Senegal Parrots give you the best of all worlds in a companion bird. They are independent, a tad persnickety at times, but; not big biters, they talk and whistle well, with training, even though they have a raspier voice than most parrots. They love, love, love to chew, so make sure they have plenty of wood toys to destroy.
There cage size should be about 36” x 36” x 48” High with bar spacing no more than ½ inch. They require lots of exercise so supervised out of cage time is extremely important. We have told you about the Quaker Parrot Personality and this little bird is the watered down version of that. They grow to about 9 ½ – 10 inches long and a good weight range is 130 to 150 grams with males being generally heavier than males.
Their life span in a home is averaged to be about 50 years, so make sure you have an agreed upon designated home for them, should they outlive you. (Necessary for all pets, no matter the average life span). The ONLY definitive way to tell male from female is DNA sexing, contrary to other forms of identification like head shape, size, etc. that are only accurate 50% of the time. They are not particularly noisy birds, and when they do squawk, it is raspy sounding thus keeping the decibel level down.
The only diseases that they are prone to are Fatty Liver (many birds are) and Iron Retention Disease (again, many birds do not process iron well). They should have a good pelleted diet supplemented with fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh distilled or filtered water (as with all birds). The Senegal is of the Poicephalus family of birds and hails from the Senegal Region of South Africa. There is 1 main species and 2 subspecies of Senegal, The main race has a Yellow belly and the subspecies have red or orange bellies.
