3 year old Sennie, new nippy behavior

[Sabauda]

Our 3 year old male Senegal You-You is exhibiting a new and slightly disturbing behavior. He is totally bonded with my husband, and although affectionate but nippy with me, has NEVER bit my husband, or been grumbly or growly with him.

He has recently started snarling and nipping my husband, and "answering back" in a growl if my husband speaks to him. Usually he will answer back sweetly by saying "Papi" or making his sweet little Sennie chirpy sounds. Suddenly he is snarling or shrieking. He has also begun digging, but this is usually a part of his cuddle time with my husband - they will sit on the couch and he will dig under a cushion. It looks like nesting behavior; and I suspect there are maybe some hormonal changes going on.

You-You spends a lot of time (3-5 hours a day) out of the cage (he is flighted). This evening for the first time ever, he wouldn't come to us to cuddle and then be put in his cage, but wanted to stay up on the curtain rod. Previously he ALWAYS came to my husband when called. The last few days barely at all. We are wondering if we need to limit out-of-cage time, or space it out differently.

How best to deal with this? THANKS!

[ThreeX]

Give it time. Just continue as you have up til now and back off when he (imo it sounds more like a 'she') isn't really that keen on attention. Mind you, i don't mean back off on things like stepping up or going back in cage and stuff. I just mean the cuddly stuff.
You haven't heard of many human teens who still want to sit on mommys lap and be cuddled, have you? ; )
Although with birds, the odds of being cuddly coming back after hormone storm is a lot higher than with human kids.

[Sabauda]

Thanks, ThreeX. You-You is definitely a "he" (DNA tested).....what you say makes sense.... we'll be patient. It's so hard for my husband....You-You is literally screaming at him and growling constantly at him.....I hope this passes quickly!

[ThreeX]

Hope springs eternal.. ; )
Be prepared for a long frustrating period though.. It could last up to and over a year and it may also pass soon when days are getting shorter. Right now Hugo, my male is courting Pepsi almost daily. Unfortunately for him, she's just 16 months old so she's not really on his level ; ) well what i mean is it is still mating season, a season where birds are not known to be extra friendly.
One more thing, try to give him 12 hours of undisturbed sleep time and watch the protein-rich food. That ought to help at least some.

[Pepper's Pa]

Hi, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you on and posting about You-You. I’m sorry to hear that he has changed his interactions with your husband, but that does happen. Usually, these are temporary and You-You will revert back to his friendly interactions if his new behaviors aren’t being reinforced.

There could be many reasons why You-You is demonstrating the behaviors he is at this time. Some include:
1) He’s at an age where he wants to assert his wishes more strongly than he did when he was younger.
2) If your weather is anything like mine, we’re experiencing the hottest and most humid weather of the year. I’ve observed this time of the year to cause Pepper to be extra nippy and moody.
3) There may be some hormonal cause for his behavior (do you know when he was hatched?).
4) It could be for some reason that is not obvious to you.

First, I know that this frustrates you and your husband . . . and I’m sure it frustrates You-You too. He wants to be with his flock (you two), but doesn’t know why he’s feeling grumpy. As much as possible, I’d suggest you keep your interactions with him as close to what you’ve had in the past as possible.

I’ve found with Sennies it works much better to work with them than to try to force them to comply. When You-You snarls, shrieks or growls at your husband it’s not the time to force or attempt a physical interaction, but time to passively interact by sitting near him or calmly talking to him. Five to fifteen minutes later You-You may be accepting the interaction your husband wants to provide for him.
At this time, you may observe that there are times of the day when he is more interested in having friendly interactions. First thing in the morning and just before his nighttime are often times our birds seek out our interaction in a friendly manner.

Last summer, when Pepper was three-years old, he was the grumpiest ball of feathers. I don’t think a day went by that I didn’t receive a hard bite and many of them drew blood. My fingers and hands always hurt. Once the fall arrived, he had a major change in temperament. He was very friendly, peaceful and cuddly. This summer I received a few hard bites, but absolutely nothing compared to last summer’s “Chomp Fest”. Here are two links to articles I wish I had read earlier and you may find them insightful about You-You’s behavior.
Parrot Adolescence – Part One
Parrot Adolescence – Part Two

How close to a natural daylight schedule of awake and sleep time is You-You following? I’ve heard some very strong reasons for allowing our birds to follow a natural daylight schedule and that experiencing dawn and dusk help them to regulate their biologic cycles.

Are there any changes in your home or outside of it that You-You can see or hear? This could easily cause a change his behavior.

Do you provide him with multiple daily opportunities to forage? Foraging is a great natural behavior that our companion parrots can do in our homes and specifically in their cages. I usually provide Pepper with four foraging opportunities each day. His favorite seems to be these: Caitec Foraging System for pet birds at Drs. Foster and Smith

I hope you’ve had the opportunity to watch You-You do some problem solving. Sennies are intelligent parrots. One of the things you can do to meet their need for intellectual stimulus is to provide ten to fifteen minutes of training every day. Training can be a great positive interaction and a trained behavior can often be prompted to replace some aggressive behavior being shown. I’ve found clicker training to be very easy, positive and successful. Some tricks (behaviors) took Pepper all of five minutes to master.

One of the best things you can do is to “catch him being good” and reinforce those behaviors while ignoring the negative, unwanted behaviors.

I hope something that I’ve shared will be of some help to you with You-You.

[Sabauda]

Pepper's Pa: What a generous and helpful response! You-You is in fact 3 years and 5 months old - and yes, we are having a major heat wave. He has calmed down and is again being sweet with my husband, which is a relief, although I have explained that there probably will be more of this behavior ahead! I have instituted very strict "bedtime" protocol - 12 hours a night, and regular hours. We have also already instituted the "ignore acting out" policy. You-You does really love being told he's a good bird and being praised, so we will up the ante on that when he's being sweet.

I've printed out those wonderful articles. What a great help....and will do my best to translate as much as I can for my husband. So much of what's in those articles rings true ....especially his recent "mocking" behavior, sassing us with a sarcastic, "imitating" tone when he is annoyed. It's hard for us to order overseas, but I will try to get my hands on the foraging kit. You-You has many activities (in and out of the cage), I know he's not a "bored bird", but now that he's doing so much digging behavior, he may need even more challenges.

I am constantly amazed by the intelligence of this tiny creature; his ability to use tone of voice to express himself and communicate with us. What a amazing brain and what a huge personality.

Thanks to you and all the wonderful forum members who are such a great support!

[Sabauda]

One more thing, Pepper's Pa: does Pepper use the small or large Foraging System? I am going to order this and have a friend bring it over to us...

[Pepper's Pa]

As much as I recommend the foraging system as a great toy (I hate calling this a toy because it’s so much more) it may not be the best in your situation. The problem is that you need a steady and consistent supply of the boxes that get destroyed to keep using it. Refills come 15 to a box. Pepper can go through a full box in a day, but often I can reverse the box in the holder and get two days out of it.

Here are two images of the boxes. This first image is after about five minutes of beak use and eating. Notice the sides can also be investigated and shredded. These boxes had been filled top-to-bottom with food treats, it takes creative filling so that all the treats won't pour out through the chewed holes. With experience, I've learned how to do this much better.



Here’s another image of a partially used box. When he’s done the only cardboard usually remaining is that behind the plastic of the holder.


I will say that Pepper loves these. I have two, the one in the images that is vertical and a horizontal one that sticks out like a shelf.

Another favorite foraging opportunity is alphabet blocks. I take the blocks and drill four holes through two sides and one hole through each of the other sides.

If I’m going to hang this in his cage I thread a leather strap through one of the single holes. I then solidly pack the other holes with food treats. I’ll stuff it with pieces of Nutri-Berries, Avi-Cakes, dried fruit, seeds and slices of peanut and almond. I pack the treats in using Q-Tips and make sure the holes are filled from side to side of the block. Pepper will completely destroy the block till all the treats are obtained. It takes him about a week to finish off a block. Most of the time I offer them to him as foot toys on his play gym.

There are plenty of other simple, but easily reusable foraging toys that are available. The four images at the bottom of this page show some of these I use with Pepper: Food and Feeding. They’re only lined up for these images, usually they’re spread out around his cage.

You may find plenty of good ideas on providing foraging opportunities in these two free PDF books (there is a lot of other great information in these resources):
The Parrot Enrichment Activity Book version 1 (foraging begins on page 26)
The Parrot Enrichment Activity Book version 2 (foraging begins on page 29)

Oh, if you’re still interested, the answer to your original question is I use the small vertical and horizontal foraging systems with Pepper.

Good luck in providing You-You with a variety of foraging opportunities.