Is Pebbles clucking like a chicken??

camo

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Jun 30, 2014
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Gizmo - Male Eclectus Parrot

Pebbles - Female Eclectus Parrot
Hi all,

We (my wife and I) were at a local poultry auction and were saddened to find a female Eclectus Parrot (reported to be 3 years old) being auctioned off. The sole bidder was from the people who purchased all the roosters (clearly for slaughter), so we ended up bidding against him, as it was clear that his motive was purely profit (our concern being the treatment she may receive prior to sale, and the poor diet she may receive from her new owners who have not been informed).

Pebbles (this is the name we have given her) has spent a few weeks with us, separated from Gizmo (our male eclectus), and today was gradual introduction day. We have her in an identical cage to Gizmo, and have spent the morning gradually moving them closer, firstly into the same room, and then inching closer (although they both seem keen to get closer).

Either due to not being fully settled yet, or limited human interaction, she has not spoken a word, excluding one screech early on, when I accidentally entered the room without announcing my presence, and disapproval at the vets.



It was a big surprise for us when she started making a cluck cluck, like a chicken while looking at Gizmo.


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCbQOoX59AY"]pebbles - YouTube[/ame]

Does anyone know if this is a natural sound, perhaps made by a female (Gizmo has never made this sound), or has she perhaps mimicked this from a chicken...lol (assuming she was in an outdoor aviary).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Cameron

P.S. Sorry about the video quality, but hopefully the video quality is good enough to make out the sound I am referring to
 

Allee

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Both your birds are beautiful. Very nice cages. Pebbles is so lucky that you and your wife were at that auction. My guess is she is mimicking the chickens she met at the auction. That's just a guess, I've never spent much time around a female Eclectus.
 

Anansi

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I have a female as well as a male, and yours is definitely mimicking a chicken! Lol!

I'm really glad that you rescued her, btw. And both of your ekkies look beautiful!
 
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camo

camo

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Pebbles - Female Eclectus Parrot
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Thank you all for the replies!! We have ducks and chickens, so it certainly sounded like chicken to us, but it's good to know she was not swearing at Gizmo in eccy...lol.

Here is a video of Gizmo this morning having a blow dry and also showing off a bit, in front of Pebbles.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az4-COAQ10A&feature=youtu.be"]gizmo dryer - YouTube[/ame]

We are showering Gizmo every day at the moment, as he is moulting, he loves the shower, but he really enjoys the hair dryer. Not sure if you can see it in the video, but we were happy to see Pebbles move from her far side of the cage, towards us, out of interest. I see this as a big breakthrough as even a few days ago, she would have panicked at the sight of something foreign like the hair dryer (we are making slow progress, but the trust is building).

Thanks,

Camo
 
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strudel

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Gizmo's so cute. It must be helpful for Pebbles to see Gizmo interacting with you and seeing that you are nice. She's so lucky to have found a home at your place with a new "brother" and people to look after her properly.
 
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camo

camo

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Gizmo - Male Eclectus Parrot

Pebbles - Female Eclectus Parrot
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Gizmo's so cute. It must be helpful for Pebbles to see Gizmo interacting with you and seeing that you are nice. She's so lucky to have found a home at your place with a new "brother" and people to look after her properly.

Thank you for the kind words. It was certainly a hard decision to bring her into the same room. She had been quarantined as much as we could achieve in the same house, but we debated if it was best to get her used to us first before introducing. For better or worse we decided Gizmo's outgoing personality may help her to relax (seeing him not react may help her to see things less threatening, that's the idea we are going with anyway).
 
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camo

camo

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Gizmo - Male Eclectus Parrot

Pebbles - Female Eclectus Parrot
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This morning Pebbles decided she was ready to step up onto my hand for food. This video is after several times (she is used to the phone now, but I still wouldn't introduce the phone on a first attempt, as I think this just adds too much to the equation).

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3XrSgg9P0&feature=youtu.be"]pebbles stepsup - YouTube[/ame]

Pebbles has obviously had human contact before, but this was still a very gradual process to get to this stage. Started off by feeding her from our hands through the cage, then feeding through the cage door (firstly bringing the food to her, and then getting her to move towards us before giving her the food). Eventually I kept my hand in the cage and my wife offered her food on the opposite side of the cage (she was very sneaky and would go the long way around to avoid my hand).

As you can see although she is coming onto my arm and even staying as she eats, it is still early days, and clearly this is either very foreign to her, or there has been a breakdown in trust in the past.

Gizmo being nearby is working very well so far, as he will take a treat, and then you can see her interest in the treat grow.

Cheers,

Camo
 

strudel

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She's nervous, but you aren't scary enough to make her not want that food. I can see her learning pretty quickly that you aren't scary at all. It's so great watching her settle into a great new life. She's just beautiful.
 

Anansi

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Pebbles is beautiful!

The trust building seems to be going really well! Baby steps, right? Those first few tentative steps are the hardest, after all.
 

labell

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Fantastic progress, you obviously know that all eclectus are similar to human men... the way to their heart is through their stomach lol!
 

mary.culhane

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I also have a Female eclectus and she clucks like a chicken (although she has never been around any chickens). She does this behavior generally right before laying an egg.
 

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