[bgenie]

I don't know anything about Ekkies, so I can't comment on that part of your decision, but we adopted a "screamer" B&G 1.5 yrs ago. It took about 1.5 months to really get the screaming down. That means consistently ignoring all of her screaming efforts for a good solid month. At about 3 weeks, my husband (who is the one who really wanted Gracie) said, "Something's got to change...I can't live with this forever...". It was VERY frustrating! Every time Gracie starting talking, mumbling, or using acceptable vocalizations, we would interact with her, and completely turn our backs (literally) from her if she started screaming. It was a long 1.5 months, but now she is a wonderful, well adjusted, talking (notice I did not say screaming!) parrot. It was well worth the time and effort that she required!

On the second note, the people we got her from told us "not to bother giving her toys because she would just destroy them..." and the only toy that she had in her cage was about an 8 inch section of 2 x 4. With time, she has learned that not everything has to be made an immediate toothpick, and now she really enjoys actually playing with toys. That too took some time and patience, but as she realized that toys would keep coming, she slowed down on their destruction. (I think part of this was also that she needed the wood for beak grooming and such and had not had it available to her).

Good luck with your decision, please keep us posted!
~Melissa