maybe adopting an Alexandrine

[Boysmom]

I may be adopting an Alexandrine, anyone have an advice or concerns I should be aware of ? It is a 2 year old male. I currently have a female Eclectus who is spoiled rotten.

 

[Ian]

Hi,

As birds they are lovely....gentle, smart, affectionate....so in theory no problem.

It will just be the normal bird vs bird stuff. My two are 'cuddly tame' but they aren't experienced around other birds (even each other) and whenever I have bird babysat in the past my male alex can be very territorial. I think it comes from when he was bullied by an adult female IRN as a chick.

If you can agree a 3 week trial babysitting period you will know if its going to work. Be careful not to fall in love with the Alex (they are like little clowns) and be tempted to overlook a so-so relationship with the Electus.

Best of luck

Ian

 

[Boysmom]

Thanks Ian, I now dont think I will be adopting it though. Once I questioned the person about when it was last vetted, they cut all communication off. Seems odd to me as they said they were desperate to find him a forever home, but who knows what was truly up with them.

 

[Boysmom]

OK so I didnt adopt I RESCUED this poor boy ! more details tomorrow as it has been a long day. Im amazed at how people will treat animals they call pets !

 

[Ash]

Well im glad he is in good hands now : )

Thank you for rescuing him.

My alex's are gentle, yuki is cuddly, alex only likes certain people and they are both good with other birds.
I saw alex preening my conure : )

 

[Ian]

Thats great news...my comments are trivial if rescue was required. I only have experience of a few birds but I think Alexs are very recoverable.

 

[budgie_man]

Kudos on the rescue!

 

[Boysmom]

Ok so I found Buddy on craigslist. When I arrived at the womans house to pick up Buddy I was shocked. There were 4 dogs and 6 cats indoors and poor Buddy lived on the porch, and had been rained on . The shocker was his diet. She told me he was on a seed and pellet diet, but what was in his food bowl and cage bottom was CAT FOOD !!! We could tell that was his usual diet from the amount of it in cage bottom. Then I asked Buddy to step up and he did . She told me she had clipped his wings before I got there. My son asked her if she clipped them with the lawn mower. His feathers are in horrible shape. His poor tail looks like a lace doily and all feathers up to his eyes are chewed to shreds. He had no toys in his cage to chew on. He even has indentions in his bottom beak from chewing on the cage bars. I quickly handed her the $300 and ran with Buddy. He has spoken to us and steped up out of travel cage to go back to his cage at our house. He will not be eating any more cat food ! He does make very loud screeches and I assume that is why he lived on the porch with no weather protection. Any suggestions to curbing the screeches is appreciated. My Ekkie never screamed so Ive never had this problem. As i have 4 sons, I can take the loud and work on it, he wont be banished for it at my house.

 

[khaiqha]

That's really horrible, thanks for taking care of him. I'm surprised you paid the woman, I would of just demanded she release the animal that she was abusing.

The first thing I would do is make sure the Alex is not near the Ekkie. You're gonna have to take it to the vet for a whole host of reasons- make sure there's not any communicable diseases, that it doesn't have any organ failure from a poor diet, if there's a medical condition for the feather chewing, etc.

In addition to health reasons, keeping the Alex away from the Ekkie will make sure it doesn't copy the Alex's noises. Honestly I think it's just going to take time for the Alex to quiet down. Birds that are abused like that have nothing but their own voices to entertain themselves with. It's a reason why a lot of abused shelter birds have amazing vocabularies.

 

[Devann]

OMG thank god you rescued him!!! My alex is a bit of a screecher to but we're doing trying the ignoring technique -we leave the room and dont speak to her when she screeches and reward her for being quiet -and seems to be working. How is buddy getting along??

 

[Ian]

We're going through 'screech control' at the minute.

We've identified the difference between "I want attention" and the normal evening calls. You can't do a lot about the evening calls except try and distract them. I sometimes put them into their large travel cage and put them in an upper room with a great view and open window to screech away - they like that.

I'm working hard to try and replace the attention screech with a couple of words associated with the reason they are screeching....wish me luck, Alexs are a bit dopey...

Sometimes the screeching is at just the wrong time and needs to be stopped. I have a little selection of wooden blocks which act as an emergency measure, works every time on the male but I know I might be reinforcing the problem.....

 

[Boysmom]

Thanks everyone, Buddy is doing great. He has calmed down the screeching a bit, as the Amazons are the top of the pecking order in my flock, and they will let Buddy know when they have had enough of his noise. He is such a little monkey and is as smart as a whip. He picks up new words the minute he hears them. He makes these cute little monkey sounds, so my son is teaching him to make them when he says Buddy is a monkey. I think Buddy prefers my 14 year old son, Max the best. They have alike personalities though. Below is a picture of Buddy with the vet on Friday, he was a good boy during his exam, so he got a peanut. That is Max in the background.

 

[Ash]

Hes beautiful : )
Hehe they are very smart : )

IF you are worried about the noise, I was able to teach alex to meow instead of using his squawk. He talks more than he squawks. He actually hasn't squawked in a very long time, now that I think about it. Maybe a month or two.

 

[BradGC]

We put on the radio, and it seems to occupy him enough to stop his screeching a little.

 

[Boysmom]

We are becoming less and less aware of the screeching as time passes. He is such a little monkey and keeps us laughing. I am simply amazed at how quickly he learns new words. Just 5 more days and he comes out of quarantine and moves into the family room. I cant wait to see how much he learns with constant companionship. I believe Buddy is in disguise as a bird, as I have evidence he is really a wood chuck. He can chew through wood in minutes. I accidentally left a dowel perch on top of his cage as I cleaned the Tiels cage. When I turned around to get their perch, Buddy had chewed it to toothpicks. I just laughed and told him he could always get a job making wood chips. I'm happy to have someone who wants to shread all the wood toys that Ruby never touched.

 

[Midori]

omg i dont understand why people bother to get pets int he first place if they cant do the right thing by them. i have 2 dogs and 6 cats myself, and they spend most of the time inside but cats have a cat door to an outdoor enclosure. i am about to get a baby alex on saturday but i will be spending alot of time with ALL my pets at different times, and teaching them to try to get along. my alex will be inside and also out of its cage as much as possible. well done boysmom for doing what you did - and i am sure your new baby is going to get spoilt rotten and treated how he should be