Adopting on Friday!!

Hi all, I am new here. We will be adopting a Senegal on Friday and I couldn’t be more excited. She has been plucking for at least a year and has had multiple owners in her short life but she is as sweet as can be. I’m sure I will be on here a lot asking questions so I just want to say hi and thanks in advance for all of your wonderful knowledge.

I wish you good luck with your rescue.
Have you had experience with other birds? If not taking on a bird like this may be …. unwise .


It's not easy taking care of a parrot when it's healthy, taking on the care of a bird that has plucked to the point of mutilation is an extreme challenge. Even with the best of care and love he/she may never stop plucking completely.


Every case is different. I brought my Bella home being sure I could help her recover from the plucking behaviour she had developed due to her previous home. I would say I was 80% successful.

It's always great to see someone bring a rescue home from a bad situation, just make sure you know what you are getting into.

Lots of vet bills.
Lots of attention.
And the knowledge you may not be completely successful in reversing his/her plucking.

Welcome to the forums, your intention to adopt a plucking bird is admirable! Please proceed with caution and full understanding. Is this your first bird?

The causes of plucking are varied and complex, this thread gives great insight into what we do and don't know: http://www.parrotforums.com/behavioral/52217-plucking-search-answers.html

LibbyCarp said:

Hi all, I am new here. We will be adopting a Senegal on Friday and I couldn’t be more excited. She has been plucking for at least a year and has had multiple owners in her short life but she is as sweet as can be. I’m sure I will be on here a lot asking questions so I just want to say hi and thanks in advance for all of your wonderful knowledge.

Click to expand...

She's gorgeous!! Welcome Parronthood!!

Sent from my LGMP450 using Tapatalk

I appreciate your concerns about adopting a plucker. I do have experience with birds. I was an avian biologist before I became a teacher and have had parrots as pets. I have not had experience with one of my own birds plucking, although I did adopt a bird with advanced beak and feather that eventually had zero feathers. A Senegal is the first bird that I really feel in love with but have never had one as a feathered family member. I’m looking forward to learning more about Senegal’s from people that have had them and ways to help Artemis overcome her plucking behaviors.

You sound like the ideal parront to help Artemis modify plucking behavior!

Oh my...I've never seen a plucked senegal before. They always seem to be so happy-go-lucky.
The best of wishes for you and your new love!
(Artemis is a great name imho)

Welcome to the community! And congrats on bringing home Artemis! (I love her name!)

I am 38 and a life-long parrot owner and breeder, but I brought home my very first Senegal baby only a year and 9 months ago. I got Kane from a private breeder who hand-raised him, and he came home with me when he was 13 weeks old. He's now a year and 9 months old, and I couldn't love him anymore than I already do. He's the sweetest little guy in the world, though I will admit that Senegals are totally and completely different than any of the other parrots that I've owned, bred, or worked with at the Rescue that I've been a volunteer at for years now.

The thing that surprised me the most about Kane is how quiet he is compared to any other species of parrot I've been around. At first I thought something might be wrong with him, like he was ill, but after talking to my CAV and other Senegal owners I realized that they are typically very quiet birds. I knew that they were not known for being good talkers, and Kane is no exception. He says around 7-10 words, but he sounds like a little robot! And only single words, no phrases. But when I say that he's "quiet", I mean in-general and overall. He just doesn't make much noise. He plays all the time with his toys, he's gets into it too, but he does it quietly. The only time he really makes much noise at all is when he's interacting/playing with me, sitting on me, or when he's calling for me, which he does constantly. First thing every morning at the crack of dawn, when all of my other guys are chirping away (I have 8 tame, pet Budgies and then 5 breeder Budgies, so they sound like a flock of hundreds in the mornings and at sunset), Kane starts continuously calling for me by doing our special "Wolf-Whistle", which I only do with him. He also makes the sweetest little whining or crying noise when he wants something from me. So he loves to "talk" to me, but that's it, he is not a loud or noisy bird, and apparently that's typical of Senegals.

Kane also has a very typical "stubborn streak" in him, and while he will always eventually listen to me, it sometimes takes a while to get him there, lol. He loves to preen my hair, and he loves to make "kissing" noises at me when he's on my shoulder. He absolutely loves his almonds and his pistachios, those are his two favorite training treats (in the shells, of course)...Senegals have a pretty good sized beak, and he has no trouble at all shelling any of the nuts that I've given him: almonds, Brazil nuts, Filberts, pecans, and even walnuts, which is hilarious to watch, but he somehow gets them inside his beak.

The most difficult time for Kane has been puberty, which he started going through at about a year and 3 months old...he started regurgitating for me constantly, then he started humping me, or trying to hump me...all the time. Somehow we managed to transfer his humping to a little stuffed Carfax "Car Fox" that I got from Carfax as the dealership I work for is a Carfax dealer...So Kane now has a Carfox boyfriend, and that's just fine with me. The hormones are now subsiding for the year, so we're good until next year.

He is a jealous bird when it comes to me and my other birds. He absolutely HATES my Green Cheek Conure because he is also a very snuggly, cuddly little guy, and whenever Bowie snuggles under my chin or against my neck, Kane starts pinning his eyes like mad and he really does physically try to get at Bowie. And he's like this with my Quaker and my Cockatiel as well, but only when they are on me/with me or when I am paying them attention. Otherwise they get along fine. So they are jealous little buggers...I currently live alone (no other humans, lol), God only knows how Kane will react when i do live with someone again, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it...

I'm sure that you're new little girl (Has she been DNA tested?) will bring you all kinds of joy and love, they are just the sweetest, most loving parrots. I've not ever encountered a Senegal with any Feather-Destructive behaviors before, nor any other Poichephalus species either, but that is probably just because there aren't that many pet Poichephalus out there, not compared to Budgies, Cockatiels, Conures (everywhere now, Conures everywhere), etc...Even the Eclectus's are beginning to pop up everywhere recently, I've seen tons and tons of them all over the place in the last couple of years. But rarely do I see a pet or a Rescue Senegal, Meyers, Red-Bellied, Cape Parrot, etc. So that's probably the only reason that we don't see many "plucked Senegals", because we don't see many Senegals period.

****I'm assuming that you're adopting Artemis from an Avian Rescue? If so, do you know whether she? has been DNA tested and proved to be a female (or is she an egg-layer and that's how they know)? Do you know how old Artemis is? Do you know how many prior owners Artemis has had? How about any more of her history, have they been able to tell you much about her prior families, her prior diets, when the plucking started, etc.? The reason I'm asking all of these questions is because the more you can find out about her history, the better-able you are to help her with her feather-destructive behavior, and just her feeling of security, comfort, and safeness in-general. So if these aren't questions that you've yet asked the Rescue/owner, then it would be a good idea to get as much information about her history as you can, including her past owners, her medical/health history, her dietary history, etc.

And if she hasn't been DNA tested or hasn't laid any eggs, and they are just guessing that Artemis is a female for whatever reason, it's a really good idea to get her DNA tested asap, as hormones in female parrots often have a lot to do with feather-destructive behaviors...Plus, you definitely want to be prepared for any chronic egg-laying and the issues that come along with it, if this has been a problem for her in the past. The more information you can get about her, the better. Don't be afraid to ask any and all questions of the Rescue/owner that you can think of.

Have you found a Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet for her yet? Hopefully you have an experienced Avian Specialist near you; trust me, it's well worth the drive to find one, even if you have to drive a few hours one-way to get to the nearest experienced CAV or Avian Specialist that treats only birds...Especially since Artemis is a plucker, you absolutely need to find a very experienced Avian Specialist/CAV to take her to for her yearly wellness-exams, blood-work, cultures, etc. You definitely do not want to take her to any type of "Exotic's Vet" that treats everything from birds to reptiles to primates to rodents to marsupials, that's not going to do Artemis a bit of good. There are many experienced CAV's and Avian Specialists that have backgrounds in treating self-mutilation and feather-destructive behaviors in parrots, or they know someone who is, and that's definitely the way to go with Artemis...Be sure to schedule her first wellness-exam within the next month or so, and getting some baseline blood-work on her to show her liver and kidney function, as well as her hormone levels is a great place to start with treating the plucking (and a DNA test if her gender is not yet definite)...

Anyway, welcome and congrats, and please don't ever hesitate to ask any questions you might have! And lot of photos!!!

EllenD - Thank you so much for all of the information. They are calling her a female but I am not 100% sure she has been DNA tested, I am going to ask tonight but the people that have her aren’t her first owners. Her owners dropped her off to their friends and never picked her up. As far as I know she has now lived with 2 families. They have said that she is three years old and has been plucking for a year, as far as they know.
I do have an excellent Avian Specialist to take her to. I’m so lucky to have one so close. I also have to get more info on her current diet.
Your stories of your Senegal made me so excited for Artemis to come home to us.

Congratulations! It sounds like Artemis could not be going to a better home
We have taken in multiple pluckers, I am drawn to them and so many get passed around from home to home. Thank you for taking her in, I am so excited to hear about your journey together.

Congratulations!!! I worry about but a deficiency ( a guess only) because if the way his nares look... Probably not been getting exposure to sunlight either... Poor poor birdie!!! I wish he was with you right now!!! I can't wait to hear of the wonderful changes coming his way!!!

Rescuing saves lives!
Thanks!

Awe, poor Artemis! So her very first family just dropped her off at a friend's house and never came back for her? What is wrong with people...honestly. But if she didn't start plucking until after going to her second family, then it's pretty self-explanatory as to what caused the plucking to begin with...And even if she did start the plucking towards the end of her time with her first family, chances are that it started due to neglect, boredom, and not getting any time out of her cage, no interaction with people, probably no toys or foraging activities, etc. I'm guessing this based on the fact that they simply dropped her off at a friend's house for whatever reason and then just never came back to get her; based on their total lack of care for her well-being or any feeling of responsibility for her, I'm guessing that the end of her time with her first family was probably not the best. In my experience at the Rescue with cases like this, where people have simply abandoned their bird after having them for some length of time, it's usually the case that the people were very excited to get a parrot (especially if they were the bird's first family and got the bird as a little baby), they often do very little research into the time, attention, interaction, and care that a parrot requires all throughout it's life, for decades, and after the initial "new car smell" wears-off, they realize that they have no desire to be parronts, no desire to give their bird time out of the cage every day, and often they even have trouble just putting clean food and water in their cage every day, they stop cleaning the cage, they put the bird in a back bedroom out of the way, where the bird often goes days without even seeing a single person in the house, and the bird becomes a piece of furniture. I see this all the time; sometimes the people are at least responsible enough to admit that they just don't want the bird and the bird deserves better, and they will properly surrender the bird to an Avian Rescue or re-home the bird to people who are experienced with parrots and who they know can give the bird a loving, attentive home, other times they simply just don't give a damn about the bird, they feel no responsibility to the bird at all and think of it as nothing but a nuisance, something that drives them crazy with it's screaming, and they often go from just being neglectful and progress into being abusive, throwing things at the bird's cage or hitting the bird's cage with things to try to get them to stop screaming (out of boredom and the want for attention, and sometimes because they are starving and dehydrated due to them not feeding the bird anymore); I've seen more than a few cages that surrenders have arrived in with huge dents in the bars from the owners hitting the bars and throwing heavy objects at the cage because the poor bird has been constantly screaming and crying for attention. It's very, very sad.

So if Artemis's first family was able to literally abandon her at a friend's house and never come back for her, then chances are that she hadn't gotten much, if any attention, interaction, stimulation, or love in quite a long time, probably not since she was a little baby. This will most definitely cause plucking in any species of parrot, especially a tame, hand-raised parrot that craves human attention, and that has the intelligence of a 3-4 year-old human toddler. If they have nothing to do and no one paying attention to them, and all they do all day long every single day is sit on a perch inside of a cage and stare at the wall, then of course they start to pluck, at least it's something to do, something for them to work-on, a job. We'd start pulling our hair out and picking at ourselves too if we were locked inside a cage with no toys, nothing to read, nothing to listen to, no one to talk to, etc. And I feel for the people who took Artemis in, or I guess who had no choice but to take her in, at least temporarily, what an awful thing to have a friend do to you, just dump their pet at your house and never return for them. Some people never grow-up and are not capable of being responsible for themselves, let alone for another life.

I'm so glad that Artemis is going to your home, it sounds like you're going to really be an attentive parront. I think that's really probably all Artemis needs, a lot of love, attention, and stimulation. Senegals are such loving little birds, not a lot of people think of them that way until they actually own one, but once you have one in your life, you realize that all they want is to be with you all them time. That's all Kane ever wants, is to just be "with" me, like just on my shoulder sitting with me. I don't have to be directly interacting or playing with him, or even talking to him, he just wants to be with me. He'll be sitting in his cage playing with his toys, and when I sit down in the room to read or watch TV or play a video game, he always stops what he's doing and immediately just starts crying and whining and making kissing-noises at me, and doing our special contact "Wolf-Whistle" that we do, and I go over and let him out, and he goes right to my shoulder and is completely content for hours. He'd rather be sitting on my shoulder doing nothing than playing with his toys. They really are loving, caring, velcro kind of birds once you form a close bond with them.

And I'm soooo glad you have an Avian Specialist at your disposal! That really is priceless, you have no idea how many people have no vets at all around them for hours, and then many have totally clueless "Exotic's" Vets that can actually be worse than having no vet at all, as they sometimes so more harm than good. I have both a Certified Avian Vet and a Certified Herp/Reptile Vet, as well as a 24/7 Exotic Animal Hospital all within 10 minutes of my house, and once I started talking to people from all over the world on the forums I realized how extremely lucky I was...It's amazing that even in the US, in very populated urban and suburban areas, there are absolutely ZERO Avian Specialists, and sometimes not even an Exotic's Vet within hundreds of miles. It makes me want to go back to Vet School and finish, just so I can become both a CAV and a CRV...It's interesting, because I recently watched a lot of episodes of "Dr. K's Exotic Animal Hospital" on the NatGeo channel, and I was just blown away...I don't know if you're familiar with the show or with Dr. K and her partner Vet, but she is an Exotic's Vet, as is the other female Vet that she hired to work with her, and they treat any and all living creatures except for dogs and cats, she absolutely refuses to treat dogs or cats, because she says there isn't a need for more dog and cat vets. I was blown away watching the miracles that this woman and her partner perform on a daily basis, she even treats aquarium and pond fish! That blew me away more than anything, a father brought his two young kids in with their sick Betta Fish, and she diagnosed the fish with some kind of bacterial infection in it's skin (she actually took a culture from this Betta's skin) and she gave the Betta fish an Antibiotic injection, and then showed the father how to do it once daily at home for 7 days...I couldn't believe it. She performed 2 surgeries on extremely young, unweaned, baby Macaws who were born with extremely severe congenital deformities of their legs, where their legs were literally positioned up over their heads and sideways...She went in and cut their bones basically off, then cut them into the correct lengths, and rebuilt them using plates, screws, and pins with external-fixators...She built these baby Macaws legs! These guys are what an Exotic's Vet is supposed to be, someone who is educated and experienced with ALL species of pets that they treat; unfortunately the majority of Exotic's Vets in the country know very little at all about ANY of the pets that they treat. But if you live in the Fort Lauderdale/Miami area you are blessed because you can take whatever animal you have to Dr. K...

Welcome to the community!

Welcome to you both!

Unfortunately, the adoption didn’t work out. The people that had Artemis stopped answering my messages. 😩
Good news is we adopted a turquoise green cheek conure today!

Sad for Artemis, but congrats on your green-cheek!

Aw, sorry to hear that the adoption didn’t work out with Artemis. Congratulations on your green cheek - hope you’ll share some pictures and tell us all about him/her!