Meyers vs Jardine vs Senegal

[Furbz]

Hello all,

so i'm looking for info from members on the above birds.
all a part of the same family of birds.

but how different are they?

 

[RavensGryf]

Aside from being proactive and reading information available, it’s always nice to hear firsthand from owners of the species you’re interested in.

That said; Furbz - IME, you’ll most likely see a bigger personality difference between individuals more than between the species.

The Jardines is bigger than the other two. Generally speaking, all Poicephalus have oversized and extremely strong beaks for a fairly small bird. Once mature hormones hit, they can be unpredictable biters at times. A well adjusted Poi is usually an extrovert in personality, but quiet in voice (for a parrot). Some are handleable and even cuddly, while others are hands-off birds. This can apply to any Poi, and comes mostly down to individual personality along with their earliest experience with humans. I personally love Poicephalus, I’ll take them with all the pros and cons.

The best thing to do is to go in the spring or summer when there is more of a variety of species available, and see in person the species you’re interested in. See if you have any connection with the bird when you interact with and handle it. If you live near an exotic bird store, you’ll have this opportunity. Good luck!

 

[Furbz]

i have read every article on every one of these birds right to page 5 in google.
i'll clarify, i'm looking for differences noticed by people who have either actual experience or have some knowledge to assist.

Posted by RavensGryf: The Jardines is bigger than the other two. Generally speaking, all Poicephalus have oversized and extremely strong beaks for a fairly small bird. Once mature hormones hit, they can be unpredictable biters at times. A well adjusted Poi is usually an extrovert in personality, but quiet in voice (for a parrot). Some are handleable and even cuddly, while others are hands-off birds. This can apply to any Poi, and comes mostly down to individual personality along with their earliest experience with humans. I personally love Poicephalus, I’ll take them with all the pros and cons.

The best thing to do is to go in the spring or summer when there is more of a variety of species available, and see in person the species you’re interested in. See if you have any connection with the bird when you interact with and handle it. If you live near an exotic bird store, you’ll have this opportunity. Good luck![/quote]

Thanks@RavensGryf,

Locally there are few breeders. the sad part is most local breeders sell off the birds to pet stores at a very very young age.
my personal issue with this is the staff at these pet stores are not adequately trained and generally do not care for the bird. they are often far too rough with the babies when feeding, pipe feeding to get the job done faster. thus from a young age these birds develop a fear of hands, very sad to see them panic each time a hand comes towards them.
so it becomes very difficult to actually interact with a bird prior to purchasing.
we pretty much have little to no choice but to buy a very very young bird and raise them ourselves to avoid them being mishandled as above.
due to this it becomes difficult to know what they are like prior to owning, as the older birds we do come across usually are fearful.
further, no time is actually spent with the babies to actually get them hand tamed. if they were fed by hand they are labeled "hand fed" and tame.

online its difficult to tell their size, so its interesting to hear the Jardine is bigger.

the unpredictable biting - does this subside once the hormones have stopped raging?
my only experience is with a Conure and i never noticed his coming of age at all.
that said i was a lot younger then (15 years old or so)

 

[Furbz]

Making assumptions i have found to be a rather reckless approach.
For instance assuming i have not already read everything i can on this forum is a rather reckless assumption.
I have, i was not satisfied and reached out for further guidance.
Based on your advice everything needed is available here already. So why the need for the forum at all?

If you have no constructive advice on the this threads topic then please refrain from posting.

 

[greytness]

I have a Meyers and a Jardine's. My Meyers is a very active little sweetie. She (just guessing on the sex) loves to be cuddled and simply adores flying. She is one of my most active fliers, and is very busy. She is very quiet and doesn't say any words. My Jardine's is very laid back. She will sit on my shoulder for hours on end if I let her. I do monitor my movements towards her so as not to startle her into biting out of reflex. My Jardine's says a few words.

My Meyers came from a pet store, and was pretty much not hand tamed. However, it didn't take her long to figure out that we weren't there to harm her. My Jardine's came from a bird store. She was hand tamed and sweet towards us from day one.

 

[Furbz]

I have a Meyers and a Jardine's. My Meyers is a very active little sweetie. She (just guessing on the sex) loves to be cuddled and simply adores flying. She is one of my most active fliers, and is very busy. She is very quiet and doesn't say any words. My Jardine's is very laid back. She will sit on my shoulder for hours on end if I let her. I do monitor my movements towards her so as not to startle her into biting out of reflex. My Jardine's says a few words.

My Meyers came from a pet store, and was pretty much not hand tamed. However, it didn't take her long to figure out that we weren't there to harm her. My Jardine's came from a bird store. She was hand tamed and sweet towards us from day one.

Thanks for the info

i found a breeder close by so i might be able to see some Jardines.
they do not allow visitors to interact with birds though.
i think they had an infection scare not long ago and are now extra cautious.

 

[ChristaNL]

Uhuh, it is a shame, just like a lot of people will post an "emergency" -> get a lot of helpfull suggestions...and nothing is heard from that person ever again.
(and we never hear what was helpfull and what was not)



Thats is why our mods here are abolutely wonderfull: they condensed it all in the stickies.
(Lightblue on top of every main topic)


==


I've met a few senegal parrots and quite a few ex-owners of senegals and meyers, and it is amazing how much they all differ.
It is not so much about the species, but how they are educated (I am not saying raised because I do not mean handraised) by the owner/ rest of the human family-- like dogs: with one person the most wonderfull social en trustwurthy of all animals, with the next person: only one person can handle them and everyone else risks getting hurt by this humanhating unfriendly animal...


I always say: meet a few (if you can) and let the bird pick you!
Somehow they are a lot better at finding a match than we are.

 

[RavensGryf]

online its difficult to tell their size, so its interesting to hear the Jardine is bigger.

the unpredictable biting - does this subside once the hormones have stopped raging?
my only experience is with a Conure and i never noticed his coming of age at all.
that said i was a lot younger then (15 years old or so)

The Lesser Jardine’s is the subspecies most often found if you’re in the US. Adults are around 140-180g. 180 would be larger than usual. The Meyers is one of the smallest of the smaller Poi at around 110-120g.

Robin’s hormonal outbursts and unpredictable biting finally calmed down after around 20 years LOL. Nowdays at 24, he’s such a sweetheart and I can go 1-2 years without hard bites, and I handle him a lot. It seemed to be the worst after about 10 years. I don’t know why it got bad when he was that old. It’s usually in the winter when it’s their natural breeding season. I’ve heard that mature Red Bellied males (like my Robin) and mature Senegal males are the worst offenders generally speaking.

 

[EllenD]

I have a male Senegal, he turned 2 years-old this past September, and I brought him home from a private-breeder when he was 13 weeks old. He was hand-raised/hand-fed by his breeder (who did a wonderful job) and was a sweetie from the moment I met him...I drove 9 hours one-way to pick him up, picked him up around 9:00 p.m., checked-into the hotel around 10:30 p.m., and he slept on my chest the entire night...Then he rode all the way home, all 9-hours, in the hood of my hoodie...He's picking at my earring right now

I heard a lot of negative things about Senegals and the Poicephalus species in-general before I brought Kane home, and I haven't found one of them to be true. No, they are not Conures, but Kane is cuddly and snuggly and love scritches and is a little sweetie...He was a handful through puberty, only because he was humping everything, lol...He never became aggressive or bitey/nippy...

One thing that I heard that did end-up being true is that they are "one-person birds", and that is definitely the case with Kane...My mom is a life-long parrot breeder and has had my brother, a CAG, for 32 years now...And when she put her hand out for Kane to step-up the first time she met him as a baby (I'd only had him for a couple of days at that point, so it's not like he was that closely-bonded with me yet), he hesitantly stepped-up onto her hand and then turned his head around and looked at me with this look of terror that I will never forget! Lol, he was like "AHHHH, who is this? AHHHH, come get me back, come get me back, I don't like this, AHHHH!" And to this day he will step-up for someone and then immediately fly right back to my shoulder and give me the "There, I did it, was that enough?" look...He's my little man, and that's about it...but he's never bitten anyone though...He does very gently but briskly remove anyone else's fingers from him if they try to pet him, lol...Every time he just grabs their fingers in his beak and kind of "throws" them away...At least he's polite about hating other people...

Kane is a big boy, his weight hovers right around 145 grams...His sister was noticeably smaller than him when I first met them both and picked him up, I'd say she probably hovers around 115-120 grams...The Jardines that I have met have all been "taller" than Kane, not necessarily "wider", just taller...The Cape Parrots are the big-guns of the Poicephalus species, they are like 3 Senegals or 2 Lesser-Jardines...

 

[guobowan]

Aside from being proactive and reading information available, it’s always nice to hear firsthand from owners of the species you’re interested in.

That said; Furbz - IME, you’ll most likely see a bigger personality difference between individuals more than between the species.

The Jardines is bigger than the other two. Generally speaking, all Poicephalus have oversized and extremely strong beaks for a fairly small bird. Once mature hormones hit, they can be unpredictable biters at times. A well adjusted Poi is usually an extrovert in personality, but quiet in voice (for a parrot). Some are handleable and even cuddly, while others are hands-off birds. This can apply to any Poi, and comes mostly down to individual personality along with their earliest experience with humans. I personally love Poicephalus, I’ll take them with all the pros and cons.

The best thing to do is to go in the spring or summer when there is more of a variety of species available, and see in person the species you’re interested in. See if you have any connection with the bird when you interact with and handle it. If you live near an exotic bird store, you’ll have this opportunity. Good luck!

[you’ll most likely see a bigger personality difference between individuals more than between the species.]

That's a very very great sentence! Brilliant! I can't agree with you anymore~

 

[SammyAndyAlex]

I have a Jardine, 5 years old.

He is a total sweetheart and loves me and is gentle and nice to everyone (including young children).

He is very shy with speaking when strangers are present but will talk to me when we are alone. He is very extroverted (except when it comes to his voice!).

He is a very calm bird. He loves going outside in his harness and watching cars and bikes from bridges and overpasses!