Baby Eclectus questions.. sorry

First I did google, but cant find the answers to my questions.
I just received a female baby Eclectus (Orchid) about a week ago. I was told she was 2 months old, but upon google image search... Id say she is 6 weeks old at the most. I am/was hand feeding her formula 3 times a day. From day one she is a very good eater and attacking the syringe. The other day she saw some fresh fruit being eaten and was eyeballing it, so the fruit was offered to her. I was amazed she started gobbling down the little bits offered to her. This brings me to my problem/questions... The breeder/shop owner (I live in Thailand and things are a way different than "back home" (So Cal)) said I should hand feed the formula until she is 4 months...
Before fruit discovery, every morning she would wake up when I get up and start squawking to be fed, she didnt care it took time to heat the water then let the gruel cool. She would attack the syringe, eating ~50-75 cc per meal.
After fruit discovery, she is not as interested in her gruel. I had her mush ready for her and she started squawking a little, attack the syringe and eat just a little then pull away. She only ate 25cc this morning. Yesterday she refused to eat at first, but she was trying to get to the fresh fruit. After she ate a little fruit she accepted about 25cc of the baby goo.

So finally some questions. First, did I screw up letting her eat "real" food so young? Or is this a normal age for the bird to want real food? The fruit I give her has a lot of water in it (dont ask me what it is, I hate fruit, love veggies, and whatever the fruit is, we dont have in the US)

When should I offer her a dish of water? Any issues if I put a saucer (shes still not so coordinated walking) of water out for her?

I was thinking of offering her some veggies. But not sure if I should boil/steam them first to make them softer and easier to eat? I read they like corn, and again I wonder if the skin on raw corn would be too tough for her to digest.

She seems much happier to be on a perch or my hand than sitting like a big fat feathery blob. She is having difficulties with her foot/eye coordination, so sometimes I have to help get the second foot up. This again seems kinda early.

She seems to be growing quickly. I just got a real cage for her yesterday, she was happy sleeping in a plastic picnic basket. I put her in the cage last night and she just played "statue" for about 30 minutes so I took her back out. Thinking swiftly I know she recognizes "her towel" and wants to be on it because that means its her place and she is safe. I put her towel covering the bottom of the cage and put her in the cage again this morning, first thing she did was waddle/crawl up on to the perch. Eyeball her surrounding and discovered her little plastic box with toys. She actually HOPPED off the pearch and RAN to her box and started to attack/play with her little blanky(crap rag)

Oh, this brings another question... I used to have a parrot years ago that HATED hot pink, he would flash his eyes and lunge for whoever was wearing the color (of course that was my moms favorite color shirt to wear...). Orchid seems to be interested in colors, her blanky is bright orange on one side, and dark blue on the other side. The blue side has the orange around the edges, and Orchid always seems to notice the orange boarder and start to play with it. If there are some toys (that I offer or she decides is her toy) she always seems most interested in whatever is a hot color like orange or red.... Is this normal for baby birds? My family used to raise birds, mostly cockatiels, budgies, ring necks... I dont remember colors being an issue with most of our birds...

any how, sorry for the long post, thank you in advance for any ideas/suggestions. Im sure Orchid thanks you as well

Welcome! You well get wonderful advise on this forum, senior members are amazing! Stay tuned, time zones slow things up a bit. I am a fairly new owner so I will look forward to the senior replies. I would recommend sending photo... This will help senior members estimated age.

Hi and Welcome! Congratz on your new baby girl! Not sure why you are sorry for having questions, there are some wonderful people here that will answer any question you have, don't be sorry! I am also a noob here, I have a 5 month old boy, I had a ton of questions and everyone here was so great <3

I have a funny thing that happened today with my Ekkie and colors. My husband had a bright yellow pac-man band-aid on his finger and Eko was lunging at it and growling. I definitely notice a preference with colors.

I would love to see pics of your baby too

Offering fresh fruits AND veggies are important during the weaning stage. Veggies are great and contain a lot of vitamins, iron, and nutrition that fruits can lack. Fruits are high in sugar and you want to balance out the diet with a mix of veggies. You can steam veggies, but raw is good too. Experiment and see what she prefers, if there's a big hit with a certain food, keep offering it to her, it'll help encourage weaning (when the time comes). Oh and btw, offer cooked corn and soybeans, they seem to be a big hit. Between 6-8 weeks is when you should be starting to introduce fruits and veggies in her diet. It's great she's showing interest at a young age, but keep at the hand feeding!! It may seem like she's full and not interested in the formula, but feel her crop and determine how much to feed and when to feed. Keep a routine schedule and monitor her weight and progress.

For the weaning part, it depends on the bird. My bird became fully weaned at around 6 months old. I never forced her to wean, I continued until she refused the formula. With a breeder, they may be quicker to wean the bird (obviously for profit reasons) but also because they have clutch mates that encourage eating solid food as well. Like I said, it all depends on the bird and their environment.

The formula should contain enough water for them to be hydrated. You can offer fresh water in a small bowl so that she can get used to it. Soon she'll show interest and become curious of the clear liquid. Always keep an eye out for her poop, they can show signs health issues: is there enough urate, is there enough fecal matter, how watery is the feces, etc.

Here's a really good link on hand feeding/weaning baby birds:
The Science of Handfeeding and Weaning the Baby Parrot SECTION 2   The Parrot University

Since she's really young, her cage should be fairly shallow with a few perches. Of course it'll take a bit of time for her to get used to perching and figuring out balance. Think of it as a baby learning how to walk, they fumble and lose balance a lot. It's all part of the learning process. Encourage perching by using rope perches and a few wood perches. Rope perches offer better grip so it can help with the balancing part.

Lastly, she may be drawn to color that resembles red because after all that is the color of her "real" mom. It's kinda interesting, because Nalani hates the color red and won't even touch toys that are red. But she loves to shred up blue and green toys.

I'm sure others will be able to give much more input and additional advice. Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new baby girl!!

ok here she is. Thank you for the warm welcome and the help. I just feel bad asking these questions, they seem so simple and I know someone must have asked before but I couldnt find any answers.

I was looking for the rope perches, but cant find any here. I have a cement perch (real rough for those needle sharp claws) and a wooden one, she definitely prefers the rough one for now until she gets more coordination and strength.

aww darling girl!! She does look very young to me too, but nonetheless beautiful <3 They're all extremely valid questions, it's ok! We all learn from the answers as well

Eclectus Parrots is a great site that I have frequented as well. Lots of good recipes too.

@moni thats hilarious, shes a maneater!

I think everything moni.k said was great. At the end of the weaning stage I felt like I had to pull him just a bit from his formula, when he was taking around 5cc in one feeding. That was around 4 months for me probably. Mine is an SI Ekkie. I hear they wean faster, but still learning and they will let you know when they are done

Healthy veggies were my first go to. I had him acclimated to everything. Just imagine the veggie aisle at the store. I bought a little of everything to see what he just loves. Fruit is given once a day after he's done with breakfast on a skewer for foraging practice. Sometimes adding variety like putting his veggies on a skewer has worked well with me.

I also had perches extremely low in his cage with a blanket in the corner when he was younger in case he wanted to snuggle.

Also what I've learned about ekkies and water is some of them like to put their food in water to perhaps, soften it up? Not sure because my boy does it with everything.

Also, I know I am still very new at this, but my ekkie will shell everything he can. Peels the skin from peas, corn, beans, everything and it actually surprises me how extremely efficient he is. I'm not sure if this is still done as a baby as young as yours.

There is also a Facebook group called "The Parrot's Pantry" that offers really great recipes for your bird.

Everything above being said, I am still a very new parront and still learning as I go along

nicki said:

@moni thats hilarious, shes a maneater!

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She definitely is one of a kind for sure!! I take her to a local bird store that has a lot of ekkie babies. I know the owner very well and she allows Nalani to interact with the birds there. Interestingly, she actually prefers the females over the males but when it comes to toys she HATEs the color red.

I just feel bad asking these questions, they seem so simple and I know someone must have asked before but I couldnt find any answers.

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Don't feel bad, you're taking the right step to ask questions. Everyone here loves to help another bird owner out. Keep the questions flowing, there's plenty of experienced ekkie owners here more than willing to answer your questions. PS: Orchid is very adorable and has a very cute name. Never heard it before, it's really unique (plus it's one of my favorite flowers of all time!)

so I made a little plate of fruit and vegies for her to examine. I set them next to her on "her spot" (towel on the couch) and she first grabbed a pea sprout. Then went for a small piece of sweet potato but I guess it was too hard for her... she seems to like corn as well. It was funny she was eating the food and started making a new noise, not quite her normal squawk, but almost "nom nom nom"

This morning she didnt beg for food, and wasnt that interested in eating. She has really slowed down eating the last few days. I only got her to eat about 40cc. After that she just had no interest. She played for a little bit, getting used to her big cage, she re aranged a little basket in the cage and a towel I had in it to make a birdy cage. She walks in the basket (on its side) behind the towel, and started making some funny little noises. She sticks her head out to make sure Im still here...
While she was taking her after breakfast nap I made up another little plate of fruit/veggies for her. She woke up but didnt notice the food. She is starting to make all kinds of noises, almost like she is trying to talk. I read a lot that Eckys like quiet, my girlfriend is all BUT quiet (not typical Thai girl...) and the bird definitely seems to take to her constant talking and noises. I think Orchid is trying to mimic my girlfriend as she is excitedly talking on the phone. All the while munching on her newly discovered plate of food.

nicki said:

Also what I've learned about ekkies and water is some of them like to put their food in water to perhaps, soften it up? Not sure because my boy does it with everything.

Also, I know I am still very new at this, but my ekkie will shell everything he can. Peels the skin from peas, corn, beans, everything and it actually surprises me how extremely efficient he is. I'm not sure if this is still done as a baby as young as yours.

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Ekkies love to make "soup". I think it has something to do with their love for mushy textures. My birds will tend to do this with dry things like crackers and such (which I rarely give them of course!).

The eclectus parrot's beak is actually "designed" to peel the skin from fruits rather than to eat seeds, which explains their love (and need) for fruits, and their uncanny ability to peel the skin of fruits like blueberries within their beak!

David P said:

I read a lot that Eckys like quiet, my girlfriend is all BUT quiet (not typical Thai girl...) and the bird definitely seems to take to her constant talking and noises. I think Orchid is trying to mimic my girlfriend as she is excitedly talking on the phone. All the while munching on her newly discovered plate of food.

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Congratulations on your new and very beautiful baby Orchid. I love her name and I love the flower!!!


Your post made me laugh. I have a 10 month old male Eclectus who is very quiet, never squawks yet loves to babble and try and say words. His quiet abruptly ends when I blend, turn on the water, use the electric tooth brush, shower, or any noise that's loud, he then goes into another bird place and talks quite loud. It's totally hilarious. So, your reference to your gf is quite funny. Thank goodness my husband is soft spoken (He's Puerto Rican -- not known to be quiet. Go figure!)


Welcome! I look forward to hearing more about your baby.

@drlisaort

If I use the blender or other electric motor sounding things, then Rumi will start loudly imitating it. It's quite unpleasant but funny at the same time.

Congrats on your new Baby Orchid. What a cute name and an adorable little girl, and welcome to the forum.

Ha! The other day I purchased a large pink calcium perch to trim my Ekkie's claws. So I was walking around with this thing trying to figure out where to put it while apparently scaring the crap out of my bird and didn't even realize it. He actually high tailed it off of his playtop, right off the side of his cage like NOPE! before I realized what his problem was.

Just never know what will have an influence on them <3 Also, we always eat together as a family and he ALWAYS squawks when my fork or whatever utensil I am using hits my place. For a while I thought he was protesting my food choices.

I love these stories and questions which I can relate to. (ekkie imitating loud things) I would love for my bird to turn his SQUAWKS into talks