Green wing macaw or Eclectus

[junglenutcracker]

Hi all,

This is my first post here. We have recently lost our beloved RS male eclectus after 20 years and are considering adopting another parrot friend. We already have a wonderful African Grey Congo of 22 years of age. At first we set out to find another eclectus (still not certain if we’d prefer a male or female) but after visiting a local Parrot Rescue that had among other parrots two 20-some year old Green Wings - we have become interested in that species too. They are amazingly beautiful birds but since we’ve just begun researching some info, I’d like to hear from actual owners of these birds to find out more about their temperament, etc. Basically, I want to know what it is to live with these macaws. We know what to expect from a male ekkie, having lived with one for 20 years (their ups and their downs). So please, if anyone can shed some light and help us along with our decision, we’d very much appreciate it.

[Pajarita]

I don't have any experience with greenwings, I only know about B&G and BT as well as minis (Hanh's and Noble).

May I ask what was the cause of your ekkie's death? They do die young, the poor things...

[junglenutcracker]

Our dear ekkie died of liver failure at 20 years of age. We were surprised how quickly his health deteriorated. He spent three days at the hospital but unfortunately he never recovered.
It does seem that they rarely live much older than 20 or 25 — that’s unfortunate as they truly are wonderful companions. This is actually one of the reasons we are considering perhaps acquiring another type. We’ve actually visited a nice but unsocialized GW at a rescue. It is an amazingly beautiful bird but I wonder if he could ever accept a new family without showing aggressive behaviour. He is about 25 and I heard that he was really bonded to his female owner - so much so that he seems to hate men. They also have a BG which seems pretty energetic. Lots of questions to ponder...just wanna make the right choice.

[Pajarita]

Yes, you are right, ekkies diets are so very specialized that we simply cannot, not matter how hard we try, even begin to reproduce it in captivity so they all end up dying young. This is one species that we really, really, really do a huge disservice in breeding as a human pet.