying to defend his dishes from you taking them. I don't even bother with reaching in Kiki's cage when she is in it. She is my Senegal. I open the cage door she comes out and from there is as sweet as can be.

Birds do not eat alone! look outside and watch the birds eating, there is always another bird or two either eating with it or nearby keeping watch. Parrots are flock animals and they expect to be part of a flock, in the case of captive birds, you are their flock and when you eat they want to eat with you and they want what you have to eat. Suggestion... improve your diet and set your bird a plate at the table when you eat and put some bird healthy food on his plate and on the outer edges of your plate in case he comes over to steal some from you. It may be exactly the same food but somehow yours is better, because you are eating it. Again, this is normal parrot behavior.

When Kiki, Senegal is out of her cage ( a lot) she thinks that her place is on me and no other place will do as well and except for when my Grey makes her leave that is where she will be found, this is also normal as they are one person birds and only want to be with their chosen human 24/ 7.

The bathing is the hardest on as my Senegal does like to take a bath. However she is picky as to when and how. It must be the right dish or she won't use it. You could thy misting her, taking her to the kitchen sink and turning the water on a little, make sure there are no sharp object around for het to get hurt with and not open containers with water in them and the stove or other hot things have cooled off so they are safe to touch. He may take a bath in the sink. You could also try taking him into the shower with you, but the water should not be more than room temperature, many people shower with their birds. You may try asking the party you got the bird from about bathing the bird and what they did or used.

All of these are normal behaviors in most parrots. Please tell us more about your bird and we will try to let you know what is going on and how to deal with it better.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the fourm, Noodle and Xilo! First of all, do you know for a fact that you have a male? Because, if you are not sure, all you have to do is post a front picture of the bird and we would be able to tell you.

Now, playing. This is one of the few points in which Wolf and I don't agree. He believes that parrots play in the wild while I don't. Now, my birds hardly ever touch a toy but they do have other birds and they are out of their cages for many hours every day so I don't worry about it. In my personal experience, birds do two things with toys: 1) they fight against it (this is called displaced aggression and it's not a bad thing, actually) 2) they chew them. Now, my senegals never actually play with anything but they do chew their toys IF they are exactly the kind of toy they like for this. The ones they like are the ones made out of natural, soft fibers like raffia or straw they can pull out, chew and/or shred easily. Kind of like this one:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=16407

Your bird might not like this particular kind so what you need to do is figure out which kind he prefers.

Separation anxiety: Yes, they all have it. Parrots were created to be NEVER alone, they are born into a large family and live their entire lives surrounded by it so, when they are alone, they get very anxious and show it by screaming (they can also pluck their own feathers and even bite chunks out of their own flesh, the poor things). And yes, again, they do make this real high pitched scream that is real bad. They are considered one of the 'quiet' parrots but that's because they are compared to all the other species and, in truth, once they are happy and have company, you hardly ever hear a peep out of them (I have two, one male and one female).

Food: is like Wolf told you, they ALWAYS want what we are eating (or what another parrot is eating). Parrots eat all together in the wild and it's more than just a habit to them, it's a real social occasion so sharing food with them is perfect for creating a bond (you would be showing him that he is part of the family) BUT they can't eat regular people food because they can't eat anything made out of animal protein (like meat, milk, cheese, eggs, etc), with salt or preservatives, fried or stewed so, what you can do is put some nice raw veggies on your plate and share them with him.

Why don't you tell us a bit about what his diet is, when he gets up, when he goes to sleep, what you do with him, etc?

[Noodlecakelol]

Thank you guys for replying (:

Liz-
We know he's cage Possessive, but just in general I can't even grab his food from across the room without him getting mad ):

and with the food issue, we have done that before, even with drinks ( he picks drinks we have over food) and with just some stuff there's no way that he can have it.. So I usually have a water bottle of something he can drink with me if I have something else and give him that, and he is happy with it most of the time, It's quite hard when he Sticks his head in your drink.. lol ( he has never gotten anything he can't have though ) Myrtle sounds like him a lot (:


Wolf-
I have always been around parrots or some kind of birds atleast,
I have had:
Orange Winged amazon, Baby sat a African grey for a while, Budgies, love birds, cockatiels, and I have been around macaws a lot..
Non' "parrot": ( animals that we have found as babies and raised back to health, and either had to keep from some issue, or where released. )
Starling,Humming bird,Magpie,House Sparrows,Robbins,Doves, and a baby crow for a while ( and chickens if you want to count them... lol )

with the foraging toys, when we show him us putting the treats in we do show how to take them out (:
and with the attacking his toys, actually does makes a lot of since.. I'm still learning stuff about him and his breed every day, but I can tell when he is playing-ish because he will bite and hang from a "Bird Kabob toy" and looks like he does like that toy and will chew on it in a way.. and I have noticed that

and when I clean his cage I do it when we is hanging out with my mom, so the cleaning the cage issue is alright (:
as for getting the dishes, I try to only change when when he is out of my room or on my bed so it don't stress him out as much, or so he don't even see his thing of food.. but luckily with his cage he does have doors on his food dishes that unlock to get to his food (: so I do not have to each my hand in his cage to access them, I have a second water dish in his cage though that you do have to access from the inside, but I only keep that one in there if I'm going to my cabin and there's extra water for him, or in case he gets his other one dirty and don't want to drink it while I'm gone (:

with the eating portion I do usually always have stuff that there is something that he can eat of it, but sometimes there is butter or a seasoning on it to where he is not able to ):
and once in a while I forget to get some out before it has those products on it,
I do every once in a while make him his own Plate for him to eat with me though (:

it's kind of weird and nice at the same time, but when he is alone with me he loves me to death and will not leave me and chooses me, but when he's in my living room and is out he favorites my mom, but will come back to me if he has to.. he also will go and hang out with one of my friends ( what is kind of weird because he son't like my other one (: ) he looks kind of like his last owners son though so he may think they're the same person ( not really sure ) but he will go straight to him (: but with my other friend if she is in the room with him he will shrink down and growl at her and act like he want to fly and attack her ( luckily he does not fly.. ) and when he does this I either put him away or he goes and sits on the top of his cage.

and I have done all of that to try to get him to take a bath, He's not very fond of my bathroom though because he has only been in there a couple of times before, but I may try to start hanging out with him in my bathroom to get him used to it in there and maybe he will get used to the shower, I used to shower with my Orange Winged amazon parrot (:


Pajarita-

I'm pretty sure he is a male (:
because his last owner said he was a male, and I looked up how to tell, and from what I can see he is a male (:
But I will post a picture to see what you guys have to say!


with the toy stuff I answered most of it below ^^
But for that toy, he actually has one in his cage!(: but that is almost the only toy he has not even checked out.. the one I have for him has a little longer "Tail" on it though.. and is the smallest one I could find at the time, but soon after I found one just like that link that is shorter than this one (:
But I wanted to see if he would even show interest in one first (: this one I think may look a little to big for him so he may be kind of scared of it.. as he does not seem very fond of bright colors ):
we have a lot of different toys for him to choose from in his cage and out of his cage, we even have some safe home made toys for him ( and actually last night I put a new one in his cage that has a couple of his treats built into it and I just saw him picking at that toy )

with the separation anxiety part, that makes a lot of since (:
at least I am home schooled so he is not a lone for long periods of time unless we to travel some where.. I'm thinking about trying to "harness train" him so I can take him some places with me?
or at least just for car rides (:
( he's not scared of cars )
but at least he is quiet when I am with him (: so when ever he makes that noise my dad makes me go into my room to keep him quiet


as for he diet he gets some chopped up fresh vegetables every once a week from my garden when I cut up food for my tortoises, and I will usually make some extra so we can have some (:
as for his normal food we feed him:
kaytee exact rainbow food, and a mix of another parrot seed because when I got him he was on strictly seeds so I started mixing it to try to get him off of just seeds..

this is the best food options that we can buy around here, I'm sure there is probably way better ones out there but this is just what we have access to (:
we also do give him treats, I bought a packet of "Parrot treats" and He will get those when he is out and being happy, or when he is talking to me he also will get every once in a while a Cheerio as a teat because he really does seem to enjoy the Cheerios, so as a every once in a while treat he may get one of those (: I also have as treats are dried 100% banana chips, that is nothing else besides banana, So it's okay for him.


More stuff about Xilo:
I'm also wondering if this is normal..
when ever he drinks water he will puke/ regurgitates, I've tried to look this up but I can't find anything on it..

[Wolf]

My Senegal does not regurgitate when either eating or drinking, so I would not consider it to be normal behavior and may indicate something such as a yeast infection in his crop. Can you safely smell his breath? I would consider adding some 100% organic, alcohol free raw apple cider vinegar to his water and maybe some aloe, again !00% organic inner leaf aloe to aid in digestion and to help control yeast infections. I would also consider a vet visit to find out why he is regurgitating after drinking for sure.

Wasn't sure what kind of experience with birds that you have had and have no intent to be rude but sometimes things are simpler than we think and I thought it would be better to ask than to assume too much. Except for the intensity that you are describing most of these things are really pretty much normal for a Senegal. Yours may be overly intense about things due to hormones or due to past treatment, but I am not really sure at this time which, but would guess some of both.

[Pajarita]

Yes, he is a male!

Please, no cheerios, they are meant for human nutrition and are way too high in iron (up to 45% on some types) for a bird which needs VERY little of it. The thing with iron is that, if you feed too much of it, it ends up been stored in the liver which ends up as liver disease (I have a sun conure that was fed cheerios and she now requires a special diet for the rest of her life because of it).

The 'fruity' pellets are, actually, the very worst of all the pellets. They are full of chemicals and they even have sugar in them, something that is not only healthy for them but also absolutely unnecessary as parrots do not taste sweet. I have been doing research on parrots diets for over 20 years and have reached the conclusion that pellets are not the best dietary option for them. I feed gloop and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a good quality mix of nuts and seeds for dinner. This, along with a multivitamin/mineral supplement once a week in the winter and twice a week from spring to beginning of fall provides, in my personal opinion, the closest that one can get to a good balanced diet that resembles what they eat in the wild. As to commercial treats... well, I'll be honest with you, I've never found a single one I liked. I use nuts instead (healthier for them).

I do not recommend he bathes with you unless you like cold showers because hot or warm water will strip the natural oils from their plumage and skin which is not good. Don't worry about his bathing, my senegals don't like to be sprayed and don't really bathe on their own very often - and, when they do, they don't get all wet either

I would put his cage in a room where it's most often that people congregate. He will be lonely in your room all by himself.

Why doesn't he fly? Are his wings clipped?

Yes, you can train him to accept a harness but, if I were you, I would concentrate on bonding with him first and that takes quite a while, actually.

He could be regurgitating from been overly hormonal because if his previous owner had him on seeds, he would be even if he was kept at a strict solar schedule but I would suggest you take him to an avian vet for a complete check up because an 18 year old bird that has been eating seeds all his life is bound to have liver problems as well as high uric acid (he could also be low in calcium and vitamin A).

[Noodlecakelol]

Sorry for the late reply to this!
my wisdom tooth has been hurting me so I haven't been on here, sorry about that!


and Okay (: do you recommend any types of treats?

and oh my O.O that I did not know! but I don't really have a great option of food around here ):
so is there any food brands you recommend for Senegals?
I would like to stay away from ordering online because I still live with my parents because I am not over 18 yet.. but if that's the only option and it's not to much I may be able to ask my mom to buy it for me (:

and if he bathes with me, I do not like hot water (: also he would not be in the direct stream of water, we have a thing in the top of our shower that makes a perfect bird perch (: so he would just get mist from it..

and the one thing that sucks about still living with my parents is because my dad throw a fit if I take Xilo into my living room because Xilo will squeak if he doesn't see me, and it will freak my dog out, and my dog will climb on top of my dad trying to hide.. and my dads backs broken so we have to try to avoid that, but he comes in my living room when my dads asleep.. but during the day hes out in my room hanging out with me

and to be honest I have No Clue why he can't fly..
No his wings aren't clipped, when I bought him his wings where slipped super short ):
but I let them grow out, they're and a length where he should be able to fly but one of his wings are not growing at all, his other wing is completely grown in, just not his other one..
but every once in a while he will "Try" to fly but he acts super scared to fly?
he tripped on the crease in my couch before and it scared him so he leaped and flapped his wings but fell like a rock.. I don't know if he just hasn't learned or his wings have been damaged before
or if he has been hurt before by flying so he's now scared to ):

he has a pretty good bond with me already, but I may just buy one and set it by his cage so he gets used to it and when he's better with me slowly introduce it (:

I really have no idea why he pukes when he drinks, it's when ever he's excited and he semi acts like he wants to bathe in it but instead he just drinks and pukes everywhere.. Taking his to the vet will probably be a good idea, I'll see what I can do (:

[Pajarita]

If you are not going to get him wet with warm water and he is just getting the mist and spray from the shower, then that's fine.

The only way that feathers don't grow (I am talking about the wing that won't 'grow' new primary feathers) is when the follicle (the root of the feather inside the skin) has been damaged and, if this has happened, he will never grow any feathers there so, if you can see shortened (cut) shafts on it, he should be able to grow new ones.

The food I recommend is the one I give my birds because, in my personal opinion, it's the best dietary option for them. The name of this food is gloop and you make it yourself with cooked whole grains like oat groats, kamut, etc, whole grain rices (I use black and red rice because they are very nutritious and lower in arsenic than regular brown rice), black lentils, white beans and chopped frozen veggies (corn, peas, carrots, broccoli, etc). If you look in the diet section, you will find several recipes for it.

Bummer about your father not allowing him in the living room because that means you will have to spend your entire day in your room to keep him company. But maybe he will change his mind as time goes by. My husband did not like parrots at all (he is afraid of their bites and hates how destructive and dirty they are) but, as the years went by, he has learned to like them and now, he not only thoroughly enjoys their funny quirks but, every time he sees a nice cardboard box, he immediately says something like: "Oh, Mami and Naida would love that box!" and he always wants to be the one to give them their afternoon treat. As a matter of fact, he agreed yesterday to buy Mami and Naida a larger cage so I can use the one they have for Pookey TAG and bring her out of the birdroom so I can train her better for rehoming her (he did not want a single cage anywhere in the house except the birdroom but we now have several in the dining and living room ). Maybe your father will change his mind once he sees how wonderful parrots are.

[Noodlecakelol]

Yeah maybe (:
But he used to love are orange winged Amazon, and would hold her all the time, her cage was also in my living room.,
He just don't like Xilo... Because if that one noise he makes, right as someone opens my door he will make that noise until someone says something to him even if there are people in the room.. Right As we open the door it like triggers him to make the high pitched squeak.. If only there was a way to make him stop making that noise ):