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How long did it take you to bond with your adopted parrot?

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How long did it take you to bond with your adopted parrot?

Postby lac575 » Wed Aug 22, 2018 1:29 pm

Just wondering how long it took bird parents who adopted instead of purchasing a baby, to bond with their parrot?

Ours is a 2 years old Senegal parrot who we named Darwin. He rides around on our shoulders, falls asleep on us when we sit with him and lets us scratch his head for a few seconds at a time. He steps-up, waves, turns around and targets within distances that are reasonable to him. He did not know how to do these things when we got him 3 weeks ago.

Darwin bit my husband and I twice each during the first few days that we had him. The bites were out of fear and not aggression. We must have sent him confusing signals/moved too fast. He has not bitten us since and actually shows an encouraging level of bite inhibition now (my husband dropped something which was very loud when Darwin was on me but he did not bite me even though he got startled. Darwin will also push me away with his beak or move away himself if he wants space, instead of biting). I can tell he does not want to bite.

I do not think we are fully bonded though. I know this will take a while. I expect that when we do bond completely, he will be totally comfortable with our hands and us touching him, which is not something he is not really comfortable with right now.

I think we are making good progress, I certainly hope that we are. From what I have read, we are. There is a fine line between encouraging him and pushing him...I do not want to screw things up by pushing him. Adopting the little guy is teaching us immense patience because all we want to do is love on him but we have to show restraint.

So how long did it take you guys to bond with your adopted baby??

Thanks!
~Darwin's Parents~ :senegal:
lac575
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Re: How long did it take you to bond with your adopted parrot?

Postby liz » Thu Aug 23, 2018 7:53 am

Each bird comes with it's own personality so it is hard to say how fast it will bond. Riding on your shoulder is good bonding. If he reacts and bites hands it is out of fear not his being mean to his humans.

Keep him on a solar schedule with the right foods. If he is clipped let the feathers grow back in.
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liz
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Re: How long did it take you to bond with your adopted parrot?

Postby Pajarita » Thu Aug 23, 2018 10:31 am

It depends on several things... Species [whether it's a companion or aviary bird], age of the bird [yours is not a full adult so you have an edge there], the kind of care he got on his previous home [birds that have been well taken care of and loved the right way bond faster and easier - birds that have been abused would, sometimes, not bond with a human ever again - birds that have been neglected but were not abused take time but do bond or bond at first sight] and, of course, how good is the husbandry in its new home because even leaving aside the fact that a parrot well taken care of will be a healthier [read: physically comfortable] bird, parrots are very smart and know when they are been given what they need and when they are not. People talk about not missing what they never had but that's plain ignorance because there are both physical and emotional needs that are always there even if they were never met and this is a known scientific fact.

When it comes to sennies, I've had four of them, three females and one male. Two of the females, the two that had belonged to people who had loved them and taken good care of them [even though they 'misbehaved' in these good homes] bonded instantly with me. They liked and trusted me from day one, they bonded very deeply to me and never, ever bit me or even nipped me. The other female had been sadly neglected and was always sweet-tempered but never really bonded deeply to me - not the way the other two did. The male hated all humanity, in general, and me in particular because he fell in love at first sight with Tobita, one of the females that loved me to pieces, so I was not only bad because I was a human, I was also serious competition to his relationship with Tobita. It took over 5 years for him to become my friend but he has not really bonded-bonded with me even though he has been with me for 10 years or more - and I doubt he ever will with any human. Sennies are all one person birds and the biggest problem that people usually have with them is that they attack other people because they see them as competition for their chosen one's love.
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