Help - Buying eclectus

[dawma88]

I have been talking to this guy about buying his male eclectus parrot, however, when i inspected it, it was semi-tame ? , i could handle it with my hands, it climbed up (step up), i could touch its wings/chest but it took a huge chunk of my hand ? (Wow ! talk about a bite)...it dosent live in a cage but in a puppy pen in the garage.

My only concern, is that the owner doesnt know how old it is, fed it the wrong diet - cockatoo/galah seed mix and he said it dosent eat much veges, so im concerned whether its properly weaned.

So basically, what your advice ?

P.S. Regarding the bite, i may have not handled it properly, how would i handle it next time as to avoid being bitten (go from behind etc).

[wishingonastar]

I know exactly what you're saying about the bite! My eckie bit me the first time we met because I hadn't handled birds before and listened to the shop owner who told me she didn't bite! Ouch! If you get yours, you'll get to know its body language pretty quickly and be able to tell when its cranky and ready to bite. We tell ours a firm "no" and that's enough to make her stop and think for a sec.

I don't know about the diet sorry. When we bought ours, she had seed and pellets in her cage and no sign of fresh food - I switched her over to fresh food immediately, gave her pellets the first night we had her, and that was it. She sometimes gets those seed honey log things for a treat/entertainment, and she gets sunflower seeds daily, but the rest of her diet is fresh fruit and vegetables (especially corn! She gets cranky if she doesn't have her daily corn). Tonight I'm going to mix a bit of cooked brown rice in with her dinner and see what she thinks. Its all about trying new foods - some it will like, some it won't.

Good luck!

[failurebydesign]

He may have bit because you handled him in the first place..
Birds aren't like dogs, and while some will let strangers handle them, others
wont tolerate it..

You need to build trust with birds, if he will step up, just get him to step onto your hand and walk around the house with him a little bit a day, get a cage and playstand, so he can follow you room to room, you don't always need to handle them, alot of times they just like to watch you..

Once you build up trust, you can scratch them on the neck, although eclectus aren't known to be cuddly "touch me" birds and maybe he will never really like that.
If you are touching a bird all over the body it can send mixed signals and they may start to think you want to mate - lol.

As far as diet, come up with a bean mix to cook, a seed mix for dry food, and feed fresh fruit and veggies.
Go check out landofvos.com and look at their recipes, check out the dry mix, and soft mix,

at least thats what I did but I am new to eclectus too!

Hope this helps :)

[failurebydesign]

PS - it's actually a good thing he stepped up for you - a stranger
from what I understand he didn't bite until you tried to "pet him" right?

[dawma88]

Originally Posted by failurebydesign

PS - it's actually a good thing he stepped up for you - a stranger
from what I understand he didn't bite until you tried to "pet him" right?

Thats correct failurebydesign, basically, i put my hand out..stepped on it, kept doing this no problems...i opened it wings, no problems but when i tried to touch its beak/put my fingers/hands near its face it took a bit...maybe its cos this was my first time handling birds.


So what do you reckon guys ? is there hope for this bird (and me ?)

P.s. we dont have small kids in our family so im not too concerned about bites

[sodakat]

There is absolutely hope for this bird with you, especially since the first thing you did is come here to get help! Very smart. If you do buy him, please don't switch his diet the minute you get him. A young bird will try many new foods, but an older bird is much more likely to refuse to eat if all his "normal" stuff is taken away. Changing to a nutritious diet is important in the long run, but he has existed just fine on what he's eating now and it will be easier on him if you continue with the exact foods he eats now for a while, introducing one new food at a time, very slowly, even if he loves every new food you give him. This is very important.

If his upper beak is yellow and orange with no black areas he is probably more than two years old. Even if he is younger, the fact that he eats a seed mix and maintains his weight means he is weaned.

I would not worry about him biting you after you thoroughly inspected him! It is enough to have him step up for you in the beginning and really, most Eclectus do not like to be touched all over, unlike cockatoos for instance.

I suggest you spend some time on the landofvos website. You will gain a better understanding of eclectus and learn a lot!

I hope you take this little guy home!

Kathy

[wishingonastar]

I've read somewhere that eclectus aren't too keen on their heads being touched, so perhaps that's why he bit you?

[dawma88]

yeah i guess he didnt like being touched...anyways iv decided to buy him (just too cute to pass)...will post some pics when i get him !

thanks alot folks !

[lotusflower777]

I must be very lucky........Savanah's breeder tells me that Savanah ....(and all her other eccies that she breeds/and her pets) are very cuddly and love nothing more then to cuddle and be handled...

[slic102]

Yeah, I have to agree with everyone else. My female ekkie isn't real fond of being touched on the head....but she will allow hubby or I to stroke her now. She is a rehomed ekkie who'd not been out of her cage for at LEAST 6 months, and she was terrified of hands as her previous "mom" had 3 hyper kids who were allowed to basically torment her. She still gets a bit panicky around kids, but she now will always let us handle her and even has become quite cuddly as of late. Once this bird gets used to you, I'm sure he will be much different. I've never regretted taking in my rehomed ekkie girl for a minute....she is nothing but a pleasure and by far my easiest bird to care for and handle. (and yeah, I did get several painful bites in the beginning) Now she will always give a light warning nip if we do something she's not up for and as long as we respect her wishes, she will never bite us. Here she is cuddling with me the other night.

Btw...I will tell you what made the hugest difference in her attitude was something that I read on the Land of Vos site. It said that a great way to get an ekkie to warm up to you is to wrap them in a towel and cuddle them on your chest for a few minutes several times a day. I did not use the towel, as she didn't seem to mind me doing this so no towel neccessary. Like everyone else has said, the Land of Vos website has tons of really helpful info on there. Can't wait to see pics of your new baby!