The Good, The Bad and The Ugly about Senegals

[CrazyBirdLady]

The attributes listed in this thread are the experiences of each individual and your experiences may differ with your individual bird.

The good - Paris is very affectionate and loyal. I can do almost anything to her without complaint. She is happiest when she can be with me getting attention. She is an excellent eater and will eat almost any food I give her. She is very playful and really plays with her toys. She is a great acrobat and is very entertaining. She loves to bathe too. She is very quiet. My most quiet bird in fact. We communicate with soft whistles and clicks, which is adorable. She is a one person bird but I believe this makes our bond stronger.

The bad - Paris is a one person bird. She is scared of everyone else, despite my efforts to socialize her as a baby. She freaks out if anyone else approaches her. If they persist despite her warnings (fluffed head and clicking beak) she will bite out of fear. I think due to their nature of being one person birds it can take a lot of time and effort to earn their trust. Patience is very important when it comes to creating a bond with a Sennie, but in my experience it is an incredibly strong bond.

The ugly - Paris is extremely jealous and aggressive towards other pets. She knows no fear and will go after my 40 pound dog and Alex my Macaw if given the chance. And she can be very persistent, especially with the dog. I just avoid them being in the same room. I have no doubts that she would seriously injure or kill one of the smaller birds if given the opportunity. She is also very protective of her mommy and will attack anyone who dares to touch me while she is on me.

This is just my experience, and Paris is only one year old so a lot may change as she matures. I hope others will add their insight regarding the good, bad, and ugly about Senegals.

 

[Stephanie]

Wow! That was very informative. She sure does love her mommy . I feel like sometimes that's such a good feeling, knowing you're irreplaceable in someone (or somebird's) life, but it's also nice if they like, or at least tolerate, other people too. I had a green cheek who attacked anyone that got near him, and really clamped down hard on my mom's hand multiple times and she wanted me to get rid of him because she was actually terrified. That was a long time ago. I really hope my Meyer's will be friendly with everyone. Even if you socialize them young and they grow up well socialized, will that ever change if you don't maintain that? Cause what if I'm living in an apartment and I don't have friends over often?

 

[CrazyBirdLady]

Well, I tried with Paris but we didn't get a lot of visitors, so not much luck there. My understanding is that Meyers are less likely to be one person birds. If s/he likes people when young she is more likely to be social later in life.

 

[Lovebird Lady]

Wow, Jaime, you just about described my Brown Head, Zander, to a T, from his communication with me to his possessiveness over me (with the exception of the degree of aggression towards other animals, which Zander has less of). Zander and his clutchmate, Zorro, will be a year in April 2013, so as you say, personalities could change. As with Paris and you, I have had Zorro and Zander from the time they were babies, so I suspect that the three experienced similar socialization (hands on).

What I find amazing, though, is how, although Paris and Zander are of different sub-species within Poicephalus, Zander resembles Paris more so than he does his own brother, Zorro, from the same clutch. This goes to show how genetics play a more significant role in development of personality. It seems to me that Paris and Zander have a more introverted personality, preferring to interact with their chosen human, while Zorro is genetically more extroverted, needing to explore new people and new things, thus lessening his fear of other people and new experiences.

What's also surprising to me, is the gender rule, where common belief is that same gender within the same species behave in a certain manner. Paris and Zander defy that rule, being of different gender, not to mention different sub-species, and being more similar to each other than Zander with his own brother, who is of the same sub-species and same gender

These facts and comparisons should be very interesting for new parronts to know when initially deciding on which Poicephalus to obtain


I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your descripiton of Paris. She sounds like such a SWEETHEART

 

[CrazyBirdLady]

Thanks, Sylvia. I don't know what I would do if I lost Paris. She is certainly my heart and soul bird. It's interesting that your boys are so different and that Zander is so similar to Paris. I would love to see more pics of your boys!

 

[Theresa]

The good - Paris is very affectionate and loyal. I can do almost anything to her without complaint. She is happiest when she can be with me getting attention. She is an excellent eater and will eat almost any food I give her. She is very playful and really plays with her toys. She is a great acrobat and is very entertaining. She loves to bathe too. She is very quiet. My most quiet bird in fact. We communicate with soft whistles and clicks, which is adorable. She is a one person bird but I believe this makes our bond stronger.

The bad - Paris is a one person bird. She is scared of everyone else, despite my efforts to socialize her as a baby. She freaks out if anyone else approaches her. If they persist despite her warnings (fluffed head and clicking beak) she will bite out of fear. I think due to their nature of being one person birds it can take a lot of time and effort to earn their trust. Patience is very important when it comes to creating a bond with a Sennie, but in my experience it is an incredibly strong bond.

The ugly - Paris is extremely jealous and aggressive towards other pets. She knows no fear and will go after my 40 pound dog and Alex my Macaw if given the chance. And she can be very persistent, especially with the dog. I just avoid them being in the same room. I have no doubts that she would seriously injure or kill one of the smaller birds if given the opportunity. She is also very protective of her mommy and will attack anyone who dares to touch me while she is on me.

This is just my experience, and Paris is only one year old so a lot may change as she matures. I hope others will add their insight regarding the good, bad, and ugly about Senegals.

I love this, it was personal and informative

 

[Shade]

Wow, Jaime, you just about described my Brown Head, Zander, to a T, from his communication with me to his possessiveness over me (with the exception of the degree of aggression towards other animals, which Zander has less of). Zander and his clutchmate, Zorro, will be a year in April 2013, so as you say, personalities could change. As with Paris and you, I have had Zorro and Zander from the time they were babies, so I suspect that the three experienced similar socialization (hands on).

What I find amazing, though, is how, although Paris and Zander are of different sub-species within Poicephalus, Zander resembles Paris more so than he does his own brother, Zorro, from the same clutch. This goes to show how genetics play a more significant role in development of personality. It seems to me that Paris and Zander have a more introverted personality, preferring to interact with their chosen human, while Zorro is genetically more extroverted, needing to explore new people and new things, thus lessening his fear of other people and new experiences.

What's also surprising to me, is the gender rule, where common belief is that same gender within the same species behave in a certain manner. Paris and Zander defy that rule, being of different gender, not to mention different sub-species, and being more similar to each other than Zander with his own brother, who is of the same sub-species and same gender

These facts and comparisons should be very interesting for new parronts to know when initially deciding on which Poicephalus to obtain


I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your descripiton of Paris. She sounds like such a SWEETHEART

Just a little thing - Brown-heads and Senegals are not different sub-species, they are different species. Poicephalus is a genus composed of 9 species.
Sub-species in this case would, for example, refer to the 6 different types of Meyer's or 3 different types of Senegals.

 

[Shade]

I'll give my 2 cents about Senegals, although I will make it a comparative between Shade and her brother Nemo (who I know well), since I really don't know if I have much "bad and ugly" for Shade alone.

The Good.
Shade, Nemo and any other Senegal I've met in person have been really good eaters. Not picky in the slightest, willing to try anything. They are quite capable to play independently and I do not find them overly noisy. I'll second Jaime and say they are quite loyal. With Shade, I've managed somehow to get a well rounded bird who has escaped the "one person" reputation Senegal have. I could go on and on on how she's the perfect bird for me...

The Bad
The "one person" thing. While I don't live it with Shade, her brother does kinda fit the reputation, although he's more a of a "two person" bird. He loves my mom and myself and that is about it. He tolerates my boyfriend to some degree, although he'll sneak in a bite here and there and laugh right after...Oh and while they aren't what I would call noisy, they are capable of doing this high pitch noise that is not the most pleasant in the world. Luckily, Shade doesn't make it very often, only if she sees something scary.

The Ugly
Like any bird, they can get aggressive. While I can have Shade out with the rest of my flock and she'll be the sweetest out of all of them and try to befriend the others, Nemo is the total opposite. My mom actually resigned herself to giving him his own room after he kept chasing birds larger than him (he actually terrorized on her of her cockatoos..) and he actually injured a Meyer's (parts of toes needed to be amputated). When I watch over him, he gets his own time out since I won't risk him possibly trying to attack any of my guys.

 

[Shade]

I'm also going to add, in the case of Shade and Nemo, we are talking about birds that will turn 7 years old very shortly. They are quite set in their ways

 

[carkam]

Not sure where Big Bird fits in here since he is both Senegal and Meyer! lol
Big Bird is a great eater. He loves fresh foods.
He is generally quiet and can occupy himself (unlike my GCC).
He loves his head scritches and he looks at me with his beautiful eyes and blinks as if to say "I adore you"! It melts my heart.
He will sleep in and is very patient about waiting for you to get him up.



He is a one person bird! ME. He does not bite others but will run away from anyone else. He takes food from DH
but will not allow him to touch him.
He does nip at me when I am doing something he does not like. (touching his food or putting him down when he does
not want to). It is not that he bites hard, it is that his beak is sharp and I bleed a little here and there.
He does not like to have his routine disrupted and gets very nervous when it is.

I have to say I have fallen in love with Poi's because of him! He is my boy and I love him to pieces!

 

[Lovebird Lady]

Just a little thing - Brown-heads and Senegals are not different sub-species, they are different species. Poicephalus is a genus composed of 9 species.
Sub-species in this case would, for example, refer to the 6 different types of Meyer's or 3 different types of Senegals.

Thanks Natacha. I always get confused about this

 

[Silvra]

Loki my Senegal is only 8 months so I can't give a contribution about how mature senegals are.

The good. Loki is very easy to train, including trick training. Some of his tricks so far include wave, turn around, flighted fetch, flying to the indicated perch, putting items in a bowl, stacking plastic cups inside each other, rolling over, doing a forward flip around a finger or perch, saying 'peekaboo' after I cover and then uncover his eyes and putting the shapes back into a shape puzzle. He's also very affectionate to me and doesn't mind other people. He's very good at entertaining himself when I'm busy or at work. This might be becasue he's immature but he doesn't mind my budgies, he ignores them most of the time. Oh last but not least, he's so funny sometimes, for exaple when he lands on my head and then slides down my hair to land lying on his back on my shoulder!

The bad. I agree with previous points that the high senegal contact call is not overly loud but it's not exactly a nice sound. Loki tends to only make it a couple of times when I leave the room.

 

[apollosparents]

We have a Sennie named Sophie that has been with us for MANY years since we hand fed her on two a day feedings. While every one is different just like every person is different. We just like them, have similar things in common. Here is my list of Good, Bad and Ugly. These are all personal experiences. YMMV. Take my free advice for what it is worth; free, and nothing more


Good:
-Senegals are small, short tailed parrots and are very acrobatic just like the other poi's, just a good bit smaller. They are meatier than a teil but the same length of body I guess.
-They are very good fliers. Sophie could still fly with most of her flight feathers clipped. We keep her fully flighted now since she is in a bird room with two other parrots.
-Sophie is quick to eat anything healthy such as fruit, nuts, grains and seeds but will not touch people food at all. She eats all types of pellets but really likes colorful food like zupreem and also eats anything harrisons puts out. Especially the palm kernel treats. She is our healthiest eater and I guess she likes to watch her figure.
-Sophies favorite snack is ice. She loves it in her water and will pick it out, hold it until her claw is too cold to function and then use the other one to eat it.
-Sophie can talk, but it sounds like a little high pitched robot. She says many words but please do not pick a Sennie for talking ability. You (and them) will be disappointed.
-Sophie loves to mimic things that beep such as alarms, microwaves, timers, telephones and door chimes. She also does sneezes, coughs and a bad version of a toilet flush.
-Sophie loves bells, swings and ANYTHING SHINY. She can steal earrings without people really noticing, removed every shiny glued on gem from a pot my son made in church for mothersday (she put them all in her food cup) and even stole a necklace and flew off with it. I guess girls will be girls with their shiny things..
-Sophie is printed to my wife Shana, but is also attached to my son. She calls him bee bee, as in baby but more robot and squeaky/sweet.
-Sophie lets me do anything with her even though I am only part of the flock. I am not a mate or parront to her. I am more of just a friend. I can pick her up from anywhere, lay her on her back, pull her wings out, trim her nails, wings, beak, anything at all. She will never bite any of us under normal circumstances.
-If Sophie is stimulated she will try to feed and does a "skirt dance" that is pretty cute where she drops her wings down to the side and drags them while trying to feed. We limit this behavior in fear she will try to lay an egg and for the fact we are not her mates.
-Senegals are very very very easy to tell what kind of mood they are in while watching their eyes, beak, tongue, neck, feathers, wing and stance. Here are a few examples:

• Flashing eyes, beak clicking, head shaking up and down, low stance, puffed up neck feathers= Something is fixing to get the horns. Seriously. Walk away. The beak clicking is the biggest warning even if you miss all the other rattlesnake cues...
• Eyes pinned, slick feathers, indirect stance= she is scared.
• Eyes flashing, tongue sticking out/moving, no beak clicking= she is excited or happy to see you or what ever is going on she likes or is interested. The tongue says it all. Think Michael Jordan on a dunk..
• Above "skirt dance", feeding type neck movements=sexual stimulation? Not sure on this one but we do not condone this behavior for long. She is always super sweet doing this so I am sure it is some type of courtship behavior maybe?
• Head down and beak scraping on the ground, puffed feathers=Sophie wants a head rub. One of her favorites.

Bad:
-Sophies most hated/scared of color is red. She used to be terrified of red towels and attack red toys. She is fine with it now but goes to anything else first.
-Sophies contact call is a high pitched "sweep" or long "beep" They almost sound the same. Her alarm call is a fast "sweep, sweep, sweep, sweep" that is very loud and high pitched.
-Sophies claws are razor sharp if not kept cut and they do use them like birds of prey to latch hold of things in flight when attacking. I feel gram per gram of body weight she has the strongest foot hold of all of our parrots by far.
-Sophie HATES our yellow collared mini-mac, our Caique, and our Cape. You can tell by her behaviors when she is in the same room as them. She is NEVER allowed physical contact or near them in anyway.


Ugly:
-Sophies best friend and surrogate mate used to be a Quaker parrot named crash. She suddenly turned on him around the age of three and tried to kill him on 3 occasions and had to be separated from him permanently. The last time she did it, she jumped on him from another cage in full flight, used her claws to dig into his chest, drove him to the ground and bit a whole in the middle of his chest and in two places under his wings before I could get her off him.

Not So Ugly:
-Now that I have told you about the Quaker and the rest of the flock, I must also tell you that Sophie lives in a bird room with free roam along with two blue crowned Conures; Ozzy and Thor that are both DNA sexed males. She has never once even tried to act like she was going to bite either one of them. Thor has taken to her for the last 3 years and they go around throughout the day messing around, BUT. When on the cage, Thor and Ozzy are LOVERS and neither tolerates her on their cage that they share. They may beak at her or bully her around but she will not even try to hurt either of them though she would attack anything else under the same circumstances.

 

[CrazyBirdLady]

Thank you! Sophie is beautiful!

 

[ArtBird]

Wow!

apollosparents

So much of what you said sounds like my Ki...except he has never gone after another animal and he and my 7-lb Pom Jasper are buds. ( for 5 years now) Ki likes ice, too. She is a total sweet-faced charmer!
The only time Ki gets a bit aggressive is when I'm on the phone too long, and he wants my attention, he does a fly-by and grabs a strand of my hair, then sits and laughs.
Beautiful pics.

 

[Mamanda]

Loved reading these!

 

[CTKatie]

I'm a newer parront and though I would add my two cents about our Senegal, Reo. We are his third home. At the time we got him, he was with his second home for only 3 weeks. He's two. So he's been around a lot and he's only been with us two months.

The good : He loves everyone. You can do anything to him as well. He plays with everything and loves bells. He's one of those birds that I know will be good with strangers. He's been nippy lately, but I think it's hormones. We don't allow him to get away with it either. He does it, he gets put back in his cage or on a tree. He LOVES people so he usually starts being cute again. He is endlessly entertaining with his constant movement.

The Bad : He is the pickiest eater ever. He will NOT eat fruits and veggies and picks at pellets. He was on a seed only diet so it's been a hard switch to "real" food. He lost some weight initially but has maintained where he is.

The Ugly : He thinks he is a T-Rex around the other birds. Who are all MUCH larger than he is (Two CAGs and one YNA). He is very aggressive and very stubborn towards them (he doesn't take no for an answer). And when he is in his "attack" mode, watch out. You aren't safe either. He bit me pretty hard about ten minutes ago. He flew onto the cage of one of our Greys and when I went to take him off, he nailed me. He knows what a squirt bottle is, even though we've never sprayed him. It's empty in fact. All I have to do is show it to him and he usually stops the bad behavior. But mere minutes later, he's at it again. I wish I would trust him more with the flock, but someone is going to get hurt and seeing the rest are so much larger, I fear it's going to be him. They've been very tolerant. But I also don't allow him to be mean And he will also chase my dogs, who are all over 45 pounds.

I'm not sure I would get another one, but I do love this guy!

Katie

 

[Yoshi&Reza]

Since Kiwi has been here for over 6 months I will go ahead and have a go at this...

Kiwi is approx. 4 years old and I am her second home.

Good - She is an amazing eater and loves green beans and carrots. I really enjoy watching her eat because she holds everything with her foot. Anytime someone walks by her cage she immediately puts her head down hoping someone will touch her. Also, she is excellent at imitating sounds in the house. She has mastered the microwave, oven, squeaky door, some cricket or frog sound, our dogs squeaky toy, our dog's whine, and has an evil sounding laugh, and does more whistles. Dancing is another favorite of hers and she loves showing anyone her moves. And.... laying on her back in her seed bowl. Weird, yes, but adorable! This is more general but they have obvious body language which helps!

Bad - This could be good and bad but Kiwi is a wood chipper. A pine toy doesn't last 3 hours in her cage which means I have had to learn to cut my own pine for her to keep her toys refilled. Pine seems to be the only thing she likes as well. Other toys frighten her as well as toys she used to like and now is afraid of. Toys weren't a part of her life in her former home so this may have a lot to do with it. Kiwi is also very stubborn.... it is difficult to deal with sometimes and she will try to scare me into backing off. If I try to get her off something like my shoulder or the couch she will act like she is about to bite. I have to continue with the step up process and finally she gives in. I have also noticed, a lot of attention will over stimulate her. And in the beginning I loved having her on me and giving her attention but now I refrain from having her on me directly because she will decide to attack.

Ugly - Be afraid of that beak! It hurts! And when she goes to bite she also digs her nails in and they hurt really bad. Another thing is her extremely high pitched contact call. It can really hurt the ears. I can stand in the street in front of my house and have no problem hearing her inside. Kiwi does this call for everything unfortunately so I hear it constantly. She is fine with my husband but for some reason when he is home (he works out of town) she makes this call at the least once a minute for 10-30 minutes at a time. . I almost forgot to add that Kiwi is EXTREMELY bird aggressive. There has to be a blanket over only the top of her cage whenever the other birds are out because she wastes no time in attacking.

 

[pacoparrot]

Here is my experience fostering 2 senegals that were a retired breeding pair.

Maggie was the younger female. She was semi-tame and rarely bit. Her mate was older and plucked. He was very aggressive and had missing toes from a previous bird. The noise level was perfect. The sounded no louder than most cockatiels. Maggie really didn't care who was handling her since she didn't get attached to anyone in my house. They were picky eaters. They were also afraid of a lot of things. I would have kept them but they found a good home and I was wasn't really given the option to keep them.

 

[Caz Omega]

We adopted Peanut after he had been left at a Pet Shop by his previous owners and was in a very sorry state (He is around 4 years according to the Pet Store people). He was almost totally plucked front and back and bitten himself badly on his wings as well and they had chopped his wings very short and he had shredded most of what remained. He seemed to take to us right away but demands a lot of attention. If we aren't in the room but he can see us, he will come and find us. Lately he has become very possessive of the modem and me as well, only problem is that he tends to chew all the cables at the back of the modem. He is very amusing and says quite a few words in a very deep voice, also whistles and makes beep / peep noises like a fruit bat. He does have one high pitched shriek that he will do at times, for no obvious reason, as he doesn't do it as a contact call, and will sometimes do it when sitting with me. He eats most things and will always come to me to try whatever I am eating, I tend to selectively offer him some bits and pieces off my plate so that he doesn't eat 'bad' foods. I did have a problem getting him to eat fruit and veg, but after getting him started on grapes and apples, he is now more accepting of greens, papaya, butternut, pattipans, marrows, chillies and other fruit and veg. He doesn't like anyone except me to approach him when he is sitting on the modem and doesn't like anyone to try and touch him, except me when he is sitting on my shoulder. If I take him down, he will then go to anyone and be quite friendly. He tends to stalk around head first and looks like a mini vulture sometimes with the way he walks. He thinks he owns the place and has no fear of any of the other birds or animals. The conures tend to nibble on his feet, so I don't allow them out together. My Hans Macaw and him are better buddies and the two of them tend to go around with me a lot including shopping etc. He is quite a character and I love him to bits.

So glad I could give this little boy a good home, no regrets here.