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New birb dad help..lol

hertzchasi

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Parrotdad
Hey everyone!

So, rescued a young senni recently and had no luck finding the owner, which is probably for the best, I will explain why in this message further down. I have had her about 2 weeks now, but bonded by day 3. My dad was a falconer when he was young and I always showed an interest in it, had a few rescues of my own, predator and prey birds all short term. After bonding with this senni basically immediately I started reading hours on do's an don'ts. Learn't alot...lol... It really is like having a 5 yr old.. first mistake before I read it was cuddles mistakes. She skirt dances, etc. Now but curbing it. I haven't touched her it her "let's get it on zones" since, but she still starts morning greet with " hey baby, u like my skirt dance? How about some throw up?...lol. she demands a hard snuggle just before bed. Her schedule is like clock work... Get me up same time everyday, eats breakfast with me then has a hour nap.. then play time with dad. That cycle continues till evening. Wants to be with me 24/7. Only noises she makes is her flock call/location scream, it's not bad and I try not to run to the room "my landlord lives upstairs and said I can have her in my place as I have a pitty and paid large pet deposit, yes pitty and birb are chill together.. ok, without getting to long here's my issues.

-i believe she was fed people food, fats salt sugar, etc.. I was cooking and she turned into a lunatic trying to get to our dinner " cabbage rolls and mash spuds..lol..won't eat much veggies. Green beans and odd carrot. Apples that's it. She throws any others at me. Trying different greens but it's slow. Only thing she would eat when I got her was fatty sunflower seeds, yes changing that. She's finally eating zoopreme pellets green bean and tiny sliver of apple and fatty seed are for training. she won't touch cuttlefish so I scrapped it into powder and I dust her apple with it on occasion. Pretty much work in progress.

- she won't use a perch! I have tried different ones, no dice. Only thing she will perch on is a wood chair. I have tried swapping it and moving a wood perch a little closer day by day but she knows..

Doesn't want to be in a cage, no way..

Won't play with toys. Only plays tug o war with me. Made her a mellow forage toy scared to death of it.

Scared of the dark, I started her with a night light, now down to some soft blue LEDs.

Biggest issue is feather plucking, it's not molting. Guessing from sritching the "get it on spots" 20210717_125305.jpg getting her worked up and or diet and sleep schedule. So working on all three. I don't want her to wreck herself, plan is to work towards free flight. Any insight or help would be great, want her to be the best birb she 20210713_130412.jpg can be... Thanks everyone!!!
 
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Zara

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Welcome to the Avenue.
:bump4: for visibility
 

Zara

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Just by someone posting on the thread will bump it to the top of the ¨Recent posts¨ list, so it´s already done ;)
 

Pat H

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Love those Senegals!!! My Ricky is in his early 30's...
Bananas are a favorite. Food is a great behavioral motivator.
She won't go in a cage? Need to work on that, plus going into a carrier--- sometime in her life, she'll need that.
I'm glad she enjoys her cuddles! You are blessed...
 

hertzchasi

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Love those Senegals!!! My Ricky is in his early 30's...
Bananas are a favorite. Food is a great behavioral motivator.
She won't go in a cage? Need to work on that, plus going into a carrier--- sometime in her life, she'll need that.
I'm glad she enjoys her cuddles! You are blessed...
Enjoys cuddles? More like demands them....lol.. cuddles and car rides.. I take her for a drive once a day, she loves it! If I have to step out of the car she perches on the steering wheel just chillin... Funny thing is I found her by chance, but after my research/looking at other Birbs, a senni is the one I would get anyways,
 

Solly

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Welcome what a lovely lady! Congratulations on your new bird!
 

FeatheredM

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Welcome! What a lovely bird you have:bounce4: your bird seems to have a interesting past we may never know, I'm glad this birdie found you, you have some tough questions, maybe @Shezbug or @Mizzely could help?
 

Mizzely

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She needs some tough love. What kind of cage do you have right now? What kind of toys? What diet are you giving her?

Also please don't stop looking for her owners. If she enjoys cuddles that much someone has to be missing her. They can fly miles a day so looking in your general vicinity is not enough. Let all the shelters, vets, pet stores in the area know.

Signed, a Poicephalus mom, and a mom who lost her green cheek 6 years ago and is still looking.
 

FeatheredM

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That's so sad! It must be horrible without your greencheek, hope you get your bird back, because you never know what tommorow may bring....
 

hertzchasi

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She needs some tough love. What kind of cage do you have right now? What kind of toys? What diet are you giving her?

Also please don't stop looking for her owners. If she enjoys cuddles that much someone has to be missing her. They can fly miles a day so looking in your general vicinity is not enough. Let all the shelters, vets, pet stores in the area know.

Signed, a Poicephalus mom, and a mom who lost her green cheek 6 years ago and is still looking.
She's posted on FB, local vets and mail box on my street, been in touch with local breeder/rescue, I believe she may have light atrophy in her flight muscles. Can only fly short distance, and her skills aren't there, she's quite small in the chest, leading me to believe she never left her cage plus the fact she does ever want to go back in. Not clipped. 6'x5'x3.5' is her cage dimensions, I can't put toys in as she loses it to point of hurting herself. Diet is a slowly changing thing, much better now but will continue trying all veggies and some more fruits. I'm aware of the pellet, fruit,veggie and seed ratios, getting her dialed in. She won't let anyone else touch her even tho my mum handled her first. The not playing with toys is my biggest concern. She needs it for her health, mentally/physically. She can't get all her activity from me. I know alot of her energy burning will come from free flight, I know not everyone agrees with it, tbh I believe if a bird as a pet has to be caged most of the time and not allowed to fly it shouldn't be kept/bought or sold.. there birds first, pets second.. they need to do what's natural. It's like a human having working legs but being made to use a wheel chair... Not great for health. I'm just taking thing day by day. Dailing her in and being a flock member for her.
 

Mizzely

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If she is food motivated, try foraging toys.

My Hahns was afraid of perches and toys. It was a long process. What I did was put ONE new item for her cage about 6 feet away from her cage.

Find a distance that works where the bird can see it but doesn't react negatively to it. Leave it there for a week or so. Then move it closer 6 to 12 inches; again, able to see but we want no negative response. Wary is okay as long as they aren't freaked out.

Repeat the process until you can actually attach the item to the outside of the cage on the opposite side of the cage from their favorite roost (usually where they sleep or spend the most time). If there is a negative reaction, go back a step or two. We want then to be able to see the toy but not feel forced to have it next to them, and they usually feel safest in their favorite place.

Finally, I would switch the item to the inside of the cage directly on the other side of where it had been on the outside. That way it's really only moving from outside to inside, not more than a few inches closer.

Once they are okay with that toy (again, wary is okay. We just don't want them anxious or scared) then you can start desensitizing the next item.

I pretty much divide the cage into zones for stuff. So say there is a 5 spots for items.... Ranging from Favorite Perch to Desensitizing Area. I would rotate the toys so that the toy nearest the favorite perch would be retired for a bit, move the next closest toy in its position, and so on and so forth, so that the recently Desensitize toy would move farther into the cage and make room for a new one. In this way, only one new element was added at a time, while the rest are known things and just shifted. It allowed her to have the extra time she needed with toys without getting bored.

It was a process. Some things were able to be moved in within a couple weeks, while others took a month or more. It's all about slightly pushing that comfort zone in manageable amounts. Luckily, in my case, Gizmo did learn to read trust me more through all of this and I was able to swap things in and out of her cage without so much build up after a while.


Some other tips:
 

hertzchasi

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What you said is exactly what I'm doing,:exactly: slowly slowly slowly...lol.. another thing that I don't understand, if I cut her cuddles short " don't want to fall asleep with her on me" I will put her on her perch and she freezes for about a half hour, pupils dont follow movement, you can nudge her, nothing, like a statue... Do you think this is her sulking? I find it scary..lol.. she is behaving like a fear/predator responses... U know the " if I don't move, I may not get noticed...
 

sunnysmom

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Welcome to the forum. You could try freeze dried vegetables. But my older cockatiels love them and started eating them right away. I think maybe because they're crunchy and more seed like texture? If she likes people food, maybe try making birdie bread. You can add vegetables to that too. There are mixes you can buy or if you do a search on here there are recipes to make birdie bread. Also maybe try some Higgins Worldly Cuisine mixes?
 

hertzchasi

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Welcome to the forum. You could try freeze dried vegetables. But my older cockatiels love them and started eating them right away. I think maybe because they're crunchy and more seed like texture? If she likes people food, maybe try making birdie bread. You can add vegetables to that too. There are mixes you can buy or if you do a search on here there are recipes to make birdie bread. Also maybe try some Higgins Worldly Cuisine mixes?
Nice, with birb bread she won't feel left out on toast and coffee in the morning she loves trying to smell my coffee and steal my squirrelly toast..lol. Sounds good, thanks for the advice appreciate it!
 
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