sidech wrote:Pajarita, I find it very strange that you're the only person I've ever heard talking so negatively about Eclectus. And I do read a whole lot about them, and know a great number of breeders and pet owners across the world. Ekkies are very common in Australia, they are one of their favorite parrots.
Out of curiosity, what is your experience based on ?
I don't talk negatively, I like ekkies! but you need to be objective about these things and my experience is based on having two females (one killed a lovie and the other bit me so hard, she severed a nerve on my right middle finger and I had no feeling whatsoever in it for over a year -half of it is still numb) and two males at different times (one was crazy Romeo and the other was sweet but plucked something terrible), lots and lots and lots of research, postings and anecdotal reference.
See this thread posted two days ago in another forum:
Hi All,
I need advice on our 4 year old male ekkie, Kai. My wife and I have three birds in our flock, Kiana, our 5 year old female ekkie, and our first bird and the alpha bird in our flock, and Archie, a 3 year old red bellied, a rescue bird. We have no other pets, no one else lives in our house, and there have been no significant changes in our house.
My wife has been Kiana's favorite for many years, and until the last month, I would have said that I was Kai's favorite. He would clearly prefer me.
In the last 3 weeks, Kai has been obsessed with my wife, to the point where we must often put him in his cage when my wife is home. Within a minute of being out of his cage, he will seek her out. Within 5 minutes he is often flown onto her chest, or on her hands and starts to gurg. If we put him on a perch, he will immediately fly back to her and onto her hands or chest. If she is lying down on a couch, he will sit above her and start to gurg. My wife dearly loves him, as do I, but he is relentless in seeking her out and wanting to be right of top of her. When he is with me alone, he is his normal self, sometimes wanting to sit on my arm and be calm, and other times flying here and there, or sitting on a perch near a window. He exhibits none of these behaviors with me, although he will occasionally begin the humping behavior on my hands, which I quickly discourage by putting him somewhere else.
Putting Kai in his cage immediately after he does these behaviors does nothing to reduce them, whether his time in the cage be 10 minutes or an hour, or whether he is placed in a separate room with the door closed. My wife and I are both saddened that he cannot be out for very long when my wife is home.
Our female, Kiana and Kai do not get along, and Kiana is not exhibiting any mating behaviors. She was laying eggs for a good number of months, until we literally had to remove the couch that she had adopted as her nest. That period of egg laying ended 6 months ago.
We are hoping that this is some hormonal phase that he is going through.
Any and all advice as to what to do, what is going on and for how long, would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Jeb
jeb, Friday at 7:50 PM Report
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We are struggling with the same situation. Unfortunately our home is a small one level wirh a fairly open layout, no doors to close! We do have a bonded pair, ages F 8yrs, M 10yrs in a very large cage. We are their second home and have had them a couple of years now. A few months ago he became obssessed with my husband, who is not a bird person. No humping, , but preening, gurging, beaking, nibbling his clothing skin. We tried everything that you describe, returning him to the cage, providing plenty of toys, etc.
But worst of all he is getting aggressive towards me as I was the one returning him to his cage or blocking him from his hearts desire. One change is we had allowed him to become fully flighted, that is also making it hard to manage his behavoir. Before any time we were home the cage door was open they could play on the cage, their playstand or hang out eith us. I wonder if being flighted is contributing to his behavoir? His previous owner always kept them clipped. I've taken some very bad hites from him recently, he's very frustrated.l realize its hormones, I hope but my husband is beyond irritated with him and I feel bad that his time out of the cage is now so limited. I am also interested in hearing what other suggestions might help.
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I'm not saying this would work, but our vet, and the local parrot expert both had me look into this for our feather plucker.
Releaves
It's a product you put in their food that's 'supposedly' able to curb the hormonal imbalance.
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The posting below is from a breeder of ekkies:
My Jackie will do this for a few weeks at a time periodically. It is a hormonal phase that will pass.
None of my other boys think people would make good sexual partners. When Jackie is in a hormonally ramped up phase I try never to make eye contact with him and if I am sitting somewhere and notice that he is looking at me exhibiting a posture that indicates he is getting ready to fly to me I immediately put my hand up, palm facing him with my arm extended and tell him "NO". If he starts to fly towards me I shoo him off with my hand before he can land on my shoulder or arm. This does work for me.
For me, its easier to deal with a flighted bird when this happens because I can shoo him away and he will fly off: make HIM do the work instead of me carrying him away. Clipped birds may not be able to get to me as quickly as a flighted bird but if they are determined they most certainly will climb down the cage and across the floor, often regurging on feet or shoes as a first step. Its not fun having a bird going after feet all the time either.
Another method I use during these stressful times is to have him fly back and forth to me, without letting him stay on me. So, if I have time and the inclination to do some recall with him, instead of stopping him from landing on me, I hold my arm out in the gesture he knows means to land on my hand and he flies there. Then, once he lands I give a quick praise and send him on his way, telling him to fly. When he lands across the room I call him back with the same gesture. We do this over and over and over. It is a good way to wear him out. I can't always work with him like this when he is in "the" mood, but when I have the time I do and it definitely helps. Sometimes he will tire of it before I do and will go on about his business instead of flying back to me. He absolutely knows the difference between my signals to come to me and land on my extended arm/hand and the STOP signal.
Jeb, I think getting rid of the COUCH is a huge statement for people with female Eclectus to understand. That was Kiana's nest like you said. I so get that. When a female picks a spot she can be single minded about it. Some people make the mistake of letting their bird "have" a certain drawer in the kitchen or cabinet space in the bathroom. So whenever the bird is out of her cage that is where she wants to hightail it to. Pretty hard to get rid of those built in items, although you can nail them shut, LOL.
