Eclecus experiece...??

[sidech]

Here's my two cents. I raised my male from 4 months old. I was very careful to teach him to be independant, knowing how bonded males can be, and how much a problem their constant regurgitating and masturbating behaviors can be. Males are big smoochies... They like eveyone and all they want is attention. That is what I read in specialized forums, and that is my experience with mine.

Jazz will be for in september. He likes me, my son, my daughter. He will try to regurgitate for me but I don't encourage it and it doesn't happen that much because I am careful. He has been talking since 5 months old. He likes to dance, shower, fly and fly again ! You can kiss him as much as you want, he will kiss you also. You can touch his chest, a bit of the wings, but not the head. I don't touch him a lot anyways, as to not reinforce the sexual behaviors. He comes when called and follows me from room to room. He likes to drop his food on the floor to feed the dogs. Basicly, he's just a happy go lucky guy. Aside from the first three weeks, he has never bitten, except my son who was pushing it, once. There were warning signs.

Bad stuff : he can kill your ear drums with his screaming. He eats 90% fresh foods and hemakes a hell of a mess. It dries on the wall, the floor and it's hard to clean, and it smells if you don't clean it fast enough. You have fruit flies every summer because of it. When he shakes, there is down flying everywhere. Basically a very messy bird.

Bottom line, if you know what you're doing and have a good start and follow through, and you can live with the mess and screaming, male Ekkies are very nice birds. I would not get a female, ever, I don't care if she was given to me !