WE'RE EXPANDING OUR FAMILY

[bobby dazzler]

Hi. No, 4 boys are enuf, so there will be NO MORE children for me - but in a couple of weeks, we are getting a hand reared Eclectus Parrot - who will then be 12 weeks old. Does anybody on the forum already have one of these great parrots? It is the same type of parrot that features in Paulie, which was a movie about a talking parrot, looking for his previous owner. It is costing us a fortune but my 9 year old, who is really into animals, really wants something that he can train to talk. Our family is expanding rapidly - i.e, last xmas, we got Bob, my gelding and then in May, I got Tilly, my little filly. We will be getting the bird and then the 4 year old has his heart set on a cat - ahhhh. We already have a dog and 3 fish. I suppose the main thing is, when the kids move out (which may be awhile, since they range in ages from 2 -12), they take their ruddy pets with them although the mini's are ALL mine!!! Cheers, Kerrie

 

[Frankie]

Congratulations, they are gorgeous little birds! And beautiful!

I hope it is not why you got the bird, but Paulie, if we are thinking of the same one, the movie that came out about in 1998, owned by a little girl he found later, did a great dance with a number of birds in middle of the movie that included a Sun Conure, that Paulie was not an eclectus.

Paulie was a Blue Crowned Conure.

 

[MiniHoofBeats]

Eclectus are beautiful birds and an excellent choice for a first-time parrot for a family =) They do not bond with just one person, they often bond with the entire family which makes them great! They can be loud *sometimes* but they are not as loud as african greys, or cockatoo's, or amazons! They are quite calm, but still very playful especially babies!

Females are the dominant sex of the species and are often described as "the red heads" aka mean ones, which they can be witches sometimes but they are typically just as sweet as males. Males are the lovers, gentle, and love attention from everyone! They are submissive to the females and often due to stress will start plucking when around or mated to a female.

Ekkies are pretty sensitive to their surroundings and schedules. You must make a daily schedule for food, often if they get breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week straight, then suddenly a meal is skipped, they'll get cranky or upset and possibly nippy...if someone usually takes him/her out every day at a certain time, he'll start looking forward to it and if one day it doesn't happen, you'll find a very sad ekkie in his cage! They need to be put to sleep at the same time every night, and woken up around the same time every morning. You have children though, i'm sure this isn't anything different =)

Also watch their food. Ekkies LOVE FOOD! All kinds, veggies, fruits, meats (lean), rice, snacks...they eat just about everything you do, except minus spices, salt and pepper. Also - AVACADO = POISONOUS do not feed avacado! A dried fruit, nut and herb mix is great to give them in between meals, try to avoid seeds. They are high in bad fats and ekkies often get overweight and have health issues before we know it! Some ekkies are allergic to certain foods. If he starts plucking or acting aggressive randomly one day, look over what you fed him that day or the day before and try giving him something else, see if his mood changes!

Ekkies love baths and showers! Start showering your guy soon after you get him (give him at least a couple of weeks to settle in first though) and he'll soon be begging for showers! (when he crouches down and wobbles his wings, or sways in a particular direction).

**important** When he comes home, you will want to limit the time you spend with him to what you think you'll be spending with him a few months from now. It is very stressful to come to a new home, get all kinds of attention and fun and play time, and then suddenly...left in your cage...let out to sit on your cage...but hardly no one plays with you. I know it is tempting to head over and give him all kinds of attention =)

Ok ok i'm writing a book here lol if you have any questions, feel free to send me a pm!

Here are my two:

Female 10yr old vosmaeri X red sided hybrid, Kiki!

Male 6yr old vosmaeri, Cadillac!

 

[sharon]

I knew there was someone on here that recently posted pics of her ekkies.

I have an african grey and he is re4ally a one person bird. When I first got him, he loved me and I could do pretty much anything to him. He'd lay in my lap and I'de rub his belly and he really liked it.

Now, he doesn't like me very much but prefers my hubby.

I am hoping one day, he'll pick me again as his favorite person.

Most birds can get pretty loud at certain times. First thing in the morning and evening is usually the worst. This in the times of day that they are in groups. They are waking up and "talking' and greeting the new day and then in the evening is when they are nesting for the night.

Like Minihoof said, greys can be loud and my Toby, yes, certainly can bust the eardrums at times. He gets playing really hard with a toy and he will scream at the toys.

I have never owned an Ecclectus, but they certainly are very beautiful birds.

The best of luck to you!!!!

When you go to pick him up, put your hand out and tell him to "step up". If he doesn't understand that, gently press against his chest as you say it. He'll soon can on. Parrots are extremely intelligent.

 

[MiniHoofBeats]

Yep that was me =) I love ekkies, rescued my girl and I could never think of a day without her now! I went through a rough fight with my boyfriend a few months ago and almost made the decision to start looking for a new home for her, when I said...crazy! I would rather keep her sweet face around than argue with a guy! =)

My ekkies are very quiet, I must be lucky or it's just how they are! Kiki has picked up screaming at poor Caddy, she hates his guts! One day, I had him out with me and she immediately started screaming at the top of her lungs, so I closed her bedroom door and she stopped. The next 5-6 times I tried to walk back into the room with Caddy, she'd take one look at him and SCREAM all over again! Ugh I could live without that LOL but she is my baby =) I am trying to get my boyfriend to be more involved, Caddy came from a home where a man was his "chosen" one of the family, he likes everyone but he still prefers men until he trusts women...so...he'll stick a foot out for my boyfriend, and stick a beak out for me LOL! He's getting better =)

Greys are wonderful speakers I hear, I don't know much about them besides their color and knowledge capability...never really spent time with one, I can't afford to get attached to another bird! I would love to see a photo!

And we definitely want photo's of your new baby boy, Kerrie!

 

[bobby dazzler]

Hi. Thankyou so much for the reply.

Thanks for setting me straight. It was a couple of years ago that we did see Paulie - LOL. But no, we didnt make the decision based solely on that - we went to the breeders house - he is a dairy farmer and lives on acres about 10 minutes from our house. His aviaries are UNBELIEVABLE - he had every type of bird you could think of - including conures, ringnecks, he even had a turkey - which the younger kids loved - no way we were bringing a turkey home - unless it was frozen!!! Had been on the web and found that the web said that the ekkies were basically about the best bird you could get for a pet - although an african grey apparently talk better - but given that the novelty will wear off with my son within probably three months, I wanted something really pretty - hey, common, I am in a house full of boys - I need something pretty that wont break or get dirty marks on it - plus african greys cost about $4000 here - and the ekky is going to cost $700 which is bad enuf.

MiniHorseBeats, your babies are ABSOLUTELY bewtiful. I just read your posts to my eldest son - not the one getting the bird - but we are all very excited and also to my husband. Thankyou so much for sharing that with us - I had not seen anything about the avacodos etc and we are already working out what he will be doing during the day, when only my husband is home,. In relation to waking him up at the same time every day and putting him to bed, that is fine - our house is so ruddy noisy with the kids, he will have no choice about being woken up at the same time and I will ensure he goes to bed when they do.

Sharon - thanks for the trg tips. When we visited the guy who is selling him, some of the kids went into one of his aviaries with a couple of ekkies in it already and he used the same trg technique.

gOTTA,GO, HOUSE is on - absolutely love that show. Hey, do the birds like TV - not suggesting using the TV as a baby sitter - just wonderering how your birds react to the tv

Cheers, Kerrie

 

[MiniHoofBeats]

Kerrie,

I just had to laugh and had to comment when you said "although an african grey apparently talk better..." actually, studies are out that eclectus may be able to talk better than grays! There are no final results yet but right now greys and ekkies are one on one for who can talk better, more clear, understand phrases and songs, etc. You will be amazed by your guy, he can pick up on words said only once, so you must watch what you say around a young, eager mind! Eclectus can also mimick both male, and female voices! They can learn shapes, colors, items, they can learn entire songs, and they can learn entire phrases and completely understand what they mean! I have heard of many occasions where one of my friends eclectus have pieced together their own phrase to tell their owners to "go to bed" or "time for night night" or "make me num nums!" etc...lol...

My female will sit and watch me eat, then ask, "Can I have a little? Can I have a nibble?" before bedtime she always breaks out asking "Can I have a nut?"

She knows:

Give me a kiss! *smoooooooooooch*

Peekaboo...I can SEE you!

Here we go!

Step up

C'mere, C'mere!

of course...Hello and Hi!

Oh jeez she knows a lot and I can't list it all here but there's a few examples!

My boy has recently started showing me he knows "I love you, Darlin!" "I love you" and "Cadillac" but i've only had him home for a month so I know it takes a bit for them to settle in and feel comfortable.

Oh also, if you're going to have him in a busy room like the kitchen or living room, he will need a cover that completely covers his cage top to bottom and that is fairly dark to keep the light out. I'd like to suggest Judy, she embroidered a female ekkie on my Kiki's cover and made it exact dimensions to her cage! Here is her eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/JJs-Stuff she has bird embroidery patches for all species, and has a male ekkie one available!

You should see about joining The Eclectus Connection, it's a mailing list with hundreds of people who own ekkies, moderated by Carolyn Swicegood who knows everything about everything! She is so helpful with tough situations, life without her would be hard! Land of Vos is very neat to check out: www.landofvos.com/ and here is where you can join the mailing list: http://www.landofvos.com/tec.html

I hope to see you there!

 

[bobby dazzler]

Minihoofbeats, thankyou so much. I have been to both sites - jeepers, there is so much info at the ekky website - I have joined and will be spending some serious time over the next few weeks reading, reading, and reading. What a fantastic find. Thankyou very much. I am getting more and more excited. The learning of the words will be very funny, especially when you have kids that say some pretty funny things, i.e, we can imagine Milo (which is what we plan to call our new baby) saying "I smell something" or "whatcha doing" which are fairly common things the 2 year old says, and then there is what the 4 year old says "Grandma farted" and then the 9 year old calling his brother a "dum", the 12 year old swearing and being told to say the word CRAP instead of the S@#! word and then there is the horrible words my husband says, so yes, it will be fun - and then there are the words we will be trying to teach him. And in relation to the african grays vs the ekkies, on one website I did go too, it did say that the ekkie was the best possible parrot you could get as a pet, so that was the final decision. Cheers, Kerrie

 

[MiniHoofBeats]

Kerrie,

I wish you all the best! Milo is an adorable name! I hope for your first one you get a CLEAN ekkie =) I tell you, I had my female ekkie for 8 months before I got my male...I THOUGHT I had a messy, snobby, finger biting red head from he**...well...I clearly stand corrected now that I brought in Caddy LOL!!! Kiki will cleanly eat her dinner, carefully, over her food dish, not dropping a single bit...Caddy picks up a whole piece of somethng, takes one bite and the rest either crushes to smithereens down to the floor, or is dropped...*sigh*...and talk about senority, Caddy thinks he can walk all over me and then he gets upset when he finds out he can't chew on my lips! Those are my lips! He is more noisy, always on the move...i'm realizing more than ever what an angel I was blessed with, with Kiki hah =)

Either way, you're going to love your little Milo!!

Oh, if you can, try to find a few paragraphs on how to deal with their "terrible two's"...oh yes...it exists for birds too! Only worse, they get hormonal and very nippy and aggrivated easily. Youll have about a year of that but when they turn 3-4 the switch suddenly flicks back to a sweet, gentle little love bug for the rest of their years =)