Janf
New member
Hi all,
I posted a thread a while back about how our Senegal changes behaviour when my husband goes away. This pattern is still happening - when he leaves town, I'm her best friend - we snuggle, hang out lots, "talk" to each other etc. When he's in town (even if he's out at work), she's aggressive toward me and the kids - biting etc.
My husband and I believe it is a dominance thing. If she was fear-biting, she should still be afraid when he goes away. Since she can turn it on and off, it seems to be attitude.
I don't actually know if she's female. She's about 2 years old, we've had her for 1.5 years.
I know that I probably don't always respond well. When I'm well-rested and up to the challenge, I ignore her bites and do whatever I was trying to do (move her to a different location or whatever). When I'm tired or other things are bothering me, being bitten by her is sometimes just too discouraging on top of being painful because I really want a good relationship with her. Then I put her on her cage and walk away.
I would really appreciate any advice people can give me for the best way to assert dominance over her without hurting her or causing trust issues. Maybe there's a certain way I should approach her or hold her or feed her?
I read some posts that say to put a bird in its cage and ignore it for a while when it misbehaves. I'm going to try that as a start. We currently only confine her to her cage for sleeping at night, otherwise she has a fair bit of freedom; her wings are clipped, but not too short because we don't like her thudding to the ground when she jumps off the cage to find us.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jan
I posted a thread a while back about how our Senegal changes behaviour when my husband goes away. This pattern is still happening - when he leaves town, I'm her best friend - we snuggle, hang out lots, "talk" to each other etc. When he's in town (even if he's out at work), she's aggressive toward me and the kids - biting etc.
My husband and I believe it is a dominance thing. If she was fear-biting, she should still be afraid when he goes away. Since she can turn it on and off, it seems to be attitude.
I don't actually know if she's female. She's about 2 years old, we've had her for 1.5 years.
I know that I probably don't always respond well. When I'm well-rested and up to the challenge, I ignore her bites and do whatever I was trying to do (move her to a different location or whatever). When I'm tired or other things are bothering me, being bitten by her is sometimes just too discouraging on top of being painful because I really want a good relationship with her. Then I put her on her cage and walk away.
I would really appreciate any advice people can give me for the best way to assert dominance over her without hurting her or causing trust issues. Maybe there's a certain way I should approach her or hold her or feed her?
I read some posts that say to put a bird in its cage and ignore it for a while when it misbehaves. I'm going to try that as a start. We currently only confine her to her cage for sleeping at night, otherwise she has a fair bit of freedom; her wings are clipped, but not too short because we don't like her thudding to the ground when she jumps off the cage to find us.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Jan