Hello there

[Ahicks]

I was told upon registering to create a thread to introduce myself and my avian companion, so without further ado..

My name is Aidan Hicks, and I am part of a family whom owns a male electus parrot - his name is Dell. He came with the name, as he had a brother called Rodney who had been purchased prior to us finding Dell (Kudos to you if you get the reference).

We've had him for around ten years and haven't had any major problems, Dell's always very excited to meet new people (A bit too excited, screeches a lot before flying onto their shoulder for the whole time they stay).

The reason I decided to join a parrot forum is because while Dell's always been friendly and not caused too many problems, he's unusually touchy - he won't let anyone put their hands anywhere near him. In response to this, he'll usually put his beak around your fingers, almost warning you if you come closer he'll chomp.

I've always wanted to do a bit more with Dell rather than just let him sit on my shoulder now and then, so I joined this forum to get some tips and tricks on how to bond with Dell a bit more.

Sorry if this isn't a very good intro, I don't write these sorts of things very often. Also attached a hasty pic of me and Dell.

 

[Captsteve]

Welcome, Aiden and Dell!

I don't know much about Eccies but there are tons of peeps that do. Browse the Eccie pages, I'm sure someone has asked the same thing you have.

 

[Flboy]

Welcome! Sorry, no advice, but welcome! Very beautiful bird, that Dell is!

 

[Terry57]

Hello and welcome! Dell is a gorgeous Ekkie.
Does he step up for you? My Ekko doesn't like to be touched as in petted,but loves to be held.
Glad you joined us.

 

[Taw5106]

Welcome and great advice to follow, joining a forum with experienced parronts. They have great advice and insight so don't hesitate to ask questions. I have a female Ekkie and we are working on resolving a breathing problem with her. I've gotten a ton of great ideas, recipes, advice and feedback from this group. There is a ton of info here. Welcome aboard!

 

[Ahicks]

Thanks for the welcome all. I'll be having a look through the eclectus subforum soon enough, today's just been a bit busy. Anyway..

@Terry57
Dell certainly does not like being touched, in any way. If you do manage to sneak a quick stroke on his wing in or something along those lines, he'll ruffle his feathers and quickly face towards where he was touched. He becomes a lot more alert after this and if he sees you trying to stroke him, he'll threaten to bite you.
And as for holding him, the couple times we've held him in the past have only been because we had to, and it was certainly a nightmare to get ahold of him. We also had to wear gloves as he desperately tried to bite us as well as just generally thrashing around desperately to escape.
Of course we weren't just grabbing him for the sake of it, one time he got caught up in some string, and the other time we had to get him into a catbox to take him to the vet.

I feel it's odd since a lot of the time, he'll fly to you without prompting and just relax on your shoulder/arm. He's even comfortably sat upon my niece's arm when she offers it to him (She's 6).
If you hold your arm in front of him, most of the time he'll climb up, but he has to want it - if he doesn't feel like standing on your arm/shoulder the chances of you getting him on are very low.
He's also developed a nasty habit of regurgitating on everyone and everything recently, I know it's common for an eclectus to regurgitate but it's getting out of hand.

Anyway, thanks again for the welcome. Happy to be here.

 

[Captsteve]

Regurgitating is his way of saying I love you and will be a good provider for you when you are sitting on my eggs!!!

It is quite the bird honor!!

 

[Ahicks]

@Captsteve
Yeah I know about what he means by it, but we sorta went through this shortly after we got him, but we soon taught him we weren't interested. It's only recently he's started doing it again only much more frequently and not just on us. He'll regurgitate on pretty much anything at the moment, it's becoming a bit of a problem.