Eclectus Personality

Hi everyone, just wondered if someone could give me a run down of their experiences with Eclectus. Are they friendly with everyone, or can they become one person, is the diet that hard to maintain, are they generally of a good disposition and any other noteworthy things.

I'm not so interested in birds that have bad baggage, mainly ones while been family members for a long time.

I'm sure you've read this before, but it really depends on the individual bird. Just like people, they can have widely varying personalities. I'll just state some personal experience and a bit of stuff I've learned while reading up on Eclectus parrots.

I've had Coda for a little under 5 weeks now, she is 9 months old and she is an amazingly cool bird. She settled in within a week but was still bitey and apprehensive, she really started trusting me in week 2, began exploring my room at week 3, and now in week 5 we are best buds; just earlier she fell asleep on me while I scratched the back of her head. She's adapted so fast and has been totally fine with meeting heaps of new people - instantly stepping up and sitting on their shoulders, eating from their hands, etc. This includes my housemate's 6 year old daughter - who she is fine stepping up on to and interacting with.

I've taught her to step up/down, fly to me/back to her perch on command, spin in a circle, and wave when I say hi. She's an extremely fast learner and is always keen to hang out and play and learn new things. It took her a while to get used to toys, but after slowly introducing them she is fine with new things being added to her cage and doesn't get aggressive about it any more.

In addition to that, Coda is at the tail-end of her first moult, as well as entering "eclectus puberty". This apparently starts at around 9 months, and has the parrot exhibiting wild mood swings where sometimes they are happy to interact, and other times they may get extremely touchy and unhappy and squawk loudly for seemingly no reason. This can last up to a couple of years depending on the bird, but they do grow out of it.

Eclectus parrots in general are very quiet, stoic birds. They're considered one of the most quiet birds you can own. They don't have random squawking fits like pink and greys, and they don't blast your ear-drums with brainshattering squawks (apart from the aforementioned puberty phase). Coda is silent most of the day, unless she's playing or I'm talking to her, in which case she lets out some trills and squeaks; and she grinds her beak when she's chilling out. This is great if you value quiet, but requires caution: if eclectus parrots get sick it can be hard to identify the symptoms, as they do their best to hide them. In addition to this you need to take note of the many things that can severely harm or kill your parrot - certain foods like avocado and chocolate, products like non-stick pans, natural gas, petroleum based rubber, etc.

The diet is definitely more difficult to maintain than many other birds - as is with most large parrots, as they require raw fruit and veg daily; which need a thorough wash before serving. They can't rely on just seeds and pellets, and they can be a little temperamental about what you feed them - some days they may like corn, other days they might throw it on the cage floor.

But like I said before, it depends on the parrot, where it lives, the enrichment in its cage, the quality of the time you spend with it, and a bunch of other variables. We can generalize, but only to a point. The main thing to take away is that they are a big commitment, they require a lot of time and energy, and you need to regularly interact with them.

Hopefully that answers some questions for you! Here's some random photos of Coda if you feel looking at some eclectus goodness.

Jasper is only 10 months old but he's got quite the personality. He's very sweet, likes to cuddle, but then sometimes likes his space too.

He's normally VERY shy when meeting new people. Takes quite a bit of coaxing to get him to go to them, but after that he sticks to them like glue.

I've never owned any other birds before so I can't compare to other species, but I fell in love with Eclectuses after doing so much reading about them initially. They're supposed to be good family birds and I can see why.

Eclectus parrots make wonderful companion birds. While their diets do take more work to maintain than most other parrots, I truly don't find the preparation particularly difficult. A wide variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes should make up between 85 and 90% of their diets. If pellets are included, only organic and uncolored types should be used. And even then only sparingly if at all.

You also asked if they were friendly with everyone. Depends on the individual ekkie. Bixby, (my recently departed and dearly missed male ekkie of just under two years, who passed due to an illness he had since birth) was friendly enough with everyone, though he could be shy and a bit introverted when more than say 2 or 3 visitors came over.

On the other hand, Maya, my SI female, is more outgoing in a crowd and sometimes even relishes such opportunities to show off her talking and whistling abilities. But while she seems the more amicable of the two, she is more prone to bite any hand that is not mine. Yup, she's a one person bird. Though my wife has finally begun making some progress with her in that regard, and in the past week has even managed to earn limited petting privileges! (Yeah, Maya's a work in progress when it comes to socialization.)

Ekkies are highly intelligent and pick things up rather quickly. Most people with ekkies that I know of describe them as more or less hands off, but the two I've had have been absolute cuddle bugs. They both would graft themselves onto me if they could. Hahaha!

And ekkies, in my experience, are also exceptionally quiet. Maybe one welcoming screech when seeing me for the first time in the morning, or getting home from work. And the occasional flock call if I'm out of sight but they hear my voice.

Hope this helps and answers some of your questions.

I acquired a pair of Vosmarei about 25 years ago from a breeder who allowed my well-versed mom to complete their weaning to allow further imprinting by the family.

Unfortunately they never got along and were ultimately housed separately in the same room. Sasquatch and Angel developed quite different personalities. He enjoyed familiar family members, didn't enjoy handling and had an extensive and clear voice. Angel hates everybody but me; her desire to cuddle rivals that of a cockatoo! I've found Ekkies somewhat stoic and difficult to "read." Quiet birds indeed except for a random low squawk.

Sadly Sasquatch passed away 3 years ago from surgical complications. Angel is going strong save for a chronic beak overgrowth despite excellent blood chemistry and a good diet. My current vet believes the Ekkie lifespan is 35+ years assuming proper care.

They are magnificently beautiful birds that IMHO can make excellent companions.

Scott said:

...My current vet believes the Ekkie lifespan is 35+ years assuming proper care.

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All that I've read suggests that lifespan is a lot closer to 60+ years. The earlier estimates regarding ekkie lifespans were skewed by a lack of knowledge regarding what constitutes a proper diet for them.

An all seed diet will kill them more quickly than most. And vitamin supplements, pellets and enriched foods that would be beneficial for most parrots also proved far too rich for ekkie systems due to the greater length of their intestinal tracts. Too much of a good thing led to substantially decreased lifespans.

But increased knowledge of ekkie physiology has led to far better nutrition and greater quality and duration of life.