eclectus quawking

[eclectusziggy]

Our eclectus is about 15-16 months and she's started squawking really loud. I'm pretty sure she didn't use to do this before. We got her when she was about 8-9 months so she was already hand raised and she could talk a little. She's bonded pretty well with me, comes to me wherever I go and loves sitting on my head. Sometimes she lets out a real loud noise that is not squawking and that's usually when she wants something, food, attention etc.

My husband has built her a playgym outside in a cage with a few toys and I think she enjoys it out there, watching other birds and making different bird noises like crow, kookaburra, corella. Lately though she's started to squawk when she's sitting out there. She's sort of squawking all the time, I'm not sure why, if she's unhappy or if it's all the birds around or if there's too many things going on, cars, noises.

When we got her the owner had cut her wing pretty bad so she couldn't fly, my husband knows how to do properly but he said that it was cut too much. We're waiting for it to grow out but it's taking a long time. Sometimes when she's inside she starts squawking, it's not all the time, but when she does it it's really loud and drives us mad. Her cage is open and she gets to run around and come to me if she wants. I'm not sure why she is squawking, she's got toys and my husband is gonna make her some more so she's got things to do. She's a really intelligent and a playful bird, she needs stimulation and I think she gets bored pretty easy. I'm just concerned that this squawking is because she's unhappy and that we should change something. She's got a big cage in the corner of our living room and we cover her up during the night (12 hrs), she gets fed in the morning, my husband buys her small parrot mix, saff flower seeds, hulled oats, japanese millet and sunflower seed mix. She seems to only pick out the sunflower seeds, she loves pomegranate, corn and passion fruit and we also give her apples, carrots, grapes, peas. She usually wants to join when we're having dinner so we put some pasta or cheese or small pieces of chicken in her bowl so she can eat with us. If she's on the floor when we eat she tends to bite you on the toes, not playful bite but really hard. I don't know how to get her to stop this because she bites my husband's son, he's five and it makes him cry because it hurts. If we leave her in her cage when we have dinner she's unhappy.

So all in all the biggest problem is the squawking, I don't why she's started to do this. I'm wondering if she's spoilt and doesn't know the rules, I have been pretty nice to her, maybe too nice. And the biting is also a problem. She seems to be a bit afraid of my husband I have no clue why. Sometimes she runs around on top pf her cage and maskes this cranky sound and hisses like a cat, attacks the walls and her bowl, is this playing or is there something wrong?

If someone's got any ideas why she's behaving like this please answer. I'm from Finland myself so I'm not used to exotic birds and I try to read as much as I can to learn more about the eclectus and their behaviour.

[GreenWing]

Hi there,

While I am far from an expert -- others on the forum are far more experienced than I am -- but I'd wager your bird is squawking because she is clipped.

When we got her the owner had cut her wing pretty bad so she couldn't fly, my husband knows how to do properly but he said that it was cut too much. We're waiting for it to grow out but it's taking a long time. Sometimes when she's inside she starts squawking, it's not all the time, but when she does it it's really loud and drives us mad. Her cage is open and she gets to run around and come to me if she wants. I'm not sure why she is squawking, she's got toys and my husband is gonna make her some more so she's got things to do. She's a really intelligent and a playful bird, she needs stimulation and I think she gets bored pretty easy. I'm just concerned that this squawking is because she's unhappy and that we should change something.

I really feel for your bird, it seems to me she is tremendously unhappy because she was damaged when she had her wings clipped and, in your words, "was cut too much." Clipping is already traumatic for a bird, and your bird was especially hurt when it received a bad clip.

I think it's good that you've decided to "grow out" your bird's feathers.

Working on trainings in the meanwhile may help your bird gain confidence, but hopefully others can weigh in and offer some more advice in the meanwhile.

Also: Limit sunflower seeds. It's like crack to birds. They love it and it's best reserved for training -- and in very small amounts, even then.

[sidech]

My male had a sqweeking phase for about 6 weeks when he was about 5 months old. Thos is common in baby Eclectus and always goes away on its own after a few weeks. Usually the advice given is to buy earplugs, don't make anything of it, and just wait until it phases out.

I've never read about it in adults though. Your female is about the age where they start becoming sexually mature. You say she is territorial of her cage also, which is another sign. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with hormonal behavior. Would she be calling a male ?

You should ask on an Eclectus forum. You will have more specific answers from experienced people.

[Pajarita]

You are feeding WAAAAAYYYY too much protein and fat and she has reached sexual maturity (the high protein and fat makes it worse), this, added to the clipping is messing her up. You should NEVER free-feed seeds to an eclectus and sunflowers are a complete no-no for them as part of their diet and only to be used as treats. Eclectus have the longest intestines of all the psittacine species and require a very specialized diet of fruits, leafy greens and veggies mostly (and when I say mostly I do mean about 75% of their diet) and some cooked whole grains -hardly any cereal seeds and no pellets (unless you use them as treats). They also have the longest breeding season in the wild (some of them up to 9 months!) so, when you clip them, you are, in fact, grounding them (flight dissipates hormones and provides not only exercise but also diversion) which makes them nesty and, when you feed all that protein and keep them to 12 hours of sleep, you are creating the ideal conditions for a hen to get broody, this added to their natural long hormonal period makes hens end up as chronic layers and/or pluckers.

[sidech]

I second what the previous poster said. I hadn't read what you feed her, but you're not on the right track fir sure.

Never feed more than 2 tbs of seeds per day, very little pellets, and mostly vegetables and sprouts. Less fruits, but they're okay in small quantity. And when hormonal, no sweet fruits, and lessens access to daylight.

[eclectusziggy]

Thank you heaps for your replies. I will definitely change her diet from now on, no more rubbish for lil missy It's hard since people are saying different things, I've read both that you should feed seeds and that you shouldn't but I'm going to cut down on the seeds now and give her fruit and greens. She gets a bit hysterical when she's run out of seeds or when she's picked out all of the sun flower seeds so it makes sense that it's a bit like crack to her.

I hope her wing is going to grow out again, seems like the "outer" feathers are growing out more than the inner ones of the wing, not sure if she's plucking them, but we haven't found any feathers laying around, I'm sure it's going to take a long while since there was almost nothing left of it when we got her. We might take her to the vet if it's not growing and see if there's anything they can do. She does exercise a lot, holding on to the cage and flaps her wings and she flies a bit as well, better than when we got her so maybe it has grown a bit, hard to tell, she doesn't really like when you touch her wing.

All in all she seems pretty happy, it's just from time to time that she gets a bit stressed or cranky. She's very calm and relaxed when she's around me, cuddles up to me and likes to be near my face. It's hard when you get them a bit older since you don't know what she's been through before.

[sidech]

Keep trying, you're on the right track.

Don't forget Eclectus are seed addicts. They would eat only that if you let them. But that would cause serious health problems, because of lack of vitamins. By the way, I would cut down sunflower seeds to almost none. Too fatty. I personnally don't give any. Maybe give them as treats occasionnally.

You should be feeding canary seeds without any added vitamins. Give them only at night, and maybe 2 tablespoons to 1/3 cup most. Add 1 raw natural almond per day and maybe a little red millet to the seeds if you wish (for the same amount).

This way, she will have to eat her veggies and sprouts during the day, and she'll know the seeds are coming at night. Expect her to be cranky for a while... She will miss her fatty seeds...