I have hit a bick wall ....

[GW.Joe]

All "bad" behavior can be modified with proper training, Like MikeyTN said : "with time and training that can be taken care of"

Time = time spent every day, if you don't put that into this you won't get anything out of this...

Training has to be done in a calm environment, with the exact proper technique, being done consistently the same every time...

To be honest with you, from what you've described, it sounds like the birds environment is not quite ideal

Like MikeyTN said there is a world of training help on YouTube

Joe

 

[BEWolf]

Hi, I also live in NC and have a Senegal. Please don't clip his wing as it is not good for them. Senegals have a strong tendency to being one person birds, but who that person is can change. Your Senegal is what is called cage aggressive and it is because it is his home, his safe place and he is protecting it from an unwanted home invasion. They are a bit territorial in nature and most definitely are not good with children. Childrens fast moving fingers will get them bit every time. And Senegals bite hard,most of the time removing chunks of flesh with each bite.
But the good news is that once they are done with puberty, and with proper care and training they are very affectionate to their human counterpart, all other beware. Well sometimes they will accept someone else as a friend but not like their chosen human, whom they will defend and protect until death stops them. They are very intelligent, fun loving, feisty, cuddly, protective, territorial, aggressive all in one little package, and I would not give mine up for the world. Don't get me wrong, I have a Grey and an Amazon and they are all very special to me and I wouldn't give them up either , but my little demon bird with the grey head and bright yellow vest and green leisure suit is my special go to friend.

 

[TheWildRose311]

The only reason for clipping his wings is so that he can learn to trust me, Without that he will set in his cage all day with no interaction and it's not right to do that, If that is the life he has to live I'd rather rehome him and let someone that can live with that on their consience do.. I can't. And it is better to have him clipped, And when he is out atleast I can get him, As with not being clipped and geting out the door one day where I know he will not survive. ( I have never and will never confine any animal to a cage, That is animal cruelty) Disco was not adopted to be kept as a glass ornament, He was brought here to be loved and trained different from his current behavior. I have had cockatiels and parakeets all my life, Everyone of them were clipped.. It doesn't kill them it doesn't hurt them, It just makes them so that they have to depend on you wich will create a bond ( It is pointless for Disco to bond with my brother who does not live here and is not here alot), So that needs to be reinforced) After he learns to trust me and has bonded with me, He won't need to have his wings clippped anymore, This is not a for life thing... Only temporary.

 

[TheWildRose311]

As far as his enviroment, He was placed in the living room because that is where the most traffic is.... I can't put him in my room, Because their is zero interaction there... And since the accident I don't sleep in the room so he would be in there all day no interaction.. nothing, However in the new home I will be using my room train him... Im going to buy suction perches and work with him everyday, Im thinking work with him 10-15 minutes... (With breaks) Than return and start again.

 

[GW.Joe]

Everyone here cares about your bird and you

But I don't think you are "absorbing" what everyone is telling you

It sounds like everyone in the home is allowed to do whatever they want with the bird

No one should be putting their fingers at the bars
No one should be taking the bird out of the cage (But you)
If the bird is not trained and tame it should not be allowed to fly around the house

You mentioned earlier in a post that you felt like keeping the bird in the cage was cruel

From your birds point of view the cage is a secure place where no one can eat him (natural instinct, the bird has a fear of being eaten)

In one of your posts you mention "giving the bird another chance"
The bird has done nothing wrong

If you can't get total control of the birds living environment, and let the bird know that he is SAFE in his cage, I don't see how things will ever change

Joe

 

[GW.Joe]

As far as his enviroment, He was placed in the living room because that is where the most traffic is.... I can't put him in my room, Because their is zero interaction there... And since the accident I don't sleep in the room so he would be in there all day no interaction.. nothing, However in the new home I will be using my room train him... Im going to buy suction perches and work with him everyday, Im thinking work with him 10-15 minutes... (With breaks) Than return and start again.

When I just made my last post this post from you was not here yet
Having the bird in the living room because that's where the most traffic is is a great idea, but no one can touch the bird or the cage
Working with the bird everyday is a GREAT idea
I think you should start out with five-minute sessions though

I don't think you should try to take the bird out of the cage right now
I think you should try to offer the bird millet, start out by placing a very small piece of millet near the door of the cage in between the bar somehow
(No more than the bird could eat in 20 min.)

Do that repeatedly and after the bird had successfully eaten it multiple times, then try to offer the bird some millet (with your hand) through the bars at the same exact spot (be patient)

Once the bird is taking millet from your hand you made progress

Would you be willing to start out with that training procedure?

Joe

 

[TheWildRose311]

He will take things out of my hand, I give him treats through the bars.. I give him treats when I open his cage door ( While he's inside) He knows the step up command, But only does it when he wants.... Now my bro did get him out of the cage on two occasions now ( I can put a stop to that) The reason I said "another chance" was because, Since the day I got him I started working with him he had done nothing but nibble, And a few weeks later he totally changed, I felt like I had taken three steps forward, To only be pushed back ten, I felt like we had gotten so close and now all my work was for nothing... I was discouraged. Another thing is his owner has fed him alot seeds, including sun flower seeds I know this is not good for him, I need to start him on some pellet food, And mix a little of the sunflower/ seeds in with the pellets... But as for pellets im not sure where to get it or what to get. Right now he is eating the premium gormet parrot food. It's got corn, Sunflower seeds safflower peanuts dandi cut peppers pumpkin seed wheat corn gluten meal Dicalcium phosphate calcium cabonate brewes dried yeast dried cane molasses soybean oil dried product flaxseed mea ceral distillers dried grains with solubles L-Lysine Monohydrochloride salt dl methionine vitamin e supplement iron pironate manganese poteinate stabilized rice bran, Asorbic acid ( Vitamin c), niacin vitamin a supplement fish oil, D-calcium, pantothenate, sodium, selenite, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine, Hydrochloride, thiamine, Mononitrate, Menadione sodium bisulfite complex (sorce of vitamin k activity) Biotin supplement, vitamin d-3 supplement, dried lactobacillus, Acidophillus, fermentation product, dried lactobacillus, casei, fermentation product dried biofidobacterium, thermophillum, fermentation product, dried enterococcus fementation product copper, protenate, folic acid vitamin b-12 supplement, sage, zinc, sulfate, cobalt proteinate, Iodate, citric acid ( A preservative), lecithin, rosemary extact added f d&c colors (red #3 red# 40) Titanium Oxide, Yellow #5 blue #1), artificial flavor.

Yea, lm willing to try that,I can set his food in places in his cage ( I don't think a millet or pellet will fit between the bars because of the spacing... But he has three or four different bowls in his cage so I will put his water in one, Food in the other and leave one to place his pellets, millets and treats in the other, And one on the floor.

 

[mismi_struck]

Its the sunflower seeds that you want to try and get away from, at least that's my personal opinion. Most birds LOVE safflower, and its a much better alternative IMO. A straight seed eater may not switch over willingly to pellets - it may take some coaxing. Be careful about changing too much on him at once. A change in diet and training, plus your upcoming move, is a lot to take in at once, especially as you guys don't have an established relationship yet to make him feel more secure.

 

[TheWildRose311]

Yea, It it really would be packing a punch so to speak.. The food I have for him is all mixed up, I'll wait to try and switch him later after we get in the new house and get settled ( Like mabey a month after we get in) Mom went to the the pet shop here where we live and told the guy we had an african parrot, and he looked it up and by what she said he thought I had an African Gray ( So now I have food for an African Gray to ( But he's not an african gray and .. I dunno if they even have the same diet as the Senegal... ( So it wouldn't benefit him to eat that.. If they don't have the same diet) His food now has Saffflower in it but it's all a big mixture I'd like to have like a box of pellets, millets and than include just a hand full of his regular food with it ( The guys at the petshop near me are really good with the animals, He said he only needed a handfull of the) premium gourmet food)

 

[MikeyTN]

Excess safflower isn't good for them either! I have posted this countless times about switching over even for the pickiest eaters I've encountered and it's worked for me and others whom I've posted with.

The time I start changing food is when they've been with me for at least a month before I enforce it. A bowl of pellets in the cage 24/7 and a bowl of fresh fruits and veggies every morning. Then in the evening time give a half a table spoon full of seeds, just a few sunflower, you really need to limit the amount! Then next day repeat the process over again. During any time you see him eating the pellets good, do not feed anymore seeds! Even if you have to waste a full bag of seeds, give it away or keep some as treats later. No treats, nuts, etc. for at least a month after switching over to pellets. Then limit the amount treats you give to just a few at a time.

Clipping is a individual choice to make, don't listen to others telling you to not clip or to clip, it is something you MUST decide on your own.

Bring him into a enclosed room to train if he's a flyer. If he's clipped, a enclosed room would be good too cause they will constantly try to run here and there, making training very hard to do. Use a perch if you must! Ask him to learn to step up onto a perch, use two perches, go back and forth between the perches (This saves you from being bitten). Once he gets that down, then go from perch to finger, then finger to finger.

And of course I've mentioned before about target training, that is something good to try as well if you want to go that route.

 

[GW.Joe]

I felt like I had taken three steps forward, To only be pushed back ten, I felt like we had gotten so close and now all my work was for nothing... I was discouraged

Hello again,

The reason you are having setbacks is not directly your fault, we all have this same problem from time to time, it can be VERY frustrating

If you get caught up on all the new posts, and then start reading new posts as they come in you will start to see that you're not the only one having this problem AND and you will learn much more by reading what other people do to take care of the problems

When I say it's not directly your fault, everything that happens to the bird is the owners responsibility (no different than if it was your child)

From reading everything you said I really feel like your setbacks are the direct result of everyone else in your house, the bird has to learn to completely trust you, so when you make progress it's because the bird is becoming familiar with whatever you're doing, the bird is starting to trust you, then someone else in your house comes along and does something that completely freaks the bird out, at that point you're back at square one.

I think now that you understand that you can take steps to stop everyone in the house from interfering with the birds training.

I can give you an example from my own personal problem, we have a Parrotlet, when she sits on my shoulder if she moves out of a target square on my shoulder I say "ah ah ah" and she immediately goes back to the square, I taught her to do that by taking my finger and presenting it to her like she would have to step up but more like pointing at her and then saying "ah ah ah", it took very little time for her to realize that if she didn't go back to the square I would make her step up and remove her from my shoulder and put her on a T stand next to me, she would much prefer to stay on my shoulder so she learned to do that very quickly.

Now here's the problem, my daughter Rissa does not follow those guidelines so when the bird is supposed to be sitting on her shoulder, instead she runs all around her neck, now that may not sound like a very big deal but the bird has learned to chew her necklace, chew her shirt, and prefers to hang right under her neck in the front OR runs completely down her arm to the desktop , which bothers Rissa, so what you have is a situation where the bird runs off of Rissa's shoulder and then Rissa has to chase the bird back to her shoulder in a never ending cycle of annoyance LOL, the bird has complete control and does not listen to Rissa at all
Now here's where the real problem comes in, because the bird is more annoying on her shoulder Rissa tends to hold the bird less than I do

The thing about the millet training at the bars, if you notice I said it should be as close to the door as possible, what you're doing is setting the bird up for the next step (that's pretty much what you're always doing)

The next step would be to open a door hold the piece of millet between your fingers and say the exact same words that you would say when the bird would take the millet from your fingers at the bars

Before you know it when you open the door and say those words the bird would jump right out on your hand

But your response to me was "I can set his food in places in his cage ( I don't think a millet or pellet will fit between the bars because of the spacing)"

Sitting the Millet in places in his cage isn't going to train him anything

You have to understand once you have this bird coming to you and taking Millet out of your hand you will be able to get the bird to do things

I think at this point you should watch a BUNCH of YouTube video about training parrots, after watching a bunch of them pick one that you think will work for you!!

I have been sitting at this post composing it for a while and going to do other work around my house at the same time, I just noticed that Mikey gave you some advice about training which is exactly what you have to do (so basically I've been post jumped because I am SLOW )

Anyway it is 3 AM eastern time have to sleep now, let me know what kind of training you decide to try, The FIRST thing the bird should learn is to come out of his cage to your finger when prompted, once you teach the bird to trust you to do that, the bird will start to learn that every time you call him out of the cage it's fun time

Best of luck!!

Joe

 

[JerseyWendy]

I have a seventy eight year old dog that has never offered to hurt any animal... He's rather be friends, ...

HUH??? Surely that's not quite right. :54:....the age that is, of course.

 

[RavensGryf]

Now here's the problem, my daughter Rissa does not follow those guidelines


Anyway it is 3 AM eastern time have to sleep now,

My husband is like that with Raven - not following my training guidelines. He does all kinds of things to him like grab and cuddle him like a Macaw, and Pionus don't like that. I'm actually surprised Raven doesn't complain TOO much, but I tell him he doesn't like it, but he won't listen! He also lets Raven on his shoulder, which I don't. Maybe Raven tolerates it cause he knows he'll get the special treat (shoulder time) with him

Joe, I don't think you sleep at all....

 

[Birdman666]

Disco sounds like he's got cage aggression. That means he feels safe within and your intruding his space by putting your hand within. But with time and training that can be taken care of. I have used perches to get cage aggressive birds to come out. The training I was mentioning before is stuffs like target training. There's a ton of videos off YouTube you can watch as they all have the same basic idea. So just watch a few and learn your basics from there. Then start practicing!

I CONCUR.

CAGE AGGRESSION COMBINED WITH SENNIE-TUDE IS ONE FIERCE AND DETERMINED LITTLE BIRD...

Oddly enough, the last case of cage bound sennie-tude I worked with, and you're gonna find this odd, but it worked...

A doggie rope toy!

We stuck it in the cage, the bird would do his pit bull number, and wouldn't let go of the rope. Then we picked him up dangling by his feet from the rope and moved him away from the cage...

ONCE AWAY FROM THE CAGE (out of sight), you put your arm under his little feet, and gave him a treat.

That's what passed for "step up" with this little guy.

Then you did the cage bound behavior mods... and eventually the rope toy thing became a game (swing me by my beak on a rope.)

 

[GW.Joe]

Now here's the problem, my daughter Rissa does not follow those guidelines


Anyway it is 3 AM eastern time have to sleep now,

My husband is like that with Raven - not following my training guidelines. He does all kinds of things to him like grab and cuddle him like a Macaw, and Pionus don't like that. I'm actually surprised Raven doesn't complain TOO much, but I tell him he doesn't like it, but he won't listen! He also lets Raven on his shoulder, which I don't. Maybe Raven tolerates it cause he knows he'll get the special treat (shoulder time) with him

Joe, I don't think you sleep at all....

So I'm not alone !! Well not much you can do about it, except maybe ban him to the Budgies "Pix & Twigs" LOL

Rissa's problem is she's just too easy-going

Julie, I'm not sleeping much since I started Juicing, It was one week yesterday, so far I lost 12 pounds in one week
Juicing works so well I'm not even hungry

I have completely changed the way I eat

Joe

 

[RavensGryf]

That's awesome Joe, about the weight loss and juicing! We want a juicer. I do eat very healthy, but Don does not.

Banning him to Pix and Twigs won't work. He ignores them pretty much (even though Pix is technically his bird). He wants a big bird. He's too busy these days, plus he's too much of a newbie. He gets mad when I tell him stuff like that hehe.