My senegal hates me!

[Caduceus]

Hello all! I'm new to the boards.

I have a senegal named Simone that my wife and I adopted. She is 2 years old, and we've had her since January. Simone is female and she fell in love with my wife at first sight. At first, Simone, would have nothing to do with me. I would sit from afar and talk to her sweetly. Things progressed and she allowed me to scratch behind her head. Then she allowed me to hold her, scratch her neck. She regurgitated food for me and enjoyed being carried around the house. All of this started happening at the beginning of March. Coincidentally, she would now only allow my wife to pick her up for short periods of time. Their relationship had changed, they bird had fallen in love with me. A few weeks ago, that came to a halt. One day when I woke up, I went down to Simone and she was very afraid of me. She would flap her wings and try to bite if I got near her. She would start backing up and try to hide behind her cage. Very fast respirations, mouth open. If I continued to approach she would fly/fall from her cage (her wings are clipped). With continual fluttering of wings, she sometimes damaged a feather or two (twice now, a blood feather). In fear of her injuring herself, I do not approach her anymore. I sit from a comfortable distance and speak sweetly to her. She does let me approach with a treat, then quickly retreats with treat in beak. She will also let me pick her up to place her back on her cage if she falls.

She has fallen back in love with my wife again. My wife can hold her, cuddle her, scratch her neck and carry her around the house. I am happy for my wife, but can't understand the sudden change in Simone. I had done nothing to hurt the her, and nothing unusual happened the night before the change. Her cage did not move, neither did anything in it.

Is this normal for a Senegal? Could this be something hormonal? Or is this just her changing her favorite person as I have read previously about?

Thanks for the insight, I miss my 'Simoney Baloney'
Tony

[jimpierce7]

it is hard to tell sometimes what scares our little Sennies. I sure hope you get it figured out.

[pizansmom]

I am my Senegals favorite. One time when I went away for a couple of days I came back and Pizan wouldnt want to have anything to do with me. He would run from my finger and when i could get him on my finger he would flap and jump off with a scream! It took a couple of days of love to get him back to normal. I have had the same reaction another time, but that time I wasnt away from too long. He growls at me when I come home from work, but I ignore him and he then is begging for me to pick him up.... They are sensitive little birdies...

[Caduceus]

It's been weeks now, I spend at least 45 min every day sitting at a comfortable distance away, speaking to her, and will approach now and then with a favorite treat. I hope eventually she'll come around, I miss having her sit on my shoulder or in my lap while I'm on the computer.

I remember when we adopted her in January, she didn't speak. Her previous owner had told us that she'd never spoken a word. Within the first month we had her saying 'pretty birdy', 'hey bird', 'I'm right here', 'come here!'
She hasn't learned any new words in a while though. She is very afraid of ropes, strings, cords, and anything in the shape of a stick.

[Caduceus]

Pizansmom, what you describe is exactly how Simone reacts. She'll run from my finger, or even me approaching the cage. If I do get her on it, she will flap like a mad bird. This is often how she'll lose a feather. She does the exact same thing, she'll scream and fly away.

So frustrating. At first I thought it'd only be a few days. But, she persists.

[Sprecker]

It too about 6 months for my Seny to decide to like me and my wife. It was alonger for him to accept her though. If you just keep at it s/he will come around. You may not be best friends but s/he will learn to be nice to you.

[sootykitty]

Has she ever bitten you? If so what was your reaction? I ask this because my first Sennie fell in love with my husband just a few weeks after I adopted him from a rescue. After that time he wouldn't have anything to do with me and would flap and make a fuss when I approached. He even would lunge at me and attempt to bite. I asked for help from a very experienced bird owner who came over and helped me. He just walked right up to him and made him step up. He didn't put up with that behavior at all. Once that was shown to me then I got over my fear and called the bird's bluff. I just firmly placed my finger in front of him and said step up in a firm tone (not yelling) and he would step up. Now I'm not saying that he didn't nip me, and he still does from time to time, but I don't let him get away with it and he knows he still has to mind.

I agree that Sennies are very, very sensitive birds. I have another (also a rescue) that was afraid of EVERYTHING when I got him. He would spread his wings and shake so hard you could hear his wings rustle. It was so sad. It took months for him to calm down enough to not do that anymore, but he still scares easily. He too is afraid of anything that resembles a stick so I don't present anything like that to him. Even treat sticks make him retreat in fear. I would say that if you give yours time then she will come around. Just don't force it. The one thing I did to help mine overcome fear of me was to present a treat just like you're doing, but I would kind of hold on to it firmly for a second before I would let him take it from me. After awhile he realized that I wasn't going to hurt him and then would readily take the treat and not run away to eat it. This took months to accomplish. Also, I wonder do you do anything else when you offer the treat. I remember that I had to stay perfectly still and not have my hands or arms up high. I would offer the treat from below the level of my bird. That way there was nothing above his head to scare him.

Sorry for the long winded answer, but I am just giving you some ideas and voicing my experiences with my Sennies. This may or may not apply to your situation, but if you get anything from it that helps you then it was worth your time to read this entire post.

As mentioned earlier. These are sensitive little guys and need lots of time to settle into your routine. They definitely choose their favorite people, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't be able to at least handle her.

[sootykitty]

Just checking in with you to get the status on how things are going for you.

[meghanxx4]

hmmm, ya i would say this is normal. Although i haven't had my sennie for long so don't really know. I got my Kayto, in March and he's always liked me.