Start of the Angsty Bird

Woohoo, Cairo is using all his vocabulary and growing sounds at Ma (me). He used to be so sweet when I told him "no-go" and "no-chew" and "no-bite" - he'd just accept his short (2-5min) timeout (or distracting toy if it's a 'no-go' or 'no-chew' situation) then try a couple more times before moving onto something else. Now these past two days, he's going up to things he knows he shouldn't be going near and speaking in a deep, threatening voice to them, "PEEK-A-BOO" or "UH-OH" or "HAHAHAHA". Then when I go to move him, he pins his eyes and growls or says something ominous like "CAIRO" or "NO BITE". So yep, Ma is now the uncool parent.

On one hand, I'm glad that he hasn't asked for formula these past two days; on the other, I do miss having a 95% sweetheart. I mean, he's still such a good boy - really respectful of his recall training and other tricks. And he's still very polite - just pushes your finger away gently the first few times you do something that upsets him (unless you're his Da who has a hard time reading body language, then you get slightly fewer chances).

Now he's getting a bit aggressive, vocally, about his displeasure. If he thinks you're going to do something that'll upset him, he starts warning with his words and eyes.

He's definitely growing up too fast for me! He's a nonstop chatterbox sometimes now, practicing for hours on end. He's a sassy flyer, having fun making tight u-turns and zooming around. And now we can add angsty 'teenager' to the mix, or at least, no longer a sweet baby faced ekkie

Aw, the guy is growing up . At least he uses words to warn you - my conures just bit to show displeasure. You’re very in-tune with his body language too, so you’ll do well getting through the angsty teenager phase.

Yep, I'm just praying that he keeps giving a verbal cue. With his growling and deep voice (which only comes out when he's upset because I lower my voice when I'm letting him know something isn't kosher), it helps other humans know he has boundaries they need to respect. Hopefully.

They grow up so fast, right? Next he'll be asking for the car keys and wanting to call girls on the phone!

Cairo is just showing his oats, expect things to chang for awhile more and then settle down to his more permanent disposition. Hnestly he sounds like a very polite parrot; as stated some parrots (most of them) show displeasure by a quick nip . If Cairo gives you vocal or body language to indicate his moods, so much the better for you and your SO.

I’m sorry. A threatening PEEK A BOO sounds hysterical.


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GaleriaGila said:

They grow up so fast, right? Next he'll be asking for the car keys and wanting to call girls on the phone!

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The poor guy is terrible with the ladies - he thinks he can just land on them to reach their food bowls! *sigh, if only he had enough social skills to pick up chicks

Yep, temporary occurrence. Be careful how you react to his displeasied vocalizaciones. If you react with too much of an interesting response - getting into a yelling match with a bird comes to mind - you’ll reenforce the vocalizations and guarantee they will continue.

Believe me when I say I feel your pain. I’m going through something similar.

wrench13 said:

Cairo is just showing his oats, expect things to chang for awhile more and then settle down to his more permanent disposition. Hnestly he sounds like a very polite parrot; as stated some parrots (most of them) show displeasure by a quick nip . If Cairo gives you vocal or body language to indicate his moods, so much the better for you and your SO.

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I know we got so lucky with him! I'm trying to encourage his polite behaviour by making sure everyone he interacts with respects his boundaries when he gives first warning (unless it's a situation like where the vet needs to handle him). Really hope he keeps up that kind of sweet behaviour.

Inger said:

I’m sorry. A threatening PEEK A BOO sounds hysterical.


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Even funnier was that he was saying it to the 3D-printed model of a T-Rex skeleton bigger than him!

chris-md said:

Yep, temporary occurrence. Be careful how you react to his displeasied vocalizaciones. If you react with too much of an interesting response - getting into a yelling match with a bird comes to mind - you’ll reenforce the vocalizations and guarantee they will continue.

Believe me when I say I feel your pain. I’m going through something similar.

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Ooooh, good point! I've been just quietly/firmly talking to him when he does or not saying a word. Should I just ignore his displeased words?

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu_JElTlfGN/

Such an angsty bird recently. A lot of aggressive posturing going on.

I really don't know if I should keep interacting with him when he's in these moods. He responds to his training still, like recall and step up. But should I be quietly talking to him or just flat out ignoring him when he's like this? I've mostly just been acting as if he's not showing such body language and continuing to talk and give him his toys, unless it looks like he wants to attack/bite things. He doesn't attack us (at least not yet), just postures at us and attacks his toys.

How do you guys handle this? I realise he's still a sweetheart - I just don't want to encourage any bad behaviour. I don't mind letting him be hormonal/angsty by himself if he needs that.

Forgive my terrible memory, how old is he again?

chris-md said:

Forgive my terrible memory, how old is he again?

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16 months, hatched in November of 2017. He's an Aru and Red-Sided Mix. We were advised by the main ekkie breeder here that he might have a touch of Solomon in his ancestry since his breeder sometimes produces smaller ekkies.

What is his weight?

And I know you got them on a great fresh diet A lot of variety, but can you describe what is in What you might term to be in an average meal for him?

He's averaging between 410-440g - a constant flyer so that unfortunately takes a lot of his weight off.

His average chop meal:
Majority is
- butternut squash
- broccoli
- bell peppers (all three colours)
- carrots
- baby bok choy
Smaller amounts of
- zucchini
- chili peppers
- sweet peas
- curry leaves
Sprinkling of
- rolled oats

He gets about 50-80g per meal (two meals a day of breakfast and dinner), not including big chunks of veggie that I put in the bowl for him to forage through.

He also has at least one kind of fruit through every couple of days, either coconut, dragonfruit, pomegranate, banana, etc.

I just baked him some birdie bread made of millet flour, dragonfruit puree, and chop, so I've been putting a tiny piece in for breakfast.

Then he gets almonds and dried bananas as training treats. Oh! And I also fill up his foraging toys with TOPs pellets, but he rarely goes for them nowadays since he got his new cage full of other interesting toys. Even when he did used to play with his foraging toys, he'd just grind up the pellets onto the floor.

I've been keeping an eye on his weight because I can feel his keel bone, but the vet said he's just on the lower side of healthy and not to be concerned (she said that when he was about a year old and hovering between 380-410g). With this mood swing, he hasn't been much interested in food, but he's not really losing weight either. Just 3-4 days ago, he had been demanding 40g of baby formula every night for a week straight (I was getting concerned).

I’m with your vet, definitely on the smaller side for a larger subspecies.

Thank you for the recipe. Incredibly helpful, you actually hit on something I was poking around for, which was to see just how much fruit he was actually getting. A high sugar diet, which absolutely includes fruits, can lead to hormonal outbursts and behavior such as you are seeing. I have to poke around because a lot of people hear are fresh fruit and vegetable diet for eclectus, and serve tons of fruit, when in point of fact that should read vegetable and grain diet with a touch of fruit here and there (I say grain, but gluten in Ekkie diet is a small point of contention - I use it to substitute for “high fiber” since grain has a TON of fiber).

With that said, you could probably afford to significantly up at the fruit content of the diet since he is flying so much. He is more active than your average eclectus so probably needs the higher carbohydrate content in his diet. Carbs and sugar are a huge concern in eclectus diets not just because of hormones, but because of their relative sedentariness. That’s definitely not Cairo.

This feels either hormonal or learned behavior to me, but at a year and a half it’s a bit early for a larger sub species of eclectus, which typically reach puberty at the age of two or older. Being on the smaller side your boy could potential he enters sooner, but I still feel like a year and a half old is still a little young.

If this were Parker, and over the last couple months it actually has been, my feeling is to take a wait and see approach. How long is this been going on for? Since you moved into your new house?

He's actually only started this behaviour about 3 days ago, the same time he stopped calling for formula. And the same time his molting picked up again - tons of pin feathers are growing like mad and a lot of big feathers recently dropped within the past couple of days.

So it might be a molting thing? Not sure. But it timed perfectly with the formula and primary wing and tail feathers dropping. I've been showering him every night, which he's been loving.

Is there any way I should be interacting with him when he gets these moods?