Does your Sennie attack everyone?

[Jaz27b]

Hey guys,

Does your Sennie attack everyone other than you? I am a mbr of a senegal facebook group and alot of people have a sennie who literally attacks their partner/husband/wife etc etc.

Does your Sennie get along with everyone in the family or is he/she really a strong one person bird?

Thanks

 

[thekarens]

Both of mine used to attack my partner if she got too close until I was out of town for a week. I came back and everyone was buds.

 

[JamesC]

I've had mine go both ways though these were strangers to him. He latched onto the finger of one of my coworkers and really got her bad. But then he met another person and got along great. I generally don't allow anyone to interact with him because he is so unpredictable and if he bites he is going to do it to cause as much damage as he can. He is a rescue so he might have a few things in his past in the 2 or 3 homes he had before he came to me.

 

[RavensGryf]

I just think you hear about it a lot because it's common for Poicephalus to be kind of "hair trigger" like that. Every single person I've heard of who has or has had a mature Senegal will tell you the same thing.

I don't have a Senegal, but from my observations over the years, and speaking to owners of the other similarly sized Pois - Sennies, Red Bellied's, Meyer's, Brown Headeds, and from my personal experience with a Red Bellied and a Ruppell's, it seems like they all have this particular trait in common.

Robin (Red Bellied) was a typical one person bird for many years, and many people I have known dared to pick him up to say hi to him, and had to sustain a deep and painful bite from Robin where many times he had to be pried off the unfortunate person's flesh. When Robin was in his teens he met Don, and it was instant love. I would warn him, I would go find bandages, but was shocked to see we never needed them! Maybe a few times in several years Robin bit him, but any Poi owner could expect that. He is now a two person bird after many years.

Griffin the Ruppell's is a typical one person Poi. We tried to socialize him young, from 4 months old, but he was already pretty set in his opinion by then!

Sennie Tude as Mark (Birdman666) calls it. All Pois have Sennietude lol!

 

[Birdman666]

Well, they do have lots of 'tude, and have been known to beat the crap out of birds twice their size... you do have to stand your ground and stand up to them. They do get dominance issues...

Beyond that though, aren't these birds pair bond birds?! And what happens when pair bond birds are allowed to overbond?!

So, that part is a socialization issue, but the fact of the matter is, with a Sennnie, it happens sometimes anyway... they are territorial, jealous, possessive, etc... and OPINIONATED little critters.

 

[Shade]

My Senegal is great with people, but I made a point of socializing her with a lot of people really early on and it paid off. While she isn't the biggest fan of my SO, she doesn't attack him, but may ignore him. He is able to handle her with a perch (as she most often won't step up on his hand, but won't attach it either) so it is what it is.

Her brother, who lives with my parents, is another story. He loves my mom and I and that is it. If he doesn't like you, he may attack (my dad stays far away from him). Whereas mine is good around other birds, he is not, and has been known to go after cockatoos...

 

[Grraarrgghh]

So far, Albert gets along with both me and my wife famously. Treats us both the same. He's been moderately socialized so far, generally freezes up and doesn't do much when strangers are around, but eventually gives up the statue act and will fly onto their heads. Rarely bites strangers however. He seems to like my wife's parents.

 

[WideO]

So far ours, Oscar, has a close bond with both my wife and I. He's almost 2 now, so that could change I suppose. My wife is clearly the favorite: he ignores me when he's out and she's around, but when I'm alone with him we get along great. It's almost like he sees her as a potential "mate", and me as a good friend.

He doesn't attack our dogs (we tested this, but prefer to remove the dogs when we let him out, they are just too big and could accidentally hurt him), and shows no aggression towards a friend who visits us often. He'll even fly to his drumstick (we use drumsticks to handle Oscar most of the time), but that's as close as he goes.

He does test our boundaries with us, but does not attack/just ignores others who come into the house.