Introducing Cassie, my new Senegal parrot

[jksmith5151]

About three weeks ago, after reading as much as I could about Senegal Parrots and watching and being amazed my Kili on YouTube, I brought home Cassie. She is 8 months old and she is very sweet.

Her first week home was a little rough. I got her from some bird breeders that I’ve known for quite awhile. She was a hand fed baby and socialized but often left alone in a small cage with not many toys or other experiences. Since she’s been home she has had a rough time adjusting to new things. For the first few days she would hardly eat. After that she’s been slowly coming out of her shell and I think she’s starting to enjoy new things and new experiences. She now LOVES car rides. I think it’s her favorite part of the day when I take my son to school in the morning because she started to mimic kisses and I think she’s trying to talk. No idea what she’s trying to say yet but I’m hoping she’ll keep trying. She hasn’t done any of that inside the house yet. Only chatters on car rides. Being outside though is a different story. She's really nervous but the funny thing is, as soon as we get near the car she ducks down and starts climbing down my arm so she can get inside the car. Once she's inside the car, she's as happy as could be. I hope eventually she'll like being outside too.

She doesn’t like to be petted yet but yesturday for the first time she allowed me to pet her head a little bit. Then today she did something I didn’t expect. When she was on my shoulder, she leaned her head against my cheek and just stayed there to cuddle. She’s also getting less nippy too which is a very good thing. For the first few weeks I had to teach her not to chew on my shirt and not to nip my fingers or ear to hard. I think most of what she was doing was just exploring with her beak. She never bit hard. Today she has been a very sweet girl.

The funny thing about her is that she doesn’t like it when the sun goes down. She gets really nervous and wants to come running to mommy. lol. Dusk is when I’ve been putting her in her sleeping cage. I think she likes that.

So far I’ve taught her to step up really well. We also started clicker training last week. I look forward to seeing what she’ll learn and enjoy her for many years. So far I think we're having a really good first month home.

Pictures: Two of the pictures I’ve shared is of Cassie falling asleep while playing. She LOVES her beads over any other toy. Esspecially loose beads. Its like a birdie pacifier.

---- Kimberley Smith (South Florida)

[Kathleen]

Hi Kimberly, and Cassie , welcome to the parrot forum! Thanks for sharing, she's a cutie. Even though she's had a rough time with new experiences, it's important to desensitize her to small changes and keep her socialized. Hope you'll post more updates of her training progress and more stories.

[jksmith5151]

Hi,

Thank you! Oh yes, I do plan to continue to offer her new things and new experiences. I'm hoping eventually she'll think a new experience is no big deal. I also would love to teach her tricks when she's ready. She seems to be picking up on target training really quickly but when she is nervous she won't take food or cooperate. We're working on that. This week is her 4th week home. I'm very happy to see that she is seeking me for comfort now when she's nervous. I'm a newbie at training parrots (reading all I can), but I'm hoping that when I talk to her, she'll be reassured that everything is okay there's nothing to be afraid of. If she isn't too afraid, I've been putting her by the object she got nervous by (like the kitchen table yestuday). I let her stay there until she was calm. Then I gave her a treat and picked her up. Today she happily sat on the kitchen table and ate some treats until, she spotted a sea shell my son put on the table. We then had to start all over. lol. After she spotted the sea shell, she wanted nothing to do with the table. Overall she did really well today. So much better than last week. I'll be happy to share her training stories as we go along.

---- Kimberley Smith

[GlassOnion]

Firstly, congratulations! Wow, you're doing awesome with her!
Look forward to reading about her in the future

[Vicki5280]

How exciting for you! From everything I've read, a Senny is a great first bird, and it sounds like you're doing an amazing job with her. You should start a thread somewhere that kind-of blogs your experiences with her training. It will be fun to read and follow along.

Welcome to the forum!

[zazanomore]

I love the second picture.

[jksmith5151]

Thank you everyone for your reply and Vicky! What agreat idea about starting a blog for Cassie. I think I have plenty to catch up on. I'll go get started on it and I think it would be neat to look back on what she learned or did from time to time. I've been so busy re-arranging my house this week and every day I've been working with Cassie. She has made more progress this week and she gave me a big surprise today.

----- Kimberley Smith