Senegal Nesting? or Possibly ill?

[Valo]

Hi all,

I'm new here to the forums, i'm the owner of a 17 yr old Senegal from birth.

As far as I can tell, its a female.

Recently she has started 'Digging' the bottom of her cage, shredding the same area and using her foot to claw or 'chicken scratch' if you will.

She has done this previously, but for no more than a few minutes a day every now and again. I put it down as her playing about as she always loves to.

But the last few weeks it has been EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Almost constantly at it from 6am - 9pm! Her claw even looks a little bit 'raw' from constant clawing.

I can only get her to stop when I take her out to play about / exerciser.

I think her behavior seems a little off too, slightly more bitey and hesitant to come out of her cage ...screaming a little more than usual.

Any ideas guys? I dont think she could handle the stress of a vets.

[Wolf]

I am going to say that this all sounds like normal nesting behavior. I would begin by getting her out of her cage more often and perhaps for longer periods of time. Now I don't know how much time out of her cage that she currently gets but if it is less than 4 hours daily then she does need more time out with you.

I would place her on a solar light schedule just like the outside birds receive. Uncovered after all lights in the house are out, provided that there is not an outside light shining into her room. This is so that she receives the first light of the day during the twilight period at dawn and then normal lighting for the day but turning out her lights before dusk in the evening so that she receive the last light of the day, again a twilight period. These two periods of light are what sets and resets her internal biological clock and thus her hormonal periods and breeding season.

I would also look into what her daily diet consists of as these two items, light and food are the two primary triggers for hormonal behaviors and the onset of breeding season. By the way this is still breeding season for her in the northern hemisphere.

[ edit ] I almost forgot. Welcome to the forum.

[Chantilly]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.
Thought I would say my has been doing the exact same thing for the past week or two, she goes under the paper and kicks it all up and shreds it with her feet, and has been very, very cudly and broody. And unless someone walks past or lets her out (or its time to eat some more) she wont stop, but when she comes out she is crazy and goofy like a perfectly healthy energetic bird.
So I am also think it is nesting
Thankyou for this post, I find it as I find it very comforting that my lorikeet is not the only one display these weird behaviours.

[Valo]

I am going to say that this all sounds like normal nesting behavior. I would begin by getting her out of her cage more often and perhaps for longer periods of time. Now I don't know how much time out of her cage that she currently gets but if it is less than 4 hours daily then she does need more time out with you.

I would place her on a solar light schedule just like the outside birds receive. Uncovered after all lights in the house are out, provided that there is not an outside light shining into her room. This is so that she receives the first light of the day during the twilight period at dawn and then normal lighting for the day but turning out her lights before dusk in the evening so that she receive the last light of the day, again a twilight period. These two periods of light are what sets and resets her internal biological clock and thus her hormonal periods and breeding season.

I would also look into what her daily diet consists of as these two items, light and food are the two primary triggers for hormonal behaviors and the onset of breeding season. By the way this is still breeding season for her in the northern hemisphere.

[ edit ] I almost forgot. Welcome to the forum.

Many thanks for your reply, thats a bit of a relief to hear.

I only ever take her out 30mins max at a time, maybe twice daily. She doesnt like to be out very long, i'll often just leave her cage door open and she'll go back in on her own time which is usually after 15/20mins. Shes always been quite a nervous bird and only recently has taken to 2 other family members, but remains overly attached to me.

Im the only one at home that handles her and unfortunately im not there 7am - 5pm weekdays. This is usually when shes most active and in the company of the rest of the family, and when shes most actively digging and scratching.

Her sleeping situation at the moment ( and always has been), her cage is in the livingroom, which has heavy curtains that keep out the light. At night these are pulled, and her cage is covered with a blanket after sunset. In the morning, its usually already light before 6am and when I wake up around 7am I open the curtains / uncover her cage.

I'll try your suggestion, but shes used to her routine and doesnt sleep unless shes covered. Its also a little difficult here in Ireland, given that sunrise is 5.40am (according to google) and sunset 9pm currently. Over the next 2 months this will change to 4.50am - 10pm.

Her diet has always been the same, shes very fussy if it is even slightly changed. We give her plenty of fruit and veg, usually freshly chopped carrot, apples and grapes. As well as a seed mix with dried fruit and peanuts.

Every now again she'll take a small treat of some Bread, Breakfast Cereal and spaghetti / Pizza. And when I mean small, I mean really small, once a week if shes lucky.

Is there anything else I can change with her diet do you reckon?

Thanks again for the reply

[Wolf]

Well I don't think that her diet is contributing to her being hormonal and as I said it is still breeding season, so it should be considered to be normal.

The thing with the curtain is not that hard to work out, at least I don't think so. since the curtains are not closed until sunset just turn of your lights and when it gets dark, cover her cage, close the curtains and then when everyone goes to bed open the curtain and uncover her cage. Since it is dark she will go back to sleep.

As I said I don't see that her diet is causing any problem, but I may have got the cart before the horse. If she has seeds available all day then it could affect her hormonally. Seeds should be feed in the evening only. You really should consider working on improving her diet though, with a larger variety of fresh raw fruits and vegetables. I do this by eating fruit and vegetables with them when they are perching on me.

[Pajarita]

And, please, if you don't already do it, give her some avian vitamins and a cuttlebone or some other source of calcium because that diet does not provide enough D3 or calcium and, if she is so hormonal (she sounds super overly hormonal because nesty hens don't spend the entire day making a nest as she is doing), she might lay an egg (if she doesn't have enough calcium for a nice, thick, hard shell, she will become eggbound and might die).

[Valo]

Thanks again for the replies, good news is that shes began to ease off herself without me having changed too much. I guess it was just an extended period of what she usually goes about at the time of year.

Diet wise, I have been trying rather unsuccessfully to change her diet, shes too set in her ways after 17yrs. She'll take the food off me but instantaneously throw it away if its not to her liking. Even tried the suggestion of eating it with her, initially she'll go crazy wanting what I have, but loses interest once I give it to her.

As for Calcium & D3, she has a cuttlebone already and I left out that she does in fact love broccoli which is a good source. She'll also take a small bit of yogurt from my finger tip every now and again, but maybe a vitamin wouldnt be a bad idea to be on the safe side too?

[Wolf]

While I am not the best to advise you about vitamin supplements, I do give my birds a vitamin/ mineral supplement once a week. Others here are more knowledgeable in this area than I am.

As to the food thing since many of us have parrots that came to us as adults and were not taught to eat properly the process of getting them to eat healthy foods is an ongoing process and just never ends. There is a period in their life when they are the most open to learning about foods and it occurs just after they fledge, so if you have an adult bird that does not already eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables then this time period was missed, placing you right along with the rest of us. So my advice is to never give up and just keep offering a variety of foods by eating them in front of her and sharing them when she reaches the point of demanding a bite of the food. Yes many times she will just take the bite and throw it away, but for her benefit, don't let that stop you, she just does not recognize it as actually being food and it does get harder to get them to accept new foods as they get older. I just consider it to be one of those things and every now and then they actually eat the new food.

[Pajarita]

Ok, let's see. Cuttlebone provides calcium but it cannot be absorbed without vit D3 and yogurt cannot provide nowhere near enough of it even if she ate an entire bowl of it (which could mean big diarrhea -birds are not mammals so they cannot properly digest anything made out of milk) so, yes, you need to supplement OR put the bird out under direct sunshine for 20 minutes every day (not a practical thing to do - at least, not for me).

As to learning to eat new foods, yes, they are more 'open' to the idea when they are juveniles but they learn at any age. There are tricks:
1. don't free-feed protein food because, if you do, they will fill up on it and not leave any 'room' for the produce
2. give them the new food early in the morning when the sun is not even up yet but the sky is all lit up
3. present it in different ways until you find the way they like it - sometimes, they are very picky as to the preparation and presentation -I have a CAG that will only eat raw carrots if they are coarsely grated and a redbelly that would only eat produce if she is outside her cage
4. eat it yourself and, if you have to, just stand there 'sharing' it until the bird ate a good portion