Why?

[Java]

Just some questions I have on senegal parrots, behavior, things mine does, etc.
1. Why, when I got her, was my son able to hold her, but none can go near her now? Java actually lunges at any of them. When I brought her home, they were able to hold her for about 2 whole days.

2. Why can't she fly now, not been clipped since April?

3. Why, when I am going to make coffee with her on my shoudler, does she continously nip at my ears?

4. Why, is she so darned cute all the time and makes me the things she does so cute? For instance, when she is put in her cage, she goes to the bottom of the cage and paces and I envision a person mumbling under their breath, she put me in a stinking cage, why am I in this stinking cage.

5. Why, does my senegal hate water? When I shower with her, she stands completely still as if, if she stays still, maybe I won't see her? After she is wet, she shivers for hours (it is not even slightly cold here yet), will not move, will not eat, and tends to want to stand in her foodbowl during her drying?

6. Why, does she (while on my shoulders) pick up things (toys, food, anything) and carry it to my shoulder, only to drop it on the floor, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN?

Well, I didn't really expect any expert answers, this was just a vent I guess, but in a good way. She is the most interactive, smart animal I have ever had the pleasure of owning, and I swear she is not a bird in her brain. I admire her every single day. I love my little Java.

7. Oh, thought of one more. Why, when hubby is leaving to go to work, he will come to kiss me goodbye, and I literally have to remove Java from my shoulders or hold her with my hands, as she will lunge at him and/or bite me because he just kissed me goodbye?

8. Another one. Why does she steal my straws only to chew them and drop them to the floor? She knows too, she is not supposed to do that, cause she will go towards my cup and I will just watch, and when she gets to the cup, she turns and looks at me as if to see if I am watching her, and then climbs up my cup and steals it. I constantly stop her from doing it, and she just goes right back. She makes me belly laugh most of the time.

[Kathleen]

1. The bird could have become aggressive for various reasons. Territorial aggression, lack of proper socialization/one personness aggression, inadvertently trained aggression by you or by them by responding to aggression.

http://www.theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528

2. The bird could have developed a fear to "fly" which is really a fear of falling from being clipped. Michael who started this forum had a previously clipped Senegal Parrot who has fledged and has been flight trained to overcome these fears. See more information/videos about that and about the flight training perches he has developed for flighted parrots here: http://trainingperch.com/

3. The parrot could be doing this out of curiosity or because it thinks it is preening you.

4. Parrots are cute.

5. Some parrots are "bathers", others are not. The bird is shivering to increase body heat because it's cold.

6. The parrot could have made a game out of doing this if you respond to the "dropping" by picking the objects up for the bird.

7. See answer 1.

8. See answer 6.

[Java]

1. The bird could have become aggressive for various reasons. Territorial aggression, lack of proper socialization/one personness aggression, inadvertently trained aggression by you or by them by responding to aggression.

http://www.theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1528

2. The bird could have developed a fear to "fly" which is really a fear of falling from being clipped. Michael who started this forum had a previously clipped Senegal Parrot who has fledged and has been flight trained to overcome these fears. See more information/videos about that and about the flight training perches he has developed for flighted parrots here: http://trainingperch.com/

3. The parrot could be doing this out of curiosity or because it thinks it is preening you.

4. Parrots are cute.

5. Some parrots are "bathers", others are not. The bird is shivering to increase body heat because it's cold.

6. The parrot could have made a game out of doing this if you respond to the "dropping" by picking the objects up for the bird.

7. See answer 1.

8. See answer 6.

Thanks!! I do not necessarily wnat to train my bird to fly, just thought he had innate born flying genes and that they will fly even if their wings were clipped. I do not want to do flight training though and I don't mind that she does not fly, just curious why she can't or doesn't.

I don't believe she is cold when out of a shower. It is not a shivering like we shiver. I see it also if she is on a windowsill. It looks like just rattling maybe? I don't know. I know I will be dripping buckets of sweat and she will do this. It think it is more fear than being cold, neither a good thing.

I just cannot get a handle on the aggressiveness, and truthfully, I am scared she will hurt the kids, so i don't mind that they are afraid of him for now. I don't understand it maybe. When i got her, she went in my hand with not even a nibble, and i held her the whole time i was in the store. Did she not have a favorite person in the store? Why were they able to hold her for 2 days and hten she started biting? Weird. most of the biting or attempting to bite them that she does, is done while on me, like protecting me.

Thanks, they are cute.

[Michael]

1. Senegal Parrots are very territorial, aggressive, one person birds. Without proper socialization, this will tend to happen naturally. I bet the kids are scared of the parrot which only reinforces this biting behavior.

2. First of all, what does not clipped since April mean? Does it mean the new primaries grew in during April or does it mean that was the time of her last clip? If she was clipped in April, there is a good chance the replacement primaries haven't had sufficient time to regrow. If the wings are fully regrown, then the issue is the psychological damage caused by clipping. The bird doesn't realize she is a bird. The problem is still correctable but will take a little effort. Buy some training perches and target train the parrot to fly between them. The good news is by flight training your parrot yourself, you can teach it what are acceptable places to land and what aren't.

3. She may want attention, a taste (don't!), or is demonstrating displaced aggression at the sight of the coffee.

4. That is part of the job description.

5. Senegal Parrots come from woodland savannah. Basically it's a dry place. They aren't rainforest parrots. So they aren't accustomed to much water. Parrots shiver to get warm and it is quite normal. Don't shower the parrot too often.

6. See number 4

7. Senegal Parrots don't like to see someone trying to cheat with their mate

8. Cause you enjoy watching her do it, so in fact she actually is supposed to do it. You taught her that.

Birds shiver to get warm. They maintain a higher body temperature than mammals so it takes a greater effort to get back up to that temperature once cold. When you see a mammal shivering, that is usually a last resort. Birds just start to shiver when they are a little cold to get their temp back up.

[Java]

1. Senegal Parrots are very territorial, aggressive, one person birds. Without proper socialization, this will tend to happen naturally. I bet the kids are scared of the parrot which only reinforces this biting behavior.

Yes, they are petrified of her. My one son, the other day had a long sleeved shirt on and wanted to hold her, so i told him to pull his sleeves over his hands and go put his shoulder up to the cage and see if Java would climb on him. She did and he brought her over to me, so that was a huge step for him. The other 2, the older 2 kids, like to poke at and tease her. For instance, they will take her food bowl away and see the reaction they get. Or, I have a stick Java likes to chew on, they get it and poke towards her, which I hate and I yell at them but they think everything is funny, but I think for the 2 older ones, it is truly a fear thing or Java not liking htem cause they poke at her. I am working on the kids, and Java is never out if I am not here, in the immediate vacinity.

2. First of all, what does not clipped since April mean? Does it mean the new primaries grew in during April or does it mean that was the time of her last clip? If she was clipped in April, there is a good chance the replacement primaries haven't had sufficient time to regrow. If the wings are fully regrown, then the issue is the psychological damage caused by clipping. The bird doesn't realize she is a bird. The problem is still correctable but will take a little effort. Buy some training perches and target train the parrot to fly between them. The good news is by flight training your parrot yourself, you can teach it what are acceptable places to land and what aren't.

What I mean is she has not had her wings cut/clipped since April when I bought her. Somnetimes, I pull out her wings to look at them and they still look cut, like I can see where they were cut. I cannot see how they will ever be even and uncut again? Do they fall out and she would get new ones to grow in equal?

3. She may want attention, a taste (don't!), or is demonstrating displaced aggression at the sight of the coffee.

Hmm, interesting, agression at a coffee pot?? I will have to think about that one. She has had a tiny taste by taking it off the top of my cup, but I do not allow her any more than a tiny tase.

4. That is part of the job description.

5. Senegal Parrots come from woodland savannah. Basically it's a dry place. They aren't rainforest parrots. So they aren't accustomed to much water. Parrots shiver to get warm and it is quite normal. Don't shower the parrot too often.

I usually put her on a shelf in the shower,and not wet her, so she is just watching me shower, speically now iwth winter coming, it will be too cold to get her wet. She only shivers if i wet her, not if she just stands and watches. Occasionally, I do bathe her by wetting her.
6. See number 4

7. Senegal Parrots don't like to see someone trying to cheat with their mate

Funny, hubby shakes his head and laughs. He thinks Java is a trip, but really does not interact at all with her. but he has started to warn me that he is getting ready to leave so I can move Java.

8. Cause you enjoy watching her do it, so in fact she actually is supposed to do it. You taught her that.

Birds shiver to get warm. They maintain a higher body temperature than mammals so it takes a greater effort to get back up to that temperature once cold. When you see a mammal shivering, that is usually a last resort. Birds just start to shiver when they are a little cold to get their temp back up.

Thanks Michael, she sure makes my life interesting.

[pchela]

About clipping, she will eventually molt which means her feathers will fall out and be replaced by new ones. If you can still see where they are cut, she hasn't molted or gained her new flight feathers yet. It will happen. They usually molt once or twice a year.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

1. She wasn't bonded to you at first, but not she is. You'd need to enlist the rest of the family in extensive training to change that. Good links already posted.

2. Watch her stretch her wings, are the feathers fully grown in? Does she not fly AT ALL, or does she just not fly much? If she was very heavily clipped to start with, she might be afraid she'll drop like a rock, but if she had a proper clip, that shouldn't be a problem. I started a thread under Indoor Freeflight on how often flighted birds fly, and there seems to be a wide variation.

3. I'd guess she wants your attention on HER not the coffee. Don't allow her even a tiny sip, they are so small it's a ton of caffiene, and if she's allowed a little she may go for more and that could make her quite sick. Scooter got a sip of my coffee once... no one needs a hyper GCC!

4. YOU are bonded to HER! Heh, heh.

5. Michael already commented on Senegals and bathing in general. In addition, a shower may be too much, too scary. Scooter LOVES to bath under a gentle stream in the sink, but the shower is too much for him. As for the shivering after bathing, I have read that it's not the overall shaking we associate with being deadly cold, but that they have a way of shaking their feathers by tiny amounts to circulate air and help them dry. They may do it even in quite warm weather. Scooter loves to eat millet when he's drying off. Oh, and I've read some birds actually enjoy a very gentle drying breeze from a hair dryer, just make sure it doesn't have a PTFE coating.

6. Scooter's favorite game is Throw Thing on Floor and make Mom Pick it Up. Maybe hers too.

7. See question 1.

8. Becaue it is fun!