UnderWould

So it's been a while since I've posted on here. Mostly because I've been busy but most of all because I forgot all about this. ha. I'm now officially a St Louisan, I have a great little place in the city, am playing for the Stunt Devils and the All Stars with the Arch Rival Rollergirls, and am probablly the happiest I've been in many many years.

The biggest news is that I just adopted a Senegal Parrot named Sid! He was living in Irving, Illinois (90 mins outside of stl) with his parents and 2 dogs. Well, apparently one of the dogs wanted to kill Sid. And apparently Sid also wanted to kill his dad. So Sid didn't get out too often so his Mom decided to find him a new home. They were very nice people and I really respect them for making the right decision. I am glad to have Sid as part of the family!!! That's him in the picture there.

Sid is 15 years old, so he's a bit of a senior. You can find different numbers on different sites, but Senegals are expected to live around 30 years in captivity. But frankly, I don't think we know much about anything when it comes to birds, so it could me more, could be less.

Senegals hail from Africa and are of the same parrot species as the well known African Greys. After watching Sid in his home environment, I decided that I would start hin off on clicker training right away. Not only would it help me build trust with him, but show him who rules the roost here, keep his mind occupied, get some excercise, and most imprtantly, it was obvious he needed some re taming! Basically, he would fly around, land on his dad and proceed to run up his shirt and bite him. Or he would haphazardly fly around the room like a little maniac. So that wonb't be happening here. I have clipped his wings slightly so that he cannot get lift. And I will be teaching him manors that I expect him to observe here.

Sid has some fear issues, that is obvious. He's not into new things, he only has one toy that he likes, etc. Honestly, I thought the phobia would be worse but I think once I can give him some confidence and start introducing toys to him through positive methods, I think he'll be much more content.

I'm going to keep a log on here. I have clicker trained before but not with a bird with any sort of behavioral issues. I hope to be able to not only keep track of our progress, but to be able to see where I have made mistakes, and hopefully where I can get some guidance from experienced trainers. So if anyone reading this ever has any advice, criticism, or insight, please feel free to share!!!