Ekkietiel

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Sep 5, 2020
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Charleston, SC
Parrots
Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
Here's my story, seeking any information you guys can provide.

Beginning last July our eclectus, Charlie (hatch date 12/26/15), has been having behavioral issues (mainly feather destruction and screaming). Within the span of a few days he had gone from a beautiful green belly to tattered strands of green and a completely exposed stomach of down feathers. We took him to the exotic vet near us within a week of this starting. It was explained this was likely hormonal changes mixed with how we had been handling his lifestyle. He was given a hormone injection and over the next year a series of hormone implants (most recently placed late April) that seemed to only work for 3-4 months before the behaviors became overwhelming again. Within that time we have made many changes to his daily life.

Instead of food bowls he works for his Zupreem pellets/Oven Fresh bites from Featherland Paradise food tumblers. We placed large wooden balls in the tumblers along with food so it takes a long time for him to get all the food out from around the balls. He is given daily fruit and veggies outside of his cage that are coated with UnRuffledRx (only since late 8/2020 - hopefully in lue of more hormone injections) calming AND FeatheredUp. He now sleeps in a carrier in a completely separate part of our house to ensure a proper/uninterrupted sleep. While bedtime for him is between 7-8pm, wake ups can vary due to our work as nurses. When we work a shift (12 hours) we wake him up at 515am, on our days off he sleeps in until about 830am. Whenever he wakes up, he gets a morning shower and if we work, he gets an evening shower with us before bed (we make sure he is dry before bedtime). When we are at work we leave the TV on (which is in full view of his cage) to give him something to watch/listen to. With our work days being so long we often feel guilty about leaving him and do whatever possible to leave work early, to be back with him. This may be causing him some frustration as our return time is not predictable, this is a new thought I've been having but unsure if it is valid.

Recently we upgraded his cage in a huge way (from 56” H x 30” W x 22” D to 76” H x 48” W x 36” D) in the hopes that the extra space would be utilized during our long work days. His version of "best behavior" occurs when both my wife and I are home together, if only one of us is home he is very upset and screams frequently. This has been known to bring both my wife and I to tears as we honestly don't know what we're doing wrong anymore. We have tried curbing this by leaving the room and returning when appropriate noises are made, but he'll start screaming quickly after we re-enter. When we're not in the room with him (which is our main living area) he can be heard happily chatting endlessly, again, until we re-enter the room. With Charlie's cage being in the main living area we often find ourselves sequestered in our bedroom to stop him from screaming. We can hear him happily chatting, but whenever we re-enter the area with his cage he'll be screaming within 5 minutes again. This behavior has gotten so bad we have trouble moving around the house without tripping over our dogs (who cower between our legs with every step we take). He's even taken to growling at us and the dogs if he's not satisfied with our behavior. With it being Fall, I am hesitant to get Charlie another hormone implant as his natural hormones should be calming down for the winter and I don't want to upset his natural rhythm more than necessary. Which is why we started using the UnRuffledRx calming formula, with mixed/fleeting results.

I have had my cockatiel for 15 years, fostered many other birds, and during my 6 years working for a major pet store enjoyed working with large parrots. I'd like to think I know a good bit of how to handle birds, but this last year has been truly disheartening and depressing.

I've lurked these forums for answers in the past, but this seemed to require some backstory. Thank you all in advance.
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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Maryland - USA
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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Hello and welcome!

Really sorry you’re dealing with this, we Ekkie owners know all about this and certainly sympathize. Fortunately SOME OF IT - not all, but some - is within your control.

“I’d like to think I know a good bit about how to handle birds”.

Welcome to the world of eclectus, who are a beast all their own! Can’t treat them like other parrots. They are very different.

When you went to the vet, did you do a full blood work up to rule out an health issues? Have you had Charlie all 6 years?

I’m inclined to agree with your vet, this strikes me as hormonal. 6 Years old, and during a year when many of us are seeing unprecedented hormonal levels across species. I’m not surprised to hear this, honestly.

So here’s the thing that makes eclectus so different other birds: they have specialized dietary requirements. Also, most other birds have breeding seasons (mostly spring, minor one in the fall). Eclectus don’t have breeding seasons, they can breed at any point during the year.

This means their hormones/hormonal behavior can easily be INDUCED by your husbandry, especially if you aren’t following the proper eclectus diet. I’d estimate about 50% of when you’re experiencing in level and intensity is under your own direct control. Diets a major culprit For many people, and likely a problem here.

Enriched food sources can trigger hormones
First and foremost, get rid of the zupreme pellets and oven bites. Those are garbage pellets for any bird, but particularly bad for eclectus. With their dietary requirements Ekkies shouldn’t have food containing added vitamins and minerals. Aside from the health danger, the enhanced nutrition signals “time of plenty”, which can trigger hormones. If you want to feed pellets, feed something that isn’t enriched or colored, such as TOPs.

Sugar induced hormones
This is a BIG one. Easily overlooked, but one of the BIGGEST hormonal triggers out there. Many pellets like Zupreme have added sugar to make them tasty (look for fructose on the ingredients label). BAD!!

Remove all major sources of sugar from the diet...for now - this is temporary until you get things under control, then you can slowly being reintroducing them. This includes many fruits! A hidden source but often one of the biggest sources. If you give too many fruits, you’ll absolutely trigger hormones, especially for birds in the throes of Puberty. We have a member here who’s bird recently entered puberty, and she noticed after removing all fruit - which improved things slightly (it’s puberty, don’t expect miracles) - adding back just a couple grapes (or maybe it was a strawberry. Something small) set everything back.

Other tips
Here’s the thing: your bird is 6, and from the onset of puberty at around 2, they continue their adolescence until 6-7, so this is actually not terribly unusual that you would experience this.

Your bird needs more sleep. Controlling hormones means a MINIMUM of 12 hours, for worse cases closer to 14 hours.

If you haven any sort of hut/dark place for him to sleep, remove it. You need to deprive any opportunity for dark places.

Avoid petting him, period. Not back strokes, nothing. Petting is viewed by them as sexual.

So why are ekkies so different? Because 1) you MUST to observe their diet, and 2) the name of the game is constant hormone control from here on out, for the rest of the birds life. There’s a reason ekkies are known as romeos You shouldn’t need the implants if you keep the larger husbandry under control. Implants are typically more for females who overproduce eggs.

You’re in the worst of it now, so rest assured it should get better and won’t always be this bad, you’re dealing with adolescence. Implement these changes and you should see improvement over the course of a week or two, tops. It won’t fix it all, he’s having a natural hormonal cycle. During these times you can only control what you can to control, and ride out the rest. THIS TOO SHALL PASS. But also understand with natural cycles, you’ll have ups and downs. My boy was a solid bundle of hormones from November until April last year, despite my best controls. Like I said, many PARROT owners, nevermind ekkies, have experienced god awful hormones over the last 12 months in the northern hemisphere.

Not every male will barber (that’s what your boy is doing, slightly different from plucking), mine does. Can’t always control it - my boy barbers every year between Christmas and March - i can have all hormonal controls in place and he still does it, it’s an ingrained habit so all I can do is make sure he’s happy and healthy. difference here is that my boy is 11 and was doing this most of his life even before I got him at age 6.
 
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Ekkietiel

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Sep 5, 2020
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Charleston, SC
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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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God bless you Chris! Since posting I've been some combination of pacing (hoping someone would respond) and reading some of your other posts. So happy you chimed in. No kidding, cockatiels are a walk in the park compared to this species, but I welcome the challenge.

We have had Charlie his whole life. The vet did a full blood workup and found everything was within normal range. Calcium was slightly low, I was advised (and bought) an avian light to help vitamin D/calcium absorb into the body. Just knowing others are having these issues makes me feel a bit better, not for other's suffering but that it's kind of just a known thing right now.

Ironically, or perhaps you've already guessed it, recently Charlie has been really into grapes. He used to enjoy carrots and peppers but he's been pushing all that aside for grapes. Clearly us indulging him has been very counter-productive. Do you have any specific recommended substitutes for fresh food to give him because we clearly need to get rid of the grapes. Do you recommend any other pellets aside from TOPs? We don't worship at the church of pellets, but for our long days at work something that can go into the tumblers is super helpful for keeping Charlie busy.

I'm confused when you say remove dark places for him to sleep. Do you mean within his day time cage? There is nothing in there that is dark. When he goes to bed however he is placed in his travel carrier (in a darkened room) with a blanket over the carrier to keep him in the dark once the sun comes up and into the windows. With this new cage, he seems to be lacking a "hiding place" so we have hung a seagrass mat around his main perch so he can have an area that isn't 100% directly visible from the outside of the cage (learning how shy he is).

Again, thank you so much!!!!
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
My pleasure. It’s ok, you can say it: misery loves company! And it’s very true! It validates that you aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong.

So I’m not clear what you mean by tumblers, but I sympathize with the need for a dry mix. Parker used to love tops but won’t touch it...with my half bag still left. There are few unenriched pellets on the market with Goldenfeast having discontinued their goldenobles. I’ve taken to relying on Goldenfeast mixes, particularly fond of their hookbill legume blend, bought in 64oz can.

Parker gets a dry mix in the morning, and gets his chop in the evening. I sprinkle all sorts of fresh snacks throughout the day, a bit of celery here and there or a grape for example.

Tell me about your fresh food routine: what do you feed, how do you feed it? How often does he get fresh fruits and veggies? Do they make up actual meals?

How about snacks, aside from oven bites? What snacks do you feed.

Regarding dark places, I’m taking about happy huts or neat boxes. Dark spaces that simulate nesting sights are big triggers for hormones. Sea grass mat does not fall into this category, you’re ok theee.
 
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Ekkietiel

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Sep 5, 2020
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Charleston, SC
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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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The tumblers I am talking about https://www.caitec.com/birds/bird-toys/bird-toys-foraging/food-tumbler/ Placing wood beads too big for Charlie to pull out makes him have to rotate the tumbler completely to try and get food to fall into the slot for him to eat. We started foraging by placing paper and wood beads into his food bowls, but it began taking longer for us to gather and set up the food bowls than for him to clear out the non-food. With all this we are just trying to keep him busy/occupied so he stops barbering (fun but sad word) and has less time to think about screaming.

Our fresh food routine probably needs work and we're aware it's likely not the best. As with wake up times, fresh food routines are different whether we work or not. On days we do not work, after his shower he'll dry off in his cage and after 30 minutes or so he'll come out of his cage and onto his wood play stand. We'll have him step up and put him on our table/counter top with a small bowl of fruits/veggies. Usually a combination of grapes, peppers and carrots (kiwi, mango, raspberries if we have them). Sprinkled with the UnRuffledRx calming and FeatheredUp. He does get some scrambled eggs on Sundays as a treat. When he is done eating, he'll go back to his play stand to scrape his beak and start working on tumblers or to preen. We'll eat breakfast/lunch/dinner together with small bowls of that same mix of fresh food (left overs if there are any, or new if he ate it all). We don't put fresh food IN his cage, our dogs lick the cage bars for the juice non-stop - it became a problem so that's our new system.. When we work, he gets fresh food the same way for dinner when we get home. He does not get morning fresh food as he would not eat it before we needed to leave for the day. None of these feedings really "replace" the food in his cage, it's "in-addition to".

We've tried plain almonds and walnuts but he doesn't like them at all. He enjoys shelling peanuts. He likes nutriberries but we rarely give him those due to being aware how unhealthy they are. After thinking about that question it occurs to me that we don't really give him snacks beyond his normal food routine. I've tried these snacks as rewards for basic training but he has not been too interesting in training. He doesn't like the target for target training or the clicker (they both scare him). I had been trying to take time every day to work on training for mental stimulation but that never really took off.

Again, my wife and I are so very appreciative of your feedback. Charlie is a member of our family and this has been killing us inside. He's been manageable with how we've been living but the last month or so has been absolutely soul-crushing. Clearly we have plenty of room for improvement.
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Yeah, I’d say a change in diet should do wonders for you. I recommend trying to move to a chop feeding system.

Chop is basically just veggies that have been run through a food processor so that the food bits are so small he can’t discriminate.

You can use anything you want: celery, kale, frozen veggies, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, etc.

also throw in some WHOLE grains as well: brown rice, spelt, chia, farrow, buckwheat, wild rice...to name a few. Also can throw in some unenriched pasta - my local place sells some red lentil pasta that is purely red lentil flour. Some rolled oats is a great topper too.

Speaking of lentils, pulses and legumes are really good for them. Look into sprouting! Sprouting mixes can come premade by places like the sprout people or china prairie. If you have the nut/bean bulk bins at a local organic market, you can build your own sprouting mix much cheaper (a year and a half ago I bought $30 worth of these bulk bin stuff and I’m only just now coming to the end of some of those. It’s lasts a long time and it’s cheap!).

One novel approach we’ve taken is subscribing to one of those ugly fruit services. We use Hungry Harvest. Weekly shipments of novel fruits and veggies, cheaper than the store at $15/week. This allows me to build some a bowl of fresh stuff on the fly. You often get routine stuff like apples/oranges/peppers/lettuce/cabbage/cucumbers, but you can also get some unusual stuff in that would increase the diversity of your birds diet: dragonfruit, rambutan, lychee, to name a few. I get salad stuff and Parker gets fresh food that isn’t always frozen (I make chop batches and freeze them, usually lasts 3-4 months before I have to make more).

Diversity in the diet is key for ekkies. Get more pulses into the diet, start Sprouting. You’ll be glad you did. It opens the door for a broad diet that won’t be big hormone triggers.

Oh, and avian teas. Dried herbs and such. All also great additions to the diet.
 
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Ekkietiel

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Sep 5, 2020
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Charleston, SC
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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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Thank you so much for your help. Just subscribed to mistfits market and will be heading to the store tomorrow to try and grab some of these other items. My wife will be excited to fire up the food processor. Maybe a stupid question, but want to confirm - all the grains should be cooked prior to putting in chop, correct? I'm sure the answer is yes but want to confirm this. I've learned more about ekkies in the last 4 hours than in the last 4 years so now everything I think I know is being questioned. THANK YOU!
 

chris-md

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Parker - male Eclectus

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Oh I’m excited. Your boy really is about to hit a whole new journey. Your cockatiel will benefit too;)

The grains don’t have to be cooked. When making chop, water is your enemy (which is why you don’t add any fruit until right before serving). Too much water prior to freezing - if that’s your plan - will make the defrosted chop mushy. If only a smaller batch that you’ll keeep in your fridge, it spoils it quicker.

You can moderate water content by 1) adding materials like grains and pasta that will absorb water, and 2) wringing out the food by hand over a sink before packing it into a ziplock bag. So the uncooked grains (except maybe rice, I always partially cook that) will actually take in some oft eh excess moisture being put off by other ingredients like peppers.

Also, blanch all fresh veggies before freezing (if they didn’t already come frozen). They’ll defrost much better.
 

chris-md

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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Oh, make sure you review everything to make sure it’s parrot safe, if you’ve never fed it before. You’d be surprised what is safe and what isn’t sometimes. Don’t be afraid to throw in those leaves that come with the cauliflower!

Lastly: when I said no sugars, back that out to low CARBS. Starchy items can trigger hormones also. All the grains are good, but avoid rice for now until hormones subside. Double up on riced cauliflower and broccoli to substitute for now.
 

SailBoat

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Truly a great Thread going here! The advise is excellent!

The only thing I would add is in regard to Calcium -- is to keep it cheap and simple. Use TUMS original, white tabs only and use a pill crusher. The resulting powder is best provided by lightly sprinkling it over the chop! This assures that your Ekkie will in fact benefit from the added Calcium. Adding to water does not assure they will get enough to be beneficial.

NOTE: Like an additive, always confirm as part of blood testing if you need to continue, cut back or add slightly more.

Yup, and Chris is clearly one of our Ekkie Snobs!!!
 
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Ekkietiel

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Charleston, SC
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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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Thank you SailBoat. His calcium levels have improved with the help of the ZooMed Avian light that sits over his cage/play stand. The added vitamin D has helped with calcium absorption so we never needed to worry too much about that side of things. Even the vet stated when the first round of labs were drawn that it wasn't a big deal, more something to keep an eye on. We, being who we are, ran out and bought the light that day and have a backup bulb for when the first one burns out (I've read they last 2-3 years each).

I'm honestly in complete SHOCK at how much TOPs charges to ship their products, it's like 50% the cost of the pellets. Any particular reason for this? I have no problem dropping the $80 for a 25lb bag of TOPs once Charlie starts enjoying it (have a 1lb trial bag arriving tomorrow), but the shipping is $45! Today we're going around to pet stores in the area to see if they have any in store cheaper. Even Amazon is hardly a discount - they just roll shipping costs into the purchase price.

I'll be researching the foods you have listed before purchasing/feeding. Thanks Chris. I have been comparing the Zupreem ingredients to Oven-Fresh bites. While neither comes close to the ingredients of TOPs, the oven-fresh bites seem to be healthier than Zupreem (at least until the TOPs order gets here and a full transition is made). Would you put both of these in the same category of "trash-pellets" when they stand on their own (not comparing it to TOPs)? I mean, it's not even fair comparing either of them to TOPs.

I already caught myself shamefully kissing Charlie's belly while waking him up this morning. We have a long way to go...
 

Cycletim

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Grover Red bellied parrot RIP 10/20,
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If he's not going for the chop right away, try incorporating a little of his old food to entice him. After he's loving it start to put less old food in it. That helped us make the switch. Also, our grey ate lots of veggies before so, he preferred the chop a little Chunky at first. Good luck. You won't need feathered up or Avian calm if he's eating up the chop. As it will have all the necessary vitamins for his mood and feathers. We use the recipes from the seasonal diet from birdtricks.com it was totally worth it 100's of bird recipes. Good luck
 

chris-md

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Feb 6, 2010
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Maryland - USA
Parrots
Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
So the oven bites were a last minute edit. - that paragraph was all about the Zupreme. But I remembered at the last minute about the oven bites and three those in without further editing (hence why the get called pellets).

Those aren’t pellets but they are very enriched, added vitamins and minerals. Ekkies shouldn’t be eating enriched foods at all.
As Ekkie owners, get used to reading labels. It serves you well when looking for human snacks you can give to your birds, like red lentil rotini :)

Regarding tops, they are a different breed of pellets, a new approach of cold pressing. Being cold pressed and organic, they’ll be a bit more expensive. However, start with the one pound bag for now, the smallest one. The four pound bag alone is enough to last a couple months.
 
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Ekkietiel

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Sep 5, 2020
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Charleston, SC
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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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Cycletim, thank you for pointing us to birdtricks.com. Their cookbooks look great! Likely going to order them in the near future.

How do you guys feel about Charlie sitting on our shoulders? I've read that it's a power move that can make for a grumpy bird, but he doesn't bite us when we take him off or abuse the position. I'm thinking more from a hormonal/bonding point of view, is it ok? We're trying to figure out appropriate (non-hormone-inducing) ways to bond with him and the shoulder perch is something we do often.

Was able to return a brand new bag 12lb bag of Zupreem this morning and since they didn't have TOPs we spent the store credit on toys for him - he's going to have a great day once we make some chop in a few minutes. Chris, it's good to know a few lbs of TOPs will last a long time. We are used to buying in bulk and storing it for months at a time.
 

chris-md

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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Dominance is a myth. ESPECIALLY with male ekkies, who are the stoners of the Ekkie world, and often bullied by the females. Shoulders are fine if he’s not biting. Height = safety, not dominant.

Cycletim highlights a point I sort of glazed over — I could only say so much without writing a novel - you may have to play with preparation to find optimal acceptance. Your boy may only eat raw cubed carrots, but won’t touched cooked minced carrots. May not touch diced peppers, but will eat julienned peppers.

It’s just a hope that if you mince everything to tiny pieces with the food processor, both your Ekkie and cockatiel will be able to enjoy it.

If he doesn’t accept it readily, let him see you top it off with old food or other things like shaved nuts that he LOVES and will go nuts for. Try throwing in some red palm oil or coconut oil right before serving. Many birds go NUTS for these and is often almost a silver bullet for a lot of us.

I’ll disagree slightly regarding the birdtricks system. It’s not bad, at all. I’m a birdtricks fan. But you don’t actually need to spend crazy amount of money on those books. If you know what your bird can eat and what he can’t, just pick a bunch of them and mix them together! Granted if you’ve never made chop before, I can understand where the idea of “do whatever you want” may be intimidating, and a bit more structure would be comforting.

My guiding principle when making chop is to “feed the rainbow” (different colored foods have different nutrient profiles), each chop should have 10-15 ingredients with a mix of pulses/legumes/grains/leafy greens/vegetables, keep sugar down, and try to make sure no two chops are alike to keep it interesting. During molting season go a bit heavier on proteins like beans and quinoa.
 
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Ekkietiel

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Charlie (Ekkie), Boop & Pongo (Cockatiels)
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Good to know shoulder time is acceptable. We just want to make sure he's aware we aren't purposefully neglecting him by not showing affection the way we have in the past.

We tried chop yesterday. Put spinach, kale, red bell pepper, carrot, cauliflower, mango (tiny bit), brown rice (tiny bit) in a processor and minced it. He was VERY interested watching us make it (he have eaten all those things separately) , but couldn't bring himself to eat much of it. He has always enjoyed cooking with my wife, if he isn't on her shoulder when she's cooking he's very upset. The chop probably has too much kale and not enough flavor. Going to try some coconut oil on top today and see if he likes it more. This morning he did well when we mixed in a small amount of egg. The chop was too fine to pick out as he went for the egg. TOPs should be coming today which has become a point of much excitement in our house. Cannot wait for that to be in his bowl. We're very fortunate you have been so helpful Chris (and Sailboat/Cycletim) especially during a 3-day weekend where we can spend a lot more time on setting new standards of care.

One other thing Charlie has been doing for a while now is climbing under one of his shiny bowls and letting out a squeaking noise while thrusting his head up and down. To me, it looks like he's [trying] to regurgitate onto a reflection of himself. He does not do this with all 4 of his bowls, just one (the water bowl). He doesn't regurgitate much of anything, just makes the motion. I've been chalking this up to hormones as well but wondering if there is something we can do to curb this behavior. I've considered taking a untreated 4x4 piece of wood and attaching it to the cage under the bowl to block the reflection completely. I know how birds get with mirrors and I didn't want him to fall further down that hole if my assumptions are correct.

You know any secrets for getting birds to accept each other's company? The cockatiels and him do NOT get along. I think it's a lot of jealousy and territorial aggression. Charlie always seems interested in them, but it's not reciprocated at all. We end up splitting our attention throughout the day to make sure no one feels neglected right now.
 
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SailBoat

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My snobbism floats around Amazons, but there are a few things that cross-over.

Old saying: Birds of a feather flock together... As a result, it is not uncommon that many just do not get along. And, clearly yours' do not. Spend separate time, but also work in a bit of well supervised family together time with one Bird on one side and one on the other. Time is important, as the longer they are together the greater the likelihood of it going ugly. The goal is to increase family time a couple of minutes at a time. If it starts to get ugly, call it with no drama and back off a bit next time.
 
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chris-md

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Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Lol baby steps! So I’m not sure how accurate your description is but I wouldn’t have thrown the rice in with everything else. And I personally only do one ingredient at a time in the blender. I’d also try adding some more ingredients to make it more interesting. Every bird is different so I can’t speak to your boys preferences, but I feel in my gut a lack of surprise at the rejection.

It may also help to mix in a favorite food item (nuts, seeds, a fruit, whatever he gets excited over), even if it breaks some of the hormonal control rules for the time being. Whatever you have to do to get the beaks down into the bowl. I’ve had some batches rejected when I first started. Some experience.

As my good friend mentioned, sometimes they just don’t get along. You can do some training that involves putting calm on cue, but with the size difference and the nature of the training, it’s probably safer to continue as you are now: separate in all respects. After all, we get the birds for OUR companionship, not to keep each other company.

With the cooking, you aren’t using nonstick pans around him, are you? Especially with him in the room that’s a high chance of killing him within 30 seconds. Also, generally please be really careful. We’ve had some stories around this forum - and on others - of birds of all stripes flying right into a cooking skillet or, even more terrifying, directly into a pot of boiling water.
 
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Ekkietiel

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When you say you only do one ingredient at a time in the blender, what do you mean? Do you store each item separately and mix it together right before giving it to Parker? Even with coconut oil he wasn't feeling our chop, figures lol. He did really well when we mixed a small bit of scrambled egg into the chop so we may just need to do that if it is what he accepts for now.

For sure feel like this time is almost more difficult than before all you have explained to us. We are working hard to correct all this and have to continue to remind each other than Charlie isn't just going to magically acknowledge everything we're doing and change. I know it'll take time, but we're excited with the knowledge the change is coming.
 

chris-md

Well-known member
Feb 6, 2010
4,349
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Maryland - USA
Parrots
Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
I know you’re going to do an excellent job, and we can’t wait to see updates. We hope you stick around to share your progress and journey with both of your birds! I’ve been the only one to respond but we do have a fairly knowledgeable eleclectus ownership base here, it’s just a little quiet due to the holiday.

What I meant was that I run each m item through the food processor independently, then throw it into a mixing bowl. After everything has been fully chopped up, it’s all mixed into a mixing bowl and then transferred to Ziploc bags. A big part of the reason I don’t blend different vegetables together in the mixer is because some vegetables are more watery than others, and if you are freezing, which as we noted above water is the enemy of freezing shop, it gives you an opportunity to really decant off excess water without getting other ingredients wet.
 

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