Possible Addition of an Eclectus.

[lwis]

Hello,
In some of my previous posts, I have talked about the idea of possibly getting another bird. I came to the decision that My boyfriend and I would wait until we are done school. However, the owner of the bird store that I volunteer at is trying to convince us to take home a 21 year old female Vos marie eclectus who has taken a liking to both of us. She has been there for over a year and was living at the owner of the stores house for a while, but she decided to sell her I think because the bird really didn't like her (this woman is great with most amazons and macaws, but I think her personality is just to fast and loud for this eclectus).

Anyway, the eclectus is very gentle with both my boyfriend and I. She steps up for us and appears to show no cage aggression when I approach her in her cage. She also seems to be abnormally cuddly for an eclectus - she enjoys cuddling up close to my chest and seems to enjoy being petted (in the correct direction for an eclectus of course)...at first I wasn't sure if she liked being touched or not, as I read they are known to freeze or just sit and tolerate things when they may be uncomfortable, but she began to talk to me as I pet her and at one point was basically laying down in the palms of my hands while she went through her extensive vocabulary in the most delicate lady's voice I've heard. It was quite funny.

The woman who is selling her is offering to let me do a payment plan for her as well as give her to me at a discounted price from what she is listed at. Currently the bird is on a mainly seed diet, which I really want to get her off off as soon as possible! She doesn't seem to have any noticeable health issues, and she does not pluck, but the ends of her wing and tail feathers as well as her down feathers look pretty ragged and greasy...I think she is only getting bathed once or twice a week. I think her feather quality and overall health could be hugely improved with a diet change and daily baths. As far as the special diet goes, I am already feeding my conure a mash diet mixed with sprouted seeds and some pellets that would be suitable for an eclectus (I would feed the eclectus less pellets though), so feeding would not be a problem.
If I were to take her home, I would also get a vet to check her out first, to ensure that there isn't any big health issues that are being hidden.

I apologise for the long post, and there aren't really any questions. Basically I just wanted to get the situation written out and hopefully get some feedback on whether this sounds like a good idea or not.

One question I do have though, is how to go about socializing her with our conure....
I was thinking of bring him down to the store to see how they react to each other, but I realize that the environment is much different than our home, and he may either be overly territorial of us or not at all because it is not his house. But I still sort of want to take him down there, as I would like to socialize him with other birds, and not just people.
If we were to introduce them in our house, I would make sure the introduction was slow and supervised process due to the size difference. The eclectus has lived with birds before and seems to either get along with them or just ignore them, but our conure is....well, a conure and tends to be very outgoing and in-your-face about introductions...at least that is how he is with people.

Well, that is quite enough of me rambling. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, I would appreciate it.
Thanks!

[lwis]

Sorry I have to correct my spelling mistake - vosmaeri, not vos marie...I just woke up

[pennyandrocky]

hi, i wanted a female eclectus as a companion for my greencheek but i was told she might kill my smaller bird when reaching maturity.given her age and they said she tolerates other birds i would go see for myself how she is with the others and if you think she would fit then i would go for it. i don't know about yours but i know mine can be a bold pest which is why i decided against it.

[lwis]

I don't intend on getting her as a companion for my green cheek, but if they end up being buddies then that is a bonus. All I ask is that they tolerate each other. The eclectus has definitely reached sexual maturity so there is not likely going to be any huge long-lasting personality changes . If she is tolerant of my GCC checking her out for the first little while it should be fine, but I honestly don't know how he will respond to a larger bird. With other conures he tries to be domineering and will attempt to step on them, but once they give in he gets real friendly. But it is hard to say if he will at all be like that toward a larger bird of a different species.

[pennyandrocky]

i had to get a companion for my greencheek after i lost my amazon.penny likes to have another bird to fly around with,otherwise he would be on my shoulder 12hrs a day and not get the exercise he needs.

[lwis]

Just curious...why did you decide to get a larger bird as a buddy for your green cheek instead of another conure?

Also, I just thought that I would say that I am going to wait a while before adding another bird. I keep flip-flopping on this issue, and my desire to rescue this bird and get her on a proper diet and so on sometimes overshadows the part of me that knows that we aren't really ready to get another bird, nor do we really have the funds right now.
I have decided to save up some money and wait till I have more of my student debt paid, and if she is still in need of a home then we will take her. I visit the eclectus at least once a week, so it will be nice to see how she acts as she becomes more comfortable with me. I know I will be a little sad if she gets sold to someone else, but I want her to have a good home that has done their research on her species as soon as possible. As long as she goes to a good home I will be happy either way, but I will miss our weekly hangouts. She is such a sweetie!

[pennyandrocky]

when i contacted the rescue they told me about mya she had been caged with another bird in her previous home.then i got to spend half a day with her and fell in love.