Bonding with my Senegal

[Rea]

Greetings!
I am new here. Just hoping someone has some Good Advice about our newly acquired Senegal.
This bird is about 10months old and bonded with her previous owner- a dark haired man with a beard.
I am a light haired female and brought our bird home this past week. Although previously tamed- he wants nothing to do with me but only has eyes for my husband - bites me- gets v excited at seeing my dark haired bearded husband.
Is there any hope of us bonding, or will he forever be pining to be with my DH??

 

[Anansi]

Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family!

Ouch, that's tough. Well, if you've just gotten her, her hard and fast choice of favorite person may not yet be set in stone. Though it would appear your husband does have a bit of an advantage in that arena. Still, you never know.

That said, while you can't control whom she chooses as her person, you most certainly can improve her interactions with you and cut down on any aggressive behavior.

First thing to do is get her used to you. Start earning her trust. Shameless bribery helps in this. Find her favorite treats and make sure that she only gets them from you. (And these favorite treats should not be anything that is available in her major meals.) For the first few days or so, you can just sit by her cage and feed her through the bars. (Or outside of the cage if she's already at the point where she comes out freely.)

I'm assuming that she'll be okay with stepping up and coming out of the cage relatively quickly since you said that she was already hand tame with her previous owner. If this isn't the case, let me know and I'll tell you how you can work on building up to that point.

When working with her outside of the cage, your best bet is to get her into a room away from her cage. This will eliminate any cage territorial behavior. If she won't willingly step up for you, you can have your husband take her out and bring her to a perch or play stand in another room. ****IMPORTANT**** But once he's gotten her there, he has to bounce. Make himself scarce. Disappear out of her line of sight. AND out of earshot. Why? Because as long as he is there, she will want to make sure that he understands that she is available. If this means she needs to bite the living daylights out of you to get you away from her....

So once he's gone, (and give it a few moments so she doesn't associate his disappearance with your arrival) you can step in and begin working with her. Try to only go at the pace she finds comfortable. If she's not ready for you to touch her, don't rush it. Sit near her and read softly to her. Or sing. Or give a steady toned monologue. Whatever floats your boat.

Once she becomes more comfortable with your presence, you can begin building up an interactive relationship with her by using targeting. Remember to treat frequently with every bit of progress. *Scheduling these training/bonding sessions between meals when she'll be more hungry is the best strategic move. (Note, I'm not saying to withhold food for the purposes of training. Just that setting the session for maybe a half hour to hour before her dinner will allow for a more treat-motivated bird.) Here is a link to target training that you might find helpful: [ame="https://youtu.be/HaOicTtwIZo"]Beginners guide to target training parrots - YouTube[/ame]

And here is another link that might help with the causes of biting, as well as steps for prevention: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/57935-brainstorming-biting-parrots.html

And how to deal with biting as it is happening: http://www.parrotforums.com/training/63988-bite-pressure-training.html

Keep in mind that any timeouts and such, to whatever extent possible, should be handled by her favored person. Your job is to build your persona as the "good guy".

Keep in mind that this will require patience. Depending on the stubbornness of your individual bird, it could take weeks or even months for you to see significant progress in this regard. But the result will be so very worth it.

 

[wrench13]

Patience and then more patience. My wife, who started out not being able to touch Salty at all, has recently graduated to being able to give chin scratches and shake hands and even get kisses from Salty. Time? Only about a year and a half. Progress at the birds pace not yours. And also consistency is very important, do things the same way preferably at the same time every day every day. Sennies are notoriously stubborn, so settle in for the long haul.

 

[Sandy19]

My Senegal is bonded with me, but she has gotten used to my husband to the point that she will come over and sit on his arm and even sometimes step up for him. We did what has already been stated above and over time she did get friendlier with him.

She still likes me the best, however. She's a user and only likes him for his sunflower seeds.