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New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby JenniferOntario » Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:14 pm

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here. So, here's the story:
I got an 8 week old Senegal, who apparently wasn't handled enough. She was fine at the breeders house, cuddly and curious, but when I went to take her out of her cage this morning she flew past my arm, out of the cage, into a wall, and landed on a bag.
I went to pick her up and she had a spaz out, biting repeatedly. The one bite took a very big piece out of my finger, which bled quite a bit.
I'm not scared of her or anything, but don't particularly want it happening on an ongoing basis. How can I teach her that biting isn't okay, and be able to tame and handle her without her biting, hissing and growling?
Thank you!
Jennifer
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby kimbo » Sat Feb 27, 2010 3:42 pm

there are posts you can read on this forum especially about senegals. look at taming and step up posts
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby MissLady9902 » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:55 pm

Hi Jennifer,

I'm sorry to hear your little guy is biting and afraid. It might be that she just needs a couple days to adjust to her new environment.
Here's the link to the discussion that's very extensive about Senegal aggression.

Senegal Aggression

I hope this helps! Keep us posted about your progress!
Cathy

Busy beaks are quiet beaks!

:senegal: - Noodle
:gray: - Marvin
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby Michael » Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:06 am

Just take your time and follow the steps in the guide on how to teach your parrot to step up without biting.
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby Suzzique » Sun Feb 28, 2010 1:01 am

I totally agree that you should read the posts that others put links to.

At the same time realize that your new baby has left the place it was born felt safe and knew what to expect. To being put in the travle cage taken for a car ride and then to a foren new place with a total stranger. Then once to the new place he flys into a wall and falls down. All very stressful and you unfortunitly took a nasty bite do to that stress. A good breeder would have worked with all the babys to make them as social as posible to hopefully avoid what happened to you. But birds just like us are there own person and each no matter how well socialized will react to stress differently.

While I know how much the bits hurt ( I took a pretty nasty one recently myself) try to forgive and forget the ones you recived. Give your new baby a few days to settle in and start fresh like nothing happened. :thumbsup:
Alex - cag
Martini - senegal
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby Pola » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:56 am

when my :senegal: was biting us. So everytime he bit me, i just took him off my arm and ignore him for a minute, not making eye contact or anything. Then he would fly onto my arm again and be nice.

When he falls over and i used to pick him up he used to bite me, because I was ment to look out for it.

hope this helps and also remember that it is very young and a bit silly. :D
Pola :D
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby Michael » Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:08 am

I am suspicious that something isn't right here. 8 week old biting Senegal? If I'm not mistaken

A) 8 weeks is too young for a Senegal Parrot to go home. Are you still weening it?

B) The babies usually don't bite or don't bite that hard. All Senegal babies I've handled, albeit social, did not bite or did not bite hard.

So to me it sounds like the bird is much older but I don't know. Are the eyes yellow? Do you have a photo of the parrot?
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby lzver » Wed Mar 17, 2010 9:37 am

JenniferOntario,

How are things going with your new little Senegal? Has he calmed down over the past couple of weeks.

I remember bringing both our birds home for the first time (Senegal and Red-Bellied) and the girl at the pet store reminded us that taking a bird into a new unfamiliar home with strangers is very stressful. We took our Red-Bellied home right away because she was already 9-months old, but we gave her a few days to get used to her new surroundings before we started handling her. As she got more comfortable with her surroundings and with us, she quickly got over any anxiety and stress.

When we brought our Senegal home, we picked him out - well more like he picked me out - when he was 2 1/2 months old and they were still weaning him in the nursery, so we had to wait a few weeks to bring him home. They wanted him eating on his own and maintaining his weight. I did go and visit him every single day before bringing him home, so when we were finally able to bring him home, he didn't seem phased at all because he already knew me.

Hopefully your new little guy has started to adjust and calm down.

Laura
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby HyperD » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:22 am

Sorry for post hijacking, but I am due to get my senegal in about 2 weeks time (by which time him/her will be about 12 weeks old) so it seems appropriate to ask some questions here :)

Jennifer-

Did you handle the sennie at all at the breeders? Was the behaviour fine there?

Were you able to handle him/her before the journey hme?

Did the breeder put him/her into the travelling cage?


Everyone else-

Would you recommend to leave the bird in the cage for the first couple of days and not take him/her out? Or would you only do this for the aggressive ones?

I suppose this would be a good time to do clicker training through the bars?
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Re: New Senegal Biting Chunks out of Fingers Help

Postby Michael » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:27 am

HyperD wrote:Would you recommend to leave the bird in the cage for the first couple of days and not take him/her out?


Absolutely not.

HyperD wrote:Or would you only do this for the aggressive ones?


Not really. With an older rehomed bird I'd have to really think about it but with a baby, you should start handling it from day one. You need to establish a routine and lifestyle of living in your home. If you plan to take the bird out every day at 8AM and 6PM, well then why not start that from day one.

I suppose this would be a good time to do clicker training through the bars?[/quote]

You can but you are making a Senegal Parrot out to be some ferocious beast. Just take it out, put it on a perch away from the cage and do it there. The training works much better that way. Baby Senegals are the sweetest thing and don't bite. You really have nothing to be scared of. Until they get older :lol:
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