Looks like I'm adopting an Eclectus............

[mrob]

congrats on your new eccie. you will love him! They really are fantastic birds - im biased but hey!
just a quick note RE: Diet. The eccies digestive tract is longer than other birds so they are very efficient at extracting vitamin content from their food. In that regard, you dont want to be feeding them anything too high in nutrients(cept for what you mentoined - fresh frt and veges), and a lot of commercial pellet mixtures fit into this category. You can get a specific eclectus pellet which is lower in nutirent - nutrient overload leads to a disorder called toetapping in eclectus which is a repetitive involuntary tic, feather plucking and other problems.
Its up to you about the seed - mine doesnt get any within is normal diet but he gets sunflower for training - and boy will he do anything for them in training. Rather than seeds i give sprouts, but he dont like em much - my boy would eat junk all day long if he could! And nuts - particularly almonds, walnuts or brazil (try and avoid the high fat ones like macadamia and cashew or only for treats), are fantastic. They are canopy dwellers that very rarely make contact with the ground so they dont get a lot of seed naturally, but they LOVE nuts.
Its a bit of a myth that they are not easy care once you get the hang of the diet. If you sprout seed regurlarly and make a a big soft food mix (chickpeaS, brown rice, barley etc all cooked) and freeze it into little 2 day baggies it makes it an absolute breeze. And fresh veges are always best but frozen peas and corn are absolutely indespensible quick fixes - just defrost (not cook) them in a bit of warm water.
My boys fav food is mashed aNYTHING, i make him a sweet potato mash and mix in a little seed and peas and hes in heaven. They are BIG eaters. They are such sweet, affectionate and funny birds - and they seem to be particularly good at talking in context and they are very sensitive to your moods. If they get scared they do the eclectus freeze - but that will wear off after a while once he relaxes!
Congrats again!! and good luck with your cardiac treatment!!!

 

[Rio Mom]

How sad that Mac lost his best friend, but awesome that he now has a new friend! I'm sure Mac is going to be very happy with you!

 

[Cowtown]

Mike That is totally awesome.... Congrats... he is so pretty... love the coloring..
Of course I am prejudice towards Eckies.... Abby is a sweetheart and trying to talk..
I am so happy that you can give Mac a home that he needs and deserves...

Post more pics when you get him home

 

[mtdoramike]

As you can tell, the previous owner was a history buff hence the name Mac short for MacArthur as in General MacArthur.

 

[ronnie_jsph]

hey . guys. i m in india. i m a student btw. In india. first of all there is a big ban on caging birds. I have an alex which i got for $ 19 about 20 months back.It was a small baby. In India all the exotic birds like amazon parrots, african grey, macaw , cockatoo etc cost in the range of $ 500 and upwards. I really wanted to get an eclectus but one stupid birdshop owner priced it at $ 1400 .

 

[mtdoramike]

That seems quite high for an Eclectus, but then again, your in India. So they may be a tad high there.

 

[Spiritbird]

Are you saying all companion birds fly free?

 

[Colorguarder08]

He has a pretty good vocabulary, but that is something that I have never been concerned with one way or the other. If a bird talks or doesn't talk is no concern to me. I like the bird for the bird not because they are trick ponies.

Maybe it's just me but I prefer birds that don't talk. Thats why I was originally going to get a pionus as they are typically quite birds but some how the little pied cockatiel in cage at Petco stole my heart the moment I saw her. She wasn't even doing anything but sleeping, thats all she did the first few days I brought her home. I knew Petco had just undergone a HUGE renovation and she wasn't able to sleep much while there so I figured she was catching up on all her missed sleep. And I was right after the second or third day her true colors started to show. She's a sweetheart and before the move I was I able take her out of the cage daily and she would walk up my legs (while I was laying on my bed doing homework) and climb up to my head and sit there for a long time now I can't even get her out of the cage without it being a big pain in the rear but sooner or later it will click again that coming out of the cage is good. And once again she will be a happy little birdie

 

[upcgirl]

Awww Mac is adorable and I am glad He went to a good home Hopefully Tiki doesn't get too upset.

 

[mtdoramike]

Awww Mac is adorable and I am glad He went to a good home Hopefully Tiki doesn't get too upset.

Actually, I think Tiki wanted to nibble on his beak. I think she thought it was candy corn hahahahahahaha, I gave her a few pieces of it awhile back. I think it was Halloween lefts overs or something. She loved it.

 

[merlinsmom13]

You will have to treat Tiki like any "first born" & give her attention first. We want her to love her new brother.

 

[alleycat39402]

Hello! I am new here! I just adopted a 5 year old male Eclectus a week ago! This is my first larger bird! There is so much to learn!

 

[suncon97]

Hello! I am new here! I just adopted a 5 year old male Eclectus a week ago! This is my first larger bird! There is so much to learn!

Welcome and congrats We'd love to see a thread about him with pics.

 

[alleycat39402]

Thank you for the welcome! I am trying to figure out how to post my picture of him! I will get it up as soon as possible!

 

[mtdoramike]

Thank you for the welcome! I am trying to figure out how to post my picture of him! I will get it up as soon as possible!

Oh yes, pictures Please. Tell us about your Eclectus, like how you came about him, were you actually looking for or wanting an Eclectus?


Thanks,
Mike

 

[alleycat39402]

Thank you for the welcome! I am trying to figure out how to post my picture of him! I will get it up as soon as possible!

Oh yes, pictures Please. Tell us about your Eclectus, like how you came about him, were you actually looking for or wanting an Eclectus?


Thanks,
Mike

Me and my family had gone out for frozen yogurt and there is a pet store right next door. My 8 year old daughter begged to go inside. Me and my husband were bent over looking at the conures and quakers they had in a cubicle. We turned around and saw this magnificent green bird with a candy corn nose. I had never seen anything like him!!!! I thought he was a stuffed animal!! He was stealth, so still! The employee walked over and asked if we needed assistance. I asked her what was his beautiful bird. She told me that a lady came in and surrendered this Eclectus. She could not take care of him and that he had been neglected. I said I never held a bird that big before! She said he doesn't go to anyone but she will try. He ran from her. She ended up taking him out and he jumped to my shoulder and layed his head down. The lady was so shocked to see him act this way. He looked like he was begging me to go home. It was love at first sight! 700 dollars later, I am the proud mommy of my male Eclectus!! I am trying to post a pic. Go to my profile and you can see him as my avatar! His pic won't show up in this thread!! He is so beautiful!!!!

 

[mtdoramike]

He is gorgeous Alleycat. I try to stay away from and out of pet shops for that very reason. If I don't I would have my own pet shop in my home. How is he getting along with your other birds?

 

[alleycat39402]

Thank you so much!! My sun conure, Maggie, is scared of him. He lets out a pretty large sqwuak! My husband is taking up extra time with her to ease her. My green cheek, Cheeko, would be best friends with a cat if he could! lol He is so curious! Everytime the Eclectus says "hello", Cheeko has to one up him! Cheeko likes to repeat his name over and over! People that don't have birds as pets really are missing out! They are such funny little things!

 

[Molcan2]

Soooo.... you have 1 Senegal Parrot, 1 Eclectus (one the way), if you still wanted your amazon it sounds like Kitten might be giving away her 9 year old one that you had looked at. :20: Not sure how many your wife will allow you to add to your flock.

 

[mtdoramike]

Soooo.... you have 1 Senegal Parrot, 1 Eclectus (one the way), if you still wanted your amazon it sounds like Kitten might be giving away her 9 year old one that you had looked at. :20: Not sure how many your wife will allow you to add to your flock.

I thought long and hard about Kiwi, Kittens Blue Front. But there were a few issues that I had. One is the timing, it wasn't a really good time for me with having to undergo the cardiac treatments. I still have a little over 3 weeks to go and hopefully it will curb the angina pain for a while.

I'm not physically able to make the trip up there right now since the treatments really takes it out of me for most of the day. The problem also was that once she brought him down, the deal was done since she can't keep him where she is staying now. He was raised mainly around women so I don't know how he would feel about men and me. My wife wanted to hold off on getting another bird to see how these treatments were going to go and How I felt afterward. Then Mac came along and she was kind of wanting me to take him in, I guess to help the lady out and since I was wanting another bird.

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to have given Kiwi a home as well, but I know I won't be able to handle three birds right now and I think it would be a tad selfish of me to expect my wife to do it. She enjoys Tiki and I think she's looking forward to Mac's arrival. But like she has pointed out to me, "I don't want a house full of birds", I think it's mainly because if something happened to me then they would become totally her responsibility.

She isn't a big bird person like I am, but she has told me that if something happened to me, Tiki is our family member and will stay here and I guess she will come to feel the same way about Mac or time will tell on that one.