Parrot's in VA

[Hayden_69]

Hey everyone! My name is Kelly and I'm the proud owner of three Parrot's. A 20 year old African Grey named Squeaks and two baby Eclectus named Tiki and Kiwi. I've owned bird's all my life, starting with little budgies, eventually to a Cockatiel and now to parrots. I haven't owned baby bird's in over 15 year's, so I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of question's along the way!

Squeaks belonged to my father, he purchased her from a breeder when I was ten year's old. I use to help him syringe feed her and helped hand raise her until he moved to Florida with her where they became extremely bonded with one another! My dad passed away several year's ago and Squeaks came back to Virginia to live with me and my family. Only problem is, she hates women! Squeaks loves all men, but as soon as a woman comes near her, oh man, you better watch those fingers! I've been trying really hard to work on this, but have made little progress. She is a funny girl though and is alway's keeping us laughing. Even though she hates me, I love her dearly. We have a love hate relationship lol.

Now, on to the babies! They were a total unexpected surprise! I went to buy a new cage for Squeaks and saw baby Eclectus parrots! Oh my ... talk about love! I tried to bypass them, but my mom fell instantly in love. She alway's wanted a female Eclectus, so to make a long story short, we impulsed bought her. We were told the male was sold and so we never really messed with him much when we came to visit with our new baby girl. The day we went in to pick her up to bring her home, we asked the man when the male baby was going to his new home and he told us he was still for sale. I felt so sad, because even though they are still young, they looked pretty bonded. So, I picked up him and we said we would take both of them. They have been such a joy to own for the short period of time we have had them. I can't wait to watch them grow and learn to talk. It's like having a toddler

Anyway, sorry for the super long introduction of my life story! I just wanted to say hello and I can't wait to get to know everyone and learn new thing's.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! Given enough time and patience, Squeaks will bond with a woman so don't worry about her, just keep on trying. Now, as to the babies, you do know that you can't feed an ekkie the same food that you would any other parrot, right? Because I see colored pellets in their cage and that's a HUGE NO NO! with ekkies. They can't be fed pellets or any other type of high protein food, nothing with too rich nutrition, artificial coloring, etc. - they end up with medical issues if you do. Ekkies are beautiful birds but VERY VERY difficult to feed right -and that's why the greatest majority of them die young so, please, reconsider their diet asap!

[Hayden_69]

Oh my goodness, I had no idea! I know they have crazy strict diet's and I'm just starting to introduce them to sweet potatoes and bananas, but they are just kinda tasting it, not eating. They are still babies (12-weeks) and being fed formula 3-times a day. The man I purchased them from gave me the colored food and told me to have that in the cage at all times to help with weaning, along with a monkey biscuit that had been soaked in water and squeezed, fresh water, this little square seed thing that's a treat, and this week to start offering the fresh fruit's/veggies. I'm trying to do everything correctly, so if anyone has any suggestions on the correct diet I should be feeding my babies, I'm all ears and up for suggestions.

[Pajarita]

O M G!!!! Nobody has fed monkey biscuits to parrots for years and years and years... I would say close to 20! They are the worst thing you can feed them and that's for other species of parrots that don't even have such a specialized diet as ekkies do! Please do a much more thorough research because you will find that ekkies are prone to toe tapping and wing flicking when fed wrong -and that's before they show liver damage symptoms. Now, what you need to do (and check this on your own, please) is add baby food (fruits and veggies) to the formula because there is no a single one that is good for ekkies (all too high in fat and protein for them). Do 3/4 formula, 1/4 baby food. You also need to provide soft foods served fresh twice a day because they need to wean to them. These plus gloop will do just fine. You will find that most of us on this site feed gloop or a similar food to their parrots instead of pellets. I can tell you the reasons why if you are interested but to give you a short list: they are way too dry (parrots natural diets are 85 - 95% moisture), too processed (no phytonutrients), have no actual protein value (so, basically, you don't really know what you are feeding), most have soy (cheapest and questionable source of protein) and lab-made vitamins (not utilized by the body the same as the food-derived ones). Now, the thing with baby parrots is that it's at weaning time that they learn what to eat so feed them wrong at this time of their lives and it will be real hard to convert them later on - feed them right and you will have no extra work and as healthy a parrot as you can get from captive-bred. Aside from that, no bright lights (baby parrots are born with undeveloped eyes and require darkness to finish), lots and lots of cuddle time and no training except for step up and step down which they do on their own, anyway (babies should not be stressed out with training, it doesn't really advance their development and do nothing for bonding which is what you need to concentrate on at this point in their lives).

Let us know if there is anything else we can be of help with.

[Hayden_69]

O M G!!!! Nobody has fed monkey biscuits to parrots for years and years and years... I would say close to 20! They are the worst thing you can feed them and that's for other species of parrots that don't even have such a specialized diet as ekkies do! Please do a much more thorough research because you will find that ekkies are prone to toe tapping and wing flicking when fed wrong -and that's before they show liver damage symptoms. Now, what you need to do (and check this on your own, please) is add baby food (fruits and veggies) to the formula because there is no a single one that is good for ekkies (all too high in fat and protein for them). Do 3/4 formula, 1/4 baby food. You also need to provide soft foods served fresh twice a day because they need to wean to them. These plus gloop will do just fine. You will find that most of us on this site feed gloop or a similar food to their parrots instead of pellets. I can tell you the reasons why if you are interested but to give you a short list: they are way too dry (parrots natural diets are 85 - 95% moisture), too processed (no phytonutrients), have no actual protein value (so, basically, you don't really know what you are feeding), most have soy (cheapest and questionable source of protein) and lab-made vitamins (not utilized by the body the same as the food-derived ones). Now, the thing with baby parrots is that it's at weaning time that they learn what to eat so feed them wrong at this time of their lives and it will be real hard to convert them later on - feed them right and you will have no extra work and as healthy a parrot as you can get from captive-bred. Aside from that, no bright lights (baby parrots are born with undeveloped eyes and require darkness to finish), lots and lots of cuddle time and no training except for step up and step down which they do on their own, anyway (babies should not be stressed out with training, it doesn't really advance their development and do nothing for bonding which is what you need to concentrate on at this point in their lives).

Let us know if there is anything else we can be of help with.

Thank you so much for the helpful advise! I was getting worried about Kiwi, because he has been crying out for food, but when I try to feed him, he doesn't want to eat. I bought a whole bunch of fruit/veggie organic baby food last night and put some in the formula and he ate like a pig! I was so happy. He didn't eat much this morning, but I was expecting that.

I took away the monkey biscuit's and they will no longer be getting them. I've been adding tiny bowl's of different food's to their cage and they've been trying a variety of different food's. They have a tiny buffet going on lol. This morning I gave them veggie farfalle pasta, plain cheerios, veggie mix (green beans, corn, peas, and carrots), mashed sweet potatoes, mashed bananas, and they still have the colored pellet's. I haven't taken them away, because I'm afraid they wouldn't eat anything else and would have trouble weaning. Tiki has been pigging out on the pasta and the cheerios. Kiwi has been sticking to the veggie mix and cheerios. If anyone has any helpful advise for proper weaning, I'm up for suggestions!

I'm extremely interested in learning the correct healthy way of feeding my birds. I'm not very familiar with bird nutrition, I've alway's just bought bag's of seed and called it a day. I have heard Ekkies have a very strict diet, but from what I was told by the man I purchased them from, was they only need the colorful pellet's, fresh fruits/veggies and they should be fine. If someone has something to add to this, I'm interested in hearing all opinions.

[Pajarita]

No cheerios!! They are meant for human consumption and, because of this, they are loaded with iron which is REAL bad for parrots (parrots need very little compared to humans and excess iron is stored in the liver damaging the organ in the process).

Please take away the colored pellets. They are already getting plenty of nutrition in the formula and the only reason why any high protein food is offered at weaning time is to get them used to eating it but you don't want them to get used to eating that crap (they are, bar none, the worst pellet you can feed a parrot!). If you have your heart set on feeding pellets then give them Tops (not that I would ever recommend that anybody fed pellets to an ekkie). But, if I were you, I would try gloop instead. It's not that complicated to make and you can do a large batch and freeze baggies with daily portions (check the diet section for recipes). It's very good food for all parrots but, for an ekkie, is the VERY BEST you can offer.

[liz]

Thank you for taking both of them. Not only does the female need her buddy it would be hard on the male to be left behind.

[Pajarita]

Actually, Liz, ekkies are different than other parrots so the pairs don't really stay together as if stuck to each other the way other species do. For one thing, the females have sex and are fed in the nest by more than one male and, for another, during the resting season, the males and the females flock to feed separately -and that's why, for sooooo many years, they were thought to belong to two different species (of course, the other reason was that they are so very sexually dimorphic!).

[Hayden_69]

No cheerios!! They are meant for human consumption and, because of this, they are loaded with iron which is REAL bad for parrots (parrots need very little compared to humans and excess iron is stored in the liver damaging the organ in the process).

Please take away the colored pellets. They are already getting plenty of nutrition in the formula and the only reason why any high protein food is offered at weaning time is to get them used to eating it but you don't want them to get used to eating that crap (they are, bar none, the worst pellet you can feed a parrot!). If you have your heart set on feeding pellets then give them Tops (not that I would ever recommend that anybody fed pellets to an ekkie). But, if I were you, I would try gloop instead. It's not that complicated to make and you can do a large batch and freeze baggies with daily portions (check the diet section for recipes). It's very good food for all parrots but, for an ekkie, is the VERY BEST you can offer.

Ok, taking away the Cheerios now! I watched a video earlier that said it was good to give it to them. Ahh ... I feel like I'm trying hard and failing. I will get this all right, eventually haha. I'll check out the diet section and try out some of the gloop recipes. Gloop is ok to start feeding them now, along with the formula? Also, is the same gloop diet ok to feed to my African Grey as well?

[Hayden_69]

No cheerios!! They are meant for human consumption and, because of this, they are loaded with iron which is REAL bad for parrots (parrots need very little compared to humans and excess iron is stored in the liver damaging the organ in the process).

Please take away the colored pellets. They are already getting plenty of nutrition in the formula and the only reason why any high protein food is offered at weaning time is to get them used to eating it but you don't want them to get used to eating that crap (they are, bar none, the worst pellet you can feed a parrot!). If you have your heart set on feeding pellets then give them Tops (not that I would ever recommend that anybody fed pellets to an ekkie). But, if I were you, I would try gloop instead. It's not that complicated to make and you can do a large batch and freeze baggies with daily portions (check the diet section for recipes). It's very good food for all parrots but, for an ekkie, is the VERY BEST you can offer.

I called a local breeder for advise and she told me that I should pick one of the babies and sell the other. She also told me that I should rehome my dad's African Grey, because she will never bond to me and I should give her to a home where she will be happy. I don't know how I feel about this Any thought's?