Not sure where this goes! would like help.

[HBP]

My mom just gave me a 6 year old senegal for my birthday on tuesday. I've never owned a senegal before but I have had cockatiels pretty much my whole life. My mom was a cockatiel breeder/aviary owner and I used to do foster care. My last cockatiel passed away in 2011.
The people she adopted him from weren't the long term owners. They got him recently but quickly decided he was too much for them. As far as I know they're really busy with their rat rescue.

Oscar was very clearly handraised but he has spent 6 years in a cage and I'm pretty sure he's had some abuse. He isn't aggressive but he came to me absolutely terrified of hands. As of yesterday he's trusting me but only me. He voluntarily climbed onto my shoulder so we're making great progress!
Anyways he has also never eaten anything but seeds and I'd like to get him onto pellets and eating fruits/veggies. I did get him to take a blueberry from my hand last night but nothing other than seed since. How should I be getting him onto pellets? should I be mixing them with the seed or just take the seeds away? I have them mixed in at the moment but he's throwing the pellets on the floor and eating the seeds.

[laducockatiel]

Hiya there.

So to get your Senegal onto pellets, you don't wanna start mixing in the pellets straight away. You wanna soak the pellets and give them in a separate bowl (to get him used to the taste and to get him to like them). But don't try and do this straight away, before trying to introduce any new food to him, You probably wanna wait a week or two until he has completely settled into the house and has started bonding with you, cos at the moment, he is sticking to his seeds and throwing away the pellets cos he has been on seeds for a long time and he is scared and shocked about the fact that he is in a new house, so he wont take to pellets straight away.

When he is kind of accepting the soaked pellets that you are feeding him along with his seed diet (which should only be fed sometimes so he can get used to them), here's how to actually fully convert him to pellets:

Start in by only mixing a bit of pellets and gradually over the period of 7 days or more (depending on how quickly he will start completely eating them), add in more and more pellets and try and reduce the amount if seeds. He should start eating the pellets after this but remember to do this when he has settled in.

There are loads of methods of getting birds to eat pellets because every parrot is different, one that one of my friends used was that he was training his parrot and when his parrot did a trick correctly, he got a pellet. This made the Parrot think of the pellets as treats and then he did the method for converting the parrot to pellets that I showed you.

I hope all goes well, and remember to feed plenty of fruit and veggies waking with the pellets to Oscar and good luck in taming him

If you need any advice, feel free to PM me.

Regards,
Laducockatiel

[liz]

Being afraid of hands is common. A bird that is afraid will want to stay in its' cage where it feels it has some control. People make the mistake of grabbing them and pulling them out. Hense the fear of hands.

Myrtle came to me in the same condition. Seed and water only and a terrible fear of coming out of cage. Her abuse was all emotional which is really hard to get over.

I found that Myrtle was not afraid of faces. With my hands behind my back I could talk nose to beak with her. I left her cage door open and put it in the most active part of the house. I did not force myself on her but talked to her every time I went by. Once she came out of her cage and climbed to the top she saw Rambo. He helped a lot with her. She loved him from the start. She watched him eat and tried what he had. She went beyond him and started trying anything that was being eaten by anyone (even a dog biscut). As her flight feathers grew back she tried to fly and land on the floor. Fear of everything made her run to me and climb up my pants leg. I could not help her because she was still afraid of hands. Once on my shoulder I would walk her back to her cage.

It has been slow. It took a year but she is so social now that she will fly to anyone and tell them hello. She will eat anything I give her including RoudyBush pellets. She even tries to eat things I don't give her like the marshmello she watched me put in my mouth. First she tried to push her beak in my mouth. When that didn't work she scratched my top lip trying to pry my mouth open. She gave that up and noticed a bulge in my cheek. She tried punching it with her beak to pop it out of my mouth.

She is now fearless. Hands are ment for tickling in her mind.

Your little scared bird will do just as well with patients and attention. Share your food. They like eating together. Sing together and watch YouTube together.

You adopted an abused child who was neglected. That is how you should handle it.

[HBP]

thank you! I will try the wetting the pellets thing in a few days. I don't think it'll take long to re-tame Oscar at all. I have his cage in my main room and I was sitting at the table about 2 feet away next thing I knew there was a bird on my shoulder! he's been on my shoulder for 45 minutes and is happily grooming himself and my hair. So I guess this is a good sign

[liz]

That is wonderful. I started by using one finger while Myrtle was perched and said tickle tickle. Now she even asks for a tickle.

I don't wet pellets. I offer them in a seperate bowl. Their play patio looks like a buffet. As I prepare food during the day I just swap out bowls with the next fresh food offer.

[laducockatiel]

thank you! I will try the wetting the pellets thing in a few days. I don't think it'll take long to re-tame Oscar at all. I have his cage in my main room and I was sitting at the table about 2 feet away next thing I knew there was a bird on my shoulder! he's been on my shoulder for 45 minutes and is happily grooming himself and my hair. So I guess this is a good sign

That's awesome! He will probably tame easily since he has been previously neglected and all he wants is some love. Well, I hope everything goes well with him and keep us posted! Feel free to ask me any questions if you need to.

Regards,
Laducockatiel