Re: Hello
Hi, I just read through this entire thread, I had forgotten about your little Senegal, she's adorable! To address Peanut's flying issue, please don't clip his wings yet!!! It's very, very important that she learn to fly very competently before you have her wings clipped. If you are planning on clipping her wings that's fine, it's a personal decision that you have to make with the other people in your home, but she must be fully fledged before you have someone do it. She will fly into things and I know it's hard to watch, but I always judged whether or not my babies were competent enough fliers to clip their wings by waiting until they stopped flying into walls or crash landing. Covering windows, mirrors, or any glass that they can fly straight into because they can't see it is very important, but as far as Peanut flying into walls, she'll very quickly figure it out. She is just learning how to use those wings, and if you don't let her fully figure it out and you clip her wings before she is a good flier, she may not ever be able to fly competently. When I was breeding cockatiels and budgies and I knew one of the people buying a baby wanted it's wings clipped, I always waited until 2-3 weeks AFTER I felt they were fully fledged, meaning they no longer flew into things, they could land anything that they attempted to land on, they had no more "crash landings", etc. And once they were flying very well I would give them a few hours each day to fly around the house for another 2-3 weeks, then I would clip them. And if you do get her clipped, make sure that whoever does it only clips the outermost 4-5 primary flight feathers on each wing! I've seen some funky methods of wing clipping, everything from only clipping one side to totally clipping off all primary flight feathers and the bird would fall to the ground like a stone.
I got my baby boy, Kane, last November when he was 12 weeks old from his breeder, and he was being abundance weaned onto pellets, fresh veggies and fruits, and a very small amount of seeds (no sunflower seeds). I drove from Pennsylvania to North Carolina to get him, so I had to bring him home before he was fully weaned due to a timing thing with work, holidays, etc. So don't worry about Peanut not being fully weaned yet, Kane was on 1 feeding a day when I brought him home and he got this feeding at night so I assumed it was just a "comfort feeding" he wanted at night before bed, which is very common. But he regressed a bit after being home for a week or so and he started begging for a hand feeding first thing in the morning. So I'd give him a feeding in the morning of formula and then he'd eat his pellets and fresh foods all throughout the day, and at night he'd let me know he wanted his formula before bed. Regression is also common after you think they are fully weaned, and with Kane his morning formula feeding only lasted about a week or two, then I got up one morning and there he was at 6:30 a.m., munching on the pellets I had put in his sleeping cage just in case...He was fully weaned and completely off of all formula feedings, including his nightly "comfort feeding" by 14-15 weeks old. In Kane's case I really think that removing him from his breeder at the exact time he was just about done with formula and bringing him into a new environment with a new person kind of set him back a bit, but he is now almost 8 months old and doing soooo well! I love him to pieces!
Though I've had birds all my life and bred them for 20 years, Kane is my first Senegal parrot, actually my first experience with any Poicephalus. They definitely have a much different type of personality than any other species of bird that I've owned, bred, or cared for. I was drawn to the Poicephalus birds because of their tremendous intelligence and capabilities for learning tricks and commands, as well as their independent nature combined with their loyalty to one person, which is a rare combination of two traits to find in a bird species. I've found it all to be true so far too, Kane is definitely more independent than my conures, my Quaker parrot, my cockatiel, my budgies, or any of the other birds I've had in the past, including my mom's African Gray. He will entertain himself for hours and hours as long as he has plenty of toys and games/puzzles that he likes, but at the same time he would much rather be with me than alone. It's an odd phenomenon, as I'll be playing with my Green Cheek or my Quaker parrot, or giving head scritches to my cockatiel, and I'll see Kane in his cage chewing on a wooden toy or on top of his cage sliding his puzzle toy pieces constantly. So I think he's fine and having a great time and I just let him be. But the minute I get up and go to the kitchen for a drink or to the dining room to let the dogs outside, Kane will immediately fly to my shoulder and start dancing and head bobbing with excitement, like he might get some attention. I always say to him "Why didn't you come over sooner you little booger? You have two wings that work, I can't read your mind!" So I have to remember to always bring him into the action, otherwise he'll look very content being on his own when really he'd rather be with me. This is why I always get very direct with people who come on here looking for an "independent" parrot that can be by themselves for hours on end because they only have an hour or two a day to spend with the bird they get, and they often mention that they've been told to get a Senegal, Meyers, Jardine, etc. because they can leave them alone all day every day and they'll be fine....NOT TRUE! Kane gets the same amount of time with me as the rest of my birds, which is every moment I'm not at work basically. Otherwise he would not only be an unhappy bird, I'm pretty sure he'd also be an unfriendly bird.
One thing I will tell you since you don't live alone like I do is that Kane is definitely a one-person bird. I harness trained all of my birds from the day I brought them home, they all love their harnesses because they know it means they're going somewhere if I put it on them. It takes time to get them to accept the harness, it's baby steps each day, but I suggest that if you haven't purchased an aviator harness already that you do so ASAP and start introducing it to Peanut each day. It will take time for her to get used to it but it will be much easier and quicker if you start her with it now while she's still a baby. And I suggest you do this in order to start to socialize Peanut with as many people as you can, because they can become a bit protective of their person. Kane was started with his harness the day after he came home and I have a method of socializing all of my birds that has worked very well. All of my birds are fully flighted so they all have an aviator harness so that they can fly while I run with them or ride my bike with them, and also the aviator harness allows them to safely glide down to the ground if they jump off your shoulders or fall, even if their wings are clipped.
Now all of my other birds are very social and will step-up for anyone, and I have no fear of anyone petting them or scratching them. Just last Saturday I had Bowie, my Green Cheek Conure, in Home Depot with me and a lady in her 70's+ was just elated to see him, she said she had always had a cockatiel since she was a teenager. I'm assuming that she could no longer care for a pet or have a pet due to her age, she was in a scooter and didn't look very well. But man did she ever light up when she saw Bowie! She stood up from her scooter and asked if he would step-up for her without biting, and I told her yes, go right ahead. So she put her finger out and asked him to step-up, and Bowie climbed right on. Then she had him step-up onto her other hand like an old pro, while she gave him head scritches. Bowie loved it and he made this woman's day. And any of my birds would have done exactly the same thing, the Quaker, the cockatiel, or any of my budgies...But with Kane I would be nervous and probably would have told her to go ahead and have him step-up as he won't bite anyone when just doing that, but do not try to pet him. Kane got all the same socialization that my other birds did, we went in the car every single day from the day he came home, we would stop into at least one pet-friendly store each day and spend an hour, like Petco, PetSmart, Home Depot, Lowes, other pet shops, they even ride around Walmart on my shoulder while I'm grocery shopping and either no one working there notices or they just don't care...All my other birds love people and will interact with them gently and lovingly. Kane will step-up onto anyone's finger, but then he immediately jumps back to me and skitters up my arm to my shoulder. He's never bitten anyone, but my mom, the bird owner and breeder of over 45 years almost got a chunk taken out of her arm once. She was spending time with him while I was at work and he was making progress each day, but she pushed him too quickly and he gave her a very firm "warning beaking" that broke the skin but didn't draw blood. Had she kept going she would have paid dearly for it.
So while it might just be Kane's personality, I have heard and read a lot about Senegals being one-person birds, and their is some truth to it. That being said, socialization is the key, and the earlier you start, the better.
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
