Adopting a neglected male Eclectus

[illnomyourheart]

My husband and are about to move and we will be taking his sisters male Eclectus with us. he has been neglected for years... as far as I know maybe his whole life. I have known my husband and hence of the bird for about 5 years and have never really seen his sister pay any mind to him except to yell at him for sqwaking. I love him. He's such a beautiful bird and whenever I am around him I talk to him and make sure he has food and fresh water. She doesnt feed him any fruits or veggies, just a bag of parrot food from the store or junk food when he runs out. Of course that will change when he is offically our bird but for now I sneak him good food when I can. He doesnt really care for it from what I can tell. Oh she says he's probably about 15 years old. I've been back and forth with adopting him. I really want to take him with us and give him a loving home but a year or so ago when my husband had him out of his cage (a very rare instance for this poor bird) he was sitting on the couch next to me and I was talking to him and he bit my hand. I dont remember if I made any movements or anything but he did draw blood and scared me pretty badly. I am so afraid of him now. It doesn't stop me from loving him or talking to him or feeding him and whatnot but I dont put my hands in his cage and when I do try to pet him I get very nervous and jumpy. I want to be able to handle him and let him out of the cage during the day when I am home. I dont know how to get him used to me. If he wasnt as jumpy as I am as well it wouldnt be so bad. I need help! Can he really seriously injure me? Do you think he would if he already knows I care for him? I wish he were much younger so he wasnt so set in his ways and so used to being cagebound. When I was younger I had adopted a parakeet (from a major petstore unfortunately) and I absolutely loved that bird and let him out all the time... unfortunately him was always biting at me and I became scared of him so I stopped letting him out or when I did I had to put on gloves (just regular cold weather gloves since he was so little)... This Eclectus' beak is much larger which I think adds to my fears... but I have noticed he seems a little fearful as well. Any help, suggestions, recommendations are appreciated. I fell in love with this bird the first time I saw him. I love animals and absolutely hate seeing them mistreated. I have very little if any experience with birds and I really want to bond with and be able to keep this beautiful Eclectus. My husband and I will be moving in 2 weeks and I know you have to take things slow with parrots... especially when training... but is there any hope to be able to handle him in such short time? I am willing to do anything and everything. I stay at home with our daughter during the day so I have to time to spend with him all day for the next 2 weeks if needed! TIA

 

[Mike17]

I hope you adopt this eccy, 'heart. It will be a slow process getting this guy to trust you. He's not been "tamed" as such, it appears, and maltreated, to boot. You'll probably get a few bites. Our hand-raised guy bites occasionally, especially my wife. With love and patience, he'll come around, slowly. It's unlikely he'll damage you badly. Our guy's worst moments are when he bites an ear, so if he doesn't go to your shoulder this is unlikely. Good luck!

 

[Betrisher]

Welcome to the forum!

I really envy you coming by an Eclectus - but It's awful being afraid of a biting bird, isn't it? It's so hard to know what to do for the best! If you're willing to put in a lot of time and effort, this poor fellow could be turned around and still make a lovely pet. That's all up to you, though.

Taming and retraining a bird takes a long time and lots of patience. I'm in the middle of doing it with a bird I inherited and I knew *nothing* when I started. Forum members have been so helpful and have enabled me to get my bird to a place I never dreamed he'd reach! If you'd like to read of my experiences with my Dad's flesh-eating old Galah, do a forum search on 'Dominic'. It's been six months now and we've made lots of progress but Dom still bites me enough to draw blood when I let my guard down. Thing is, I expect it and accept that it's going to happen. So long as the bites are not on my face, I don't think I can come to much harm (I have a current tetanus shot).

Having said that, your Eclectus (does he have a name?) has a bigger bill than a Galah and so his bites will hurt Big Time. Best to avoid being bitten, eh?

Start slowly by just spending time near the bird's cage reading aloud or watching TV. The longer you can spend just being with him, the quicker he'll become used to you. Eventually, you can offer him treats through the cage wire or even through the door, depending on how the bird receives your advances. The best tip I've ever been given is to always offer your hand balled into a fist with the skin stretched tight. If you offer the back of your hand, there's nothing the bird can get hold of to chomp on. But it's 'way too early for you to try that yet. Just start by gaining the bird's confidence and helping him to quiet down in his new environment. Parrots take a long time to do that and change can cause them a lot of stress and grief, so treat him very gently with no sudden movements or loud noises.

When you've got questions, ask here! We've got lots of Eclectus owners who'd love to help you! Best of luck to you and please do let us know how you get on!

 

[Kalidasa]

That bird will probably fall madly in love with you, and his circumstances will improve tremendously out if that neglectful home and crappy diet. Keep in mind, his wing muscles are probably very atrophied so there's no need to add to his stress by clipping at this point. Good luck I hope it all goes well for you.

 

[Boysmom]

It will take time to hand tame this poor guy. You will have to be patient. That said, yes you will get bitten from time to time. Ruby is a perfect loving angel MOST of the time, but she has bitten me really good twice. Both times it was my fault though. You can't display fear or uneasiness, because birds can sense this and it only worsens the problem. You also can't react when bitten, when Ruby has bitten me I just calmly tell her that it isn't nice to bite mommy, then I put her in her cage for a time out.

Start slowly and just sit by his cage and talk to him. You can open his cage and see if he is interested in coming out on his own, do this when you won't be leaving the house because it may be hard to get him back in IF he comes out. Just take it very slowly and give him plenty of time to bond and trust you. Make sure to watch your daughter around him also, as she could easily be bitten from sticking tiny fingers into the cage.

Has he been around dogs before ? If not you will want to keep him in a room away from the dogs at first until he is comfortable in his new enviroment. Barking dogs can scare timid birds.

 

[melbourned]

We adopted an 18 yr old neglected eclectus about two years ago. He's a neurotic feather picker and was a vicious biter. We gave him a lot of attention & blood and now is is the most lovable bird we could ever find. He still picks his feathers but appears to be very happy. Time and patience and some bandaids will pay off.

 

[Betrisher]

So this afternoon, I thought it might be nice to put the Beaks away early and let Dominic have a turn on their playgym all by himself (he's scared of them). Everything was going swimmingly and Dommie was literally up to his neck in the rummaging basket when something frightened him and he flapped up and out. He wound up hanging by a toenail from the bottom of the rummaging basket. Thinking to help the poor creature out, I offered him my arm to step onto. He did. Before I could even compute what he was doing, he'd latched onto a beakful of my flesh and *ground* his bill around it!

I've now got a crater about the size of half a pea in my right forearm. It matches rather nicely with the torn fingernail (Monday), pinched skin on back of hand (Wednesday) and double-beak excoriation near my wrist (yesterday). It may not sound like much, but I actively *like* my own flesh and prefer it to stay where the Good Lord put it. At the moment, I look like a career self-harmer!

I tell this little anecdote just to illustrated that things happen and birds will bite out of fear from time to time. Yeah, it hurts - but the pain fades after a while. Tomorrow, Dommie will probably snuggle with me again as if it never happened. It's honestly worth it to see his smug little face bobbing across at me from his perch and hear his Galah call echoing through the house in the late afternoons!

 

[Birdman666]

First - this bird is cage bound. So, that tends to increase biting. They don't get out of the cage much, so they tend to get nervous and not know what to do. Inside the cage, you can't get to them... outside the cage suddenly you can, so they become hypervigilent at first until they get accustomed to it.

Cage bound birds are sensory deprived. It tends to be a debilitating psychological state. Put this bird out on a playstand in the living room and get him used to it. If he bites, stick train him for now.

Second - he was probably startled, if not by you then by something. They don't bite for no reason what so ever.

Third - Eckies are not the most touchie-feelie of birds. Males tend to be better than some of the females, especially during breeding season. (Female eckies are hard wired to be bossy during breeding season, whereas the males are hard wired to obey and to cater to them...) But they are not usually the kind of rolly polly lap birds, that - for example - my greenwing macaw would be. They are usually just fine sitting on the back of your chair and talking to you.

Fourth - they have to be trained not to bite, and it's fairly easy to do. Granted a bite or two hurts, but they generally get over it quicky...

 

[MikeyTN]

I would start with the stick training like it was mentioned above! It will take time and patience of course. Start with the stick first and use a second stick to get him to step up. Do it back and fourth to practice the exercise. Then once he's doing pretty good on it, offer your hand while he's on the stick. Always use single word command, just say "up". Then practice from hand to hand. He will catch on eventually! And please do look up on ekkie diet as they're diet specific birds cause it sounds like they fed him horrible diet for a very long time so I hope he doesn't have any health issues. View this site here---> Eclectus Parrots

 

[MikeyTN]

Just want to add that ekkies does like to cuddle, petted, etc. Both of mine does! Plus the ones I've played with does as well. It just depends on how you train them and how close you are to them.

 

[Birdman666]

just want to add that ekkies does like to cuddle, petted, etc. Both of mine does! Plus the ones i've played with does as well. It just depends on how you train them and how close you are to them.

exactly! They don't come that way...

 

[MikeyTN]

When I got my pair, Gracie was actually the friendlier one out of the two. JoJo needed some major training. But I got him to learn to step up in less then a week. Got him fully trained in about a month. But full trust didn't come until later at around a year. We think he was abused at one point cause he's super skittish. But you couldn't tell he was like that at one point now cause he's such a sweet heart.

 

[Birdman666]

Agreed. They generally will turn around fairly quickly if you move at the bird's pace, follow training protocols, and let them settle in.

Most "problem bird's" only real problem is HUMAN!

I've worked with literally hundreds of abused birds over the years. I can count on one hand the number that were so far gone they did not respond to love and care...

Forget the nonsense about "issue birds." That's what training protocols are for!

 

[drlisaort]

Oliver loves to snuggle and hang around on me whenever he gets a chance. With that said, I understand your beak fear as I had one too but in my case I had no reason (my fear was psychological!) where you certainly do. I did get past it and can't tell you what a delight it is to kiss and touch Oliver's beak...