Ekkie questions for a future owner

Ekkie questions from a future owner

Hello! I recently posted in the general questions forum and got some great tips/advice from everyone. I decided to go ahead and buy The Ultimate Guide to Eclectus Parrots by Kristen Badham and have read the book front to back. It cleared up a lot of my questions but left me with so many more! So if anyone can help me clear these questions up, I would really appreciate it

1) How well do Eclectus do in a city? After reading the chapter on bird harnesses I wondered if my future Ekkie would be able to be harnessed and taken to a local city park. Assuming he would enjoy being outside at a park. Mind you, I'm talking about a smaller city, not something huge and crowded like NYC. Are they spooked by lots of people or does it vary from bird to bird?

2) Do Eclectus do alright with other animals? Is there any sort of guide or tips you guys have for introducing pets to each other? My current roommates might want to get pets once we move someplace that allows them; one wants a small rodent like a hamster or rat and the other wants a puppy. If either of those will prove to be a problem, I may have to wait to get a bird for a while longer.

3) Presents! After reading about how much Eclectus like to play and need interesting foods to eat, I wondered if Ekkies like to open wrapped gifts? My dad's dogs love Christmas time and unwrap their own presents. Do/would Ekkies enjoy opening presents? Is it safe to let them do it? Is special pet wrapping paper a thing?

4) As an artist, I have a lot of pencils, paint brushes, and various sculpting tools around my house propped up in jars. During certain projects (halloween costumes, primarily) I end up with a lot of large chunks of foam, fabic, boxes, and other supplies around the house. I'm not a particularly messy individual, but sometimes it gets a little cluttered in my apartment. Do Ekkies like to play with stuff laying around on tables? Is this going to be a problem for me? I'll certainly put more effort into keeping clean if it would be.

5) This is more of a general bird question but is it possible to potty train a bird? I know birds don't really have any control over when they go, so I'm more curious than anything else. I'm prepared for lots of poop, lol.

6) This book lists a few plants that are bird safe, but some of my plants aren't listed at all. Do Ekkies like to eat/chew on houseplants? Also are jade trees, cacti (as long as they don't poke themselves on them), or spider plants safe for ekkies should they ingest them? Lastly, I have an Air Plant in a glass sphere hanging by my window. I'm guessing my ekkie will probably want to play with that, huh?

thanks for taking the time to read through my questions. It'll still be quite some time before I'm in a position to get a bird, so I'm trying to fill my brain with as much birdy knowledge as possible before I get one, even if some of them are superficial things like "can I do this with my bird" c:

Scratch that third questions. Did some digging online and figured out the answer

Re: Ekkie questions from a future owner

Hello, Endi! Let's see if I can help you out a bit.

1) This would indeed vary from bird to bird. I've found that how parrots deal with environmental factors such as noise, movement and whatnot depends upon a mixture of their individual personalities and their accustomed day to day circumstances. So basically, within the limits set by their individual personalities, you can acclimate your parrot to a number of things.

So given the example of the harness, you would want to gradually get them used to the idea of wearing one. Some parrots are more accepting of this than others. But if you take your time, reward them for desired behaviors, and show both persistence and consistency, you can make it work. You'd also, of course, want to work on socializing them with other people and acclimating them to busier, louder environments at the same time. But do this gradually, as parrots are creatures of habit and don't take kindly to being thrust suddenly into new situations.

And always be mindful of their body language. You want to work within the limits of their stress levels. If something is too much, don't push.

2) Not much I can offer here in terms of insight, as my only current set of pets aside from my ekkies are freshwater fish. Hardly a challenging combination. Hahaha!

I can tell you that interactions between a parrot and other animals should be monitored at all times, should you decide to go that route.

4) This one is easy. Your art materials would be a huge problem if not properly secured. Ekkies, and parrots in general, will most definitely dig into every and any thing they can around the house. TAKE NO CHANCES!

Also, depending upon which medium you prefer, be mindful of fumes. Birds have notoriously sensitive respiratory systems, and fumes that would barely catch our attention might damage or even kill your parrot.

5) Yes, it is most definitely possible to potty train a bird. There are some, like my fellow mod, Antoinette, who have LITERALLY taught their fids to use an actual child's potty!

You can also train them to go to appropriate places, or even to go on command. This last I STRONGLY discourage, as birds have been known to hold everything in for dangerous amounts of time in the hopes of pleasing their person.

Personally, I've opted to train my fids to go on perches. I know they tend to go every 15 minutes, so I keep a training perch nearby where I'm sitting and put them on it whenever I think it's about that time. When they go, I say "poop", so they equate the word to the action, and then praise them and let them come back to my hand. That way, when I forget, they'll either, in Bixby's case, fly over to the perch to go, or, at the very least, take care not to go on me. Success rate is maybe 80%. Still a work in progress. But when you have fids, you have to accept that sometimes... poop happens. Lol!

6) Again, not my area of expertise. Though there are several on this site who can definitely help you in regard to which plants are safe around parrots. I just keep them away from all of my plants.

Feel free to ask away with any questions that you have. I think it's great that you're doing your homework beforehand.

Here's a pretty decent list of safe and dangerous plants for birds. It isn't totally comprehensive (guess that'd be nearly impossible, but it is a huge list).

Toxic and Safe Plants/Trees for Birds - Household Poisons

Honestly, if it is around the house.. your bird is probably going to try to chew on it / play with it. You might end up with the world's only non-curious bird, but most of them like to get into anything they can get their beaks on.

As far as rats and puppies and birds.. a lot of people seem to have a fear that pet rats will escape and eat pet birds? Rats will eat birds if given the opportunity, but I honestly can't see a rat going after a bird the size of an Eclectus. We've had pet rats (awesome pets, btw) and I really.. just can't see it. I wouldn't necessarily have them out together at the same time, but having them in the same house really doesn't seem like it would be a problem to me.. Rats are very, very clever and need to be housed appropriately and not in a hamster cage if they are going to be safely contained.

As far as puppies.. that's another matter. You will hear plenty of sad stories about birds who have been killed or injured by pet dogs. Dogs can definitely be taught to control themselves (and I think a rock-solid "leave it" command is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things that any dog needs to learn), but there is always the risk of an accident or a lapse in control. Even puppies can learn, but puppies are... puppies. That doesn't mean you can't have a bird and a puppy. It just means that you must always take the utmost care when dealing with both a bird and a puppy.

My daughter's sun conure is suicidal, I swear. If my dogs were not the best dogs in the world, he'd be dead a million times over. He has no qualms about landing on their backs or right between their paws when they're laying down. When they are in the room I have to keep a hawk's eye on him because I know, at some point, he's going to fly off like a half-baked idiot and try to visit a dog. I am not always successful at scooping him out of the air before he makes it to them.

I know I am taking a risk by allowing them to be in the room together at all, because the conure can't be trusted to stay away from the dogs. If one of your roommates gets a puppy, I would think long and hard about letting your bird out while the puppy is in the same room.

And whether it were my puppy or not, if it were living in my house -- I would make sure it was well trained, whether the owner took responsibility or not. I DESPISE badly behaved dogs (more like, I despise their owners.. isn't the poor dog's fault).

1) I didn't think about how their daily routine would effect how they feel about more crowded environments. Thanks for the pointers about harness training!

2) haha, no, certainly not challenging XD I'll definitely keep an eye on everyone if and when we have all our pets.

4) Gah, that's what I was afraid of. I'm primarily digital; the only time I work with actual paint is when I paint sculptures and figurines, and I keep that pretty well contained. One of my roommates oil paints but she likes to have her own little space in her room so we could just not let my bird into her room and I think it should be ok.

5) I'd read it was a bad idea for a bird to go on command so I was definitely not going to do that :O Thanks for the training tips; I might try to potty train my ekkie if it starts to be a problem.

6) I'll keep an eye out for plant safety articles, then

Thanks for all the tips! I always try to do as much research as possible when I get a new pet c:

aWhoops! I must have posted at almost the same time as you, Selestine. I completely missed your post.

Thanks so much for that link. It's a pretty great list and it helped me clear up with of my plants should be kept out of reach and which ones are ok. This is just what I needed (when I searched the forum earlier, I found a post about things toxic to birds but the link was broken). Do you happen to know if Air Plants are toxic to birds? This link lists something called a Felt Plant (Maternity, Air and Panda Plants) as toxic but I'm not actually sure what that means, since I don't know what a felt plant is...?

I guess I'll be having to make sure my room mates and I pick up after ourselves more than we do already. Do they eventually lose interest in certain things? And is it possible to distract them with toys and training? I'm most concerned about my plants (especially the air plant in the glass terrarium), because they're my babies too and I don't want my new feathered kid to chew on them

I share your hatred of owners who don't train their dogs well. My dad's first dog was really well trained and the only really bad thing she ever does is she'll sometimes put her paws on the counter and steal food (she's a big dog). Otherwise she sits, she comes when you call, she never bites or slobbers, and she's super friendly. But my dad slacked a bit on training with his second dog and she's a terror. She chews on everything, has accidents in the house, drools everywhere, and she's almost bitten him a few times trying to get food. She's a sweetheart, but she's not trained well and she's really quite stupid.

Hopefully my roommate trains her dog well. I'm hoping all this research I'm doing on my future bird (and that I've subsequently been dumping onto her) will inspire her to just as heavily research dogs. Because if she can't take a hint, I'm going to have to be more forceful about how well her dog is trained. I'll still keep an eye on them when they're in the same room together. Hopefully my birdie doesn't end up quite as suicidal as your daughter's sun conure, haha!

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Sometimes I'll read about dogs and cats that get along great with birds but I wanted to know how common that was. It sounds like their relationships are based more in training (which I should have guessed) and that it's always a good idea to keep an eye on them regardless.

----

[Editing here to avoid multiple posting]: I answered my own question about the air plant, I think. Air Plants are, as far as I can tell, a member of the bromeliad family which appears to be toxic to birds. From what I can tell, it has some kind of a chemical in it that causes skin irritation. Not as bad as instant death, but still something to be concerned about.