Future Eclectus Owner

[Bicky]

Hi Everyone,

I have been lurking and reading information on this forum for a while and decided to join because I have a lot of questions unanswered by the internet.

I just placed a deposit for an eclectus after lots of research and am very excited to be a parrot owner. I had cockatiels and finches and canaries and lovebirds as a kid, but now that I am on my own, I think I'm ready to move on to a parrot.

For ekki owners out there, what is a good rope diameter to use since eclectus have weaker grips than other birds? I am thinking of making my own net too.

Thanks,
Bicky

[GlassOnion]

Cockatiels , budgies, lovebirds are parrots, a common mistake people make.. but good luck on your research!

[Bicky]

Right! Well, I meant to say large/medium sized parrot.

[Marsha]

Hey welcome! I'm a eclectus owner I have two males
What are you getting? A boy or a girl?
I'm from europe so we use different measurements but I always take the rope size that is 1 size smaller than what a macaw should need. But that is the size my birds have hanging in their cage, I guess you should use a smaller size if you want to make a net with the rope.
I didnt know they have weaker grip? If I see them hanging, swinging upside-down I wouldnt say so haha.

[Bicky]

Well I read from the eclectus parrot book guide that they have weaker grips than some birds. Of course, there is a lot of misinformation.

Anyhow, do you think 1/2 inches will be okay for a climbing net? I'm planning on getting a male. On that subject, some people tell me females are more difficult to handle than males while others tell me that they are the same if handled/treated properly. What are your thoughts?

[sidech]

Females are definitely not for unexperienced people. They require a lot of patience and know how, and yes they are a lot harder to deal with because they are very very territorial and aggressively defend their turf, they can lay eggs all year round, and generally speaking they rule the nest.

As you can see, I have a male... And I don't thonk they have a weaker grip either...

[Marsha]

I think you should always choose a bird based on their breed specifications and characters and in this case the gender, because there are really big differences. I don't own a female myself but I do know people who do and they are somewhat more difficult than males tend to be.
I started with a male eclectus and when we dicided we wanted a friend for him, most people adviced me to get a female because than I would have a pair and because it looks stunning seeing them togheter, I had a bigger chance they would tolerate each other etc.
But I like the males and their characters and I'm not so sure about the females (mostly because of the egg laying and the hormones and because when they do become a pair and want to breed they sometimes wont be as affectioness to you as they once were) so we got him a male play friend and they are best friends from day one and very sweet towards us and other people. They play together everyday and even share a cage. So we're glad we had another male, eventhough the females are gorgeous!~
I cant answer the rope question because I dont know inches, Im from Holland and we use centimeters

[Polarn]

not an eclectus owner just wanted to add that 1/2inch is about 13mm the tools in the workshop is almost the same size atleast, but if you do a goodlesearch for "0.5inch=?mm" you will get a result at the top of the first page saying "0.5 inch = 12.7 millimeters" easy way to transform others measurements into your own, works the other way around and with feet, cm, meters etc.
Unfortunitly I don't have much more than that to add to this thread.

Best of luck

[Marsha]

Thanks well if 1/2 inch is only 1.3 centimeters I would try ropes twice the size of that so that would be 1 inch

[Polarn]

however creating a net will be quite harsh with 1 inch ropes, I actually used ropes about 3/8 inches for my bluefronted amazon for the cubicle swing thingie, but they are really tight and wont budge, but for ropes i have for him as perches/ to sit on their atleast 1inches... but then again, i dont know anything about their grips, but I know trying to tie up a net of 1inch ropes will be quite difficult. unless you do the squares of the net quite big.