Female vocalizations... different from males or by personality?

cytherian

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Dec 29, 2020
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Eclectus
I recently moved in with a friend who has 3 Eclectus birds. Two are a matched pair of adult male (7 yrs) & female (8 yrs), while the third is a baby male (just a little over 2 years) that was hatched from them. Each of them have very different personalities.

The adult male is very well behaved, friendly, not afraid of new people. He is totally bond paired to the adult female. His total fixation is on her. He wants to feed her and copulate with her any chance he gets. He doesn't speak much at all. On rare occasion he'll say "hello," but the breadth of his vocabulary is just tweets & squawks. Overall, he's not noisy. He only gets obscenely loud when the female bathes in her water bowl. I guess it's a protective mechanism, as a bathing bird is vulnerable and a loud squawk might scare predators away.

The baby is a delight. He has a growing vocabulary that began to flourish after his 1st year. He has about 6 phrases memorized and a variety of words. What's funny is how he'll play with what he has learned. He's generally quiet, rarely squawks loudly.

Now, the female. :red: *SIGH* :( Before she reached puberty, she was pretty quiet. She'd squawk occasionally, but not obscenely loud. Recently, that has changed. Ever since she had her first (and only) baby, her one preferred vocalization: an ear piercing loud squawk, enough to wake the dead. Sometimes she's silent. Then when there's a human nearby (e.g. kitchen) she starts her squawking. Sometimes its one per minute or few minutes, other times it's 2~3 per minute. Nothing wrong with her. If her water is dirty, it gets changed, she still squawks. The only thing that might divert her is to feed her, but even after she's done and still has ample fresh food, she squawks. There are times where she does it when nobody is around either. I'm in the next room and then the squawking starts. Is it to get attention? I come into the kitchen, I check on the bird cages, take care of some kitchen chores--SQUAWK!! I have also been at her cage, putting food into her dish standing right in front of her. SQUAWK!! in my ear.

What is so vexing is that we know she has a vocabulary. When she was isolated in my roommate's room (while healing from surgery to dislodge an egg obstruction), she would speak softly "hello" and "hi." Also, she would whistle. And if you whistled back out of sight, she'd go back and forth with you. Really nice! Wonderful interaction. But with her cage nestled between the other two, she NEVER whistles. All we get is that horrible, deafening SQUAWK!

So I'm guessing that despite having an implant to deal with the hormones, the breeding imperative is still very strong with her and she's simply frustrated. Her owner lets her out periodically. Not every day. But when out, she gets to "play on the couch" with a variety of toys, plus chew on paper & egg carton. She LOVES to shred things. I think the nesting imperative...
 

wrench13

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Please double check me on this, but I believe Ekki's are unusual in that they do not have a breeding "season" the same as New World and most Old World parrots do. Depending on the triggers, both natural day/night cycles and others, to artificial ones like availability of nesting materials, dark enclosed spaces, etc, these parrots have a season that lasts from several weeks to couple of months. Ekkie's however have a L-O-N-G season, and with her male in close proximity, it's no wonder shes honking all the time.

Read this with the roommate, explains exactly what I think is going on. She is, in a word, horny.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Eclectus_roratus/

Ekkie folks, help me out here!
 
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chris-md

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What’s their diet like? Females can be vexingly hormonal. Whether this is or not, it’s hard to say.

What is their diet like?

What KIND of interaction does she get?

How do you all react when she squawks?

When was the last time she was given rewards for more appropriate vocalizations?
 
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cytherian

cytherian

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Dec 29, 2020
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Please double check me on this, but I believe Ekki's are unusual in that they do not have a breeding "season" the same as New World and most Old World parrots do. Depending on the triggers, both natural day/night cycles and others, to artificial ones like availability of nesting materials, dark enclosed spaces, etc, these parrots have a season that lasts from several weeks to couple of months. Ekkie's however have a L-O-N-G season, and with her male in close proximity, it's no wonder shes honking all the time.

Read this with the roommate, explains exactly what I think is going on. She is, in a word, horny.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Eclectus_roratus/

Ekkie folks, help me out here!
YES! She is horny. And the chip she has implanted is designed to stop egg production. I do not think it does anything to her hormones, so the imperative to egg lay is still there. Perhaps she's even frustrated by the fact that no eggs are coming through?

What’s their diet like? Females can be vexingly hormonal. Whether this is or not, it’s hard to say.

What is their diet like?

What KIND of interaction does she get?

How do you all react when she squawks?

When was the last time she was given rewards for more appropriate vocalizations?
Diet is a few things. Dry: "Kibble" specially made for Ekkies that includes seeds & a formulated kind of pellet. And two fresh meals a day--fruits in the morning, veggies in the evening. Fruits may be kiwi, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, banana, etc. Veggies may be corn, cucumber, snap peas, red peppers.

The interaction she gets is minimal. Some days, she's not even let out of her cage. Unfortunately, due to the situation of being flanked by her "mate" and her baby (now 2 yrs), sometimes when out she'll fly over to the young male's cage and taunt him. Yesterday she was so fixated on him, when her owner tried to get her off the cage the bird bit her so hard she bled. She had to use a rope perch to get her off, and that wasn't easy either.

Interaction is normally an hour or so on the living room couch (covered fabric to protect it), with various bird toys. The male is usually taken out with her as well, and he'll be totally fixated on her. They will play a bit, mate, but then sometimes the female incites a fight because he won't leave her alone. And then he gets really mad, which in turn ramps up the tension. It would usually happen just on occasion, but lately it's happening a bit more. She has tried having them all out together. The two older birds on one side of the couch, and the owner with the baby, perched on her hand or cuddled on her chest. But as of late, the two adults will come over to "check on" the baby and get get a bit antagonistic. So, the owner will try to avoid this by having either adults out or baby out, but rarely together.

When the adult female Ekkie squawks very loudly, we ignore her for the most part. If it's in short succession, we check to make sure everything is OK. That rarely happens. Generally, if we leave the kitchen and go to our respective rooms, the female bird will eventually stop her squawks. But anytime someone is in the kitchen nearby, she starts up again. She has no "friendly" vocalizations to reward these days. Again, the only time she was pleasant was when separated from the rest, and she'd whistle or say "hello." I have tried to reward her for silence. If she hasn't been making those horrible squawks for a while, I'll come by and give her a treat. But no treats when she's making them.

Basically, I'm starting to feel like the owner took on more than she can really handle. While she is diligent about keeping their cages clean, she just doesn't spend enough time with them. The adult male doesn't make a fuss about it. The baby gets interactions while in the cage simply because he's so talkative and we respond back to him. He has great fun with it. He gets taken out daily, without fail. He's the "special baby" for the owner, who very often cuddles with him on the living room couch.

It may also be that the cage setup is simply not healthy. Maybe having the male bird--her mate--right next door in a cage and not in reach means she can't fulfill her biological imperative. So, she's not happy about it.
 
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