How much should I feed my Sennie?

[nimaibirdie]

I have a robust male Senegal Parrot. As of recent, he has assumed some behavioral issues out of the blue. Aggressive biting, screaming. I am wondering if I may be over feeding him. I would like to try the regimented feeding. How many tablespoons of chopped veggies and how many tablespoons of pellets should a senegal have? I know this is all approximate. I do plan on feeding some treats outside of the cage. But I am just looking for an approximate basic feeding which I can then adjust epending on my own bird.

[Wolf]

Very little behaviorally happens " overnight" or " out of the blue" when it comes to parrots. Most of the time it is something that has been building for a period of time and we just don't always see it until it becomes a problem.

How old is your bird and how long have you had him? What kind of light schedule is he on? How much out of cage time does he get daily? Are his wings clipped or not? What exactly go you feed him and when do you feed him these foods?

All of these things can and do affect a birds behavior and that is why I am asking about them.

[nimaibirdie]

Nimai is three years old! I received him from a breeder at six months old. I put him to bed at 530pm and wake him up at 8am. He has a large daytime cage and at night I place him in a smaller cage in my bedroom to sleep. Covered in a black blanket so no light shines in. He is quiet at night and likes complete darkness. He is clipped.
In the morning I feed him chop (usually a tablespoon and a half of corn, peas, beans, Zchunni, pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, carrot, chia seeds...) made from what ever I have in the fridge. The rest of the day I free feed him pellets (tropican/ roudy bush) mix. He likes both. Eats then equally. I work from home so I am most of the time so he gets at least 6-8 hours out of cage a day. Around 1-2 hours of personal time. Although the last two weeks I would say under an hour just bexcuse whenever I go near him he screams and runs away from my hands or tries to lunge and bite. I sit beside his cage for that hour though so I am in his company. He has a cage sun light that hangs above. I have had it off the last month or two just because it is summer and I take him outside a couple times a week for around 30mins each time when it is nice and sunny. I take him into the woods and on trails and he seems to love it.

Right now I am not allowing him on my shoulder and when I pick him up I use an extended rope perch until I can trust him again. I don't want him to get use to biting me or to create a stronger habbit of it.

Also the dynamic of out living situation changed a bit. He is in the same spot. He is strongly bonded to me but my partner boyfriend is away for a few months traveling. But he has been gone away before and that has never botherd nimai before since they were never really close.

I'm just basically going to try everything g I can XD. I'm just trying to keep all my marbles together. I'm very emotional and I know me being upset or aggressive won't solve anything just make him more tense. I have to remember it's not personal....

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum and, first of all, I am sorry that you are going through such a difficult situation with your bird! I have a male Senegal that was, for over three years, the most aggressive bird I have ever had so I well know how bad they can be!

Now, at three years of age, he is precisely at the peak of his sexual development. This is the age when senegals start to breed (in the wild, it might be a little later but feeding them soy -the pellets- speeds up the process) so think of a super-randy 18 year old boy and you will have a good idea of what you are dealing with. And Wolf is correct in that this is the type of thing that builds up and builds up and, one day, it kind of explodes - but it's not 'out of the blue', it's that the bird reached a point where he cannot take it anymore because his gonads have become too large and are now painful and his unfulfilled sexual need has become frustration.

I don't believe in free-feeding any source of protein but I also do not believe in keeping them hungry or even wanting for food. I feed mine (I have two senegals now but had a total of four) gloop (I don't think that pellets are the best dietary option for parrots) and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking with one single treat (a nut, usually) during the day and a good quality mix of seeds and nuts for dinner. The only food that is measured is the dinner (because it's the source of high protein) but it's always more than enough to fill their crop with a bit leftover (I give them about two level tablespoons of it). The only difference between the warm weather diet (starting with the beginning of spring and ending halfway through molt) and the cold weather (resting season) diet is the composition of each meal which makes the warm weather diet higher in protein than the resting season and I do this by adding/switching to higher/better sources of protein to the gloop.

In my personal experience and with the exception of birds that were not treated right (the aggressive male Senegal I spoke of had spent 11 years in a small cage), the only reason why a male Senegal becomes that aggressive is when they are overly hormonal. You did not mention whether your bird is in molt right now but, if he is not, he is still producing way too many sexual hormones and that could be the problem. The only way to control this (and it won't happen overnight in a week or maybe even a month) is through diet and light exposure. Giving them the same number of night hours all year round doesn't really work because what sets their internal clock is twilight. People think that long nights is the answer but birds in studies have been made to breed on only 4 hours of light so, although the long nights could work for some birds, it's a VERY iffy proposition. The only sure thing is what nature decreed is the principal trigger for their photoperiodism and that is the different spectrum of light during twilight.

The other problem is his been clipped. Birds have no other way of dissipating 'bad' hormones fast from their bloodstream than flying - that's it! When birds don't fly, it's not only damaging to their physical and psychological wellbeing, it also makes it more difficult for them to get rid of an excess of sexual hormones.