anthropomorphic......

This may sound a little harsh, but I honestly do have the birds best interest at heart here...

Birds are just that... birds. They have feelings and are intelligent and social and we can form relationships with them (very close ones). But we need to remember (and above all respect) what they are by nature. I get so many birds here that have behavoiral problems... and they most often have a few things in common... number one is that the owner has failed to respect their "bird" behavoirs.... The second most common problem is a bird that was forced to do one thing or another.... bird training is like a combonation of reverse psychology and covert manipulation.... you cannot MAKE them do something.... most behavoirs are reenforced by the owner (both good and bad).... If you had a sane bird to begin with and suddenly they start to pluck then the owner needs to take a good hard look at life from the birds perspective (and not think in human terms)...

One more thing... birds will become nervous and distrusting when owned by a nervous person, they become aggressive when treated aggressively, and so on....

As a rule the birds most likely to be rehome are

Male umbrellas and mollucans
Male amazons
Female eclectus

For the birds sake remember it's a bird and repect his/her natural behavoir!

Sorry... just another panicked call from an owner in the middle of the night and I am a little cranky from trying to politely explain (yet again) what to do.

I also get calls for help on a daily basis so i do understand where your coming from. It gives me satisfaction & pleasure to be able to guide a new parrot owner in the right direction.

Yes it annoys me no end that sometimes i seem to be talking to the wall as quite often it doesn't matter how much information i care to give people they seem to know it all & just won't take any notice & continue to whinge & whine because their bird bites, screams or plucks.

There is so much information out there for FREE. Barbara H from Good Bird Inc & Sally from Companion Parrots to name just a couple. But do people actually check these sites out. No they just like to blame the bird, or the Petshop or better still the Breeder. How often have members posted the links to Sally's & Barbara's sites, how many read them. Good Question.

One good thing i guess is we have come a hell of a long way in the last 20 years & hopefully in the future there won't be so many parrots in rescues or rehomed because humans might just take the time to educate themselves on the needs & wants of their feathered friends.

My favorite saying is if you want something cute & cuddly & will love you no matter what get a dog or cat.

This is a good thing for all of us to remember. We all have our bad days and forget that we're dealing a non-domesticated animal who will never behave as a human does. And that "killing with kindness" is still killing. A parrot needs to be taught and trained to be a good family member. Even if your bird was bred in captivity - which I hope everyone's has been - those instincts are hard wired into those bird brains and no one is going to make them go away.

WOW, I didn't realize Eclectuses would be in that catagory. There isn't an eclectus in any of the rescues anywhere close to me. Quite a few Amazons and yep cockatoo's I think top the list.

I kind of figured with Cockatoo's it was because of the screaming for the sake of screaming.

I think cockatoos are probably no 1 on the list because they are like having a toddler in the house again and some of us over 50 cant handle that again and that is why . I had a lady call me wanting me to take a male amazon that all he wants to do is bite and stay in his cage and watch the world pass him by . I felt so sorry for this bird but I am not equipped to handle that by any means and I told her so . Yes I pretty much thought that amazons would be on there as well . sad really how many of these beautiful birds end up physcologically damaged because of a human behavior .

I was, too, surprised ecletus are on that list. The birds at our shelter are always 'toos and 'zons (but mostly toos)
edit: Theres an umbrella too that has been there for months... makes me so sad Also a blue front came in with plucked and dirty feathers and an overgrown beak. Luckily he quickly got adopted out by an experienced owner.

NO chrildren is no1 on the list do to adults bad behavior. Respect, empaty, love and knowledge is the key regarding chrildren and perrots

In Australia it's mainly the Cockatoo family handed it to rescues. Never Eclectus. Yes Eclectus are vocal at times but unless its reinforced by its owner they usually are quite birds. I have 9 eclectus, 2 pair of B/F Amazons & RTB & SC Too's & not one of those birds would be labled as a noisy bird. However I also have a 6 pair of sun conures & boy when they go off you know all about it. But all in all most of the noise is related to seasonal breeding. They do get a bit chatty then.

When clients come to me to buy a baby parrot. They have such great exspectations of what the bird should be like. We have all heard it before.

1. It must talk.
2. No biting or screaming.
3. Must be very friendly because they have a two year child & they thought it would be fun for them to grow up together.

When they don't understand the bird or what it wants & like the OP has said the bad behaviours are reinforced by the carer. Bad owner, good bird.

If you had a sane bird to begin with and suddenly they start to pluck then the owner needs to take a good hard look at life from the birds perspective (and not think in human terms)...

Click to expand...

How would one fix this problem. Say a 12 year old male Eclectus, lived with the same carer since weaned may have been imprinted as young, now lives in a large flight & has a female eclectus as company. Is fed a well balanced diet, is in good health & yet out of the blue has plucked feathers round neck & chest. He has a great relationship with his carer, talks & is a all round happy fellow. Why would he just start plucking. It seems to becoming a big problem here with Eclectus plucking for no good reason. I do know that Eclectus males can pluck if not compatable with their partner. It seems to be a mystery especially with aviaries of other pairs close by.

I recently talked with an exclusive eclectus breeder, and she confided that in every pair she has one bird is at least mildly plucked (I did discuss Eclectus plucking in another post)... some aviculture is missing something.

As far eclectus rehomes... it's only females, and only near places where large quantities of them are sold.

If you don't have too many in your area, you will not have nearly as many needing homes... obviously there aren't as many of them as the toos (there are more available toos and amazons than eclectus as a rule) I do think that as eclectus become more plentiful in aviculture we will see a larger and larger number of female eclectus sitting in rescues... (anyone on here have a female Eclectus over the age of 10 that is puppy dog tame?) There may be a few at best, but not many. Female ekkies are super prone to cage aggressive and food aggressive behavoir...

Oh yes i can understand that the hens have got a bad name for aggression & I think the female eclectus are bought for color & nothing more. They however are aggressive in nature as the wild instinct kicks in when they mature. They have to vigorously protect their nest & young. Most of my hens have been lovely pets until they get to breeding age. The only time they get extremly aggressive is when they have laid with the exception of 1 hen she is still lovely except we respect one another & i will at all costs avoid a bite. Yesterday i was in cleaning their aviary & she was trying to step up on me but because she had eggs in her nest i was careful. The thing is we can never domesticate a parrot. As you said we can live with them but also need to respect them.

Oh dear i must have missed your post on eclectus plucking i had best find it.

I think I did one on aggresion somewhere too... just says pretty much what you just said... pointing out breeding behavoir in the wild and how it translates into captivity.

Theres always lots and lots of 'toos on kijiji.

Pedro, what is RTB please from your post above in this thread?
Thank you.

kerry said:

Pedro, what is RTB please from your post above in this thread?
Thank you.

Click to expand...

Sorry Kerry is a Red Tail Black Cockatoo. Considered a very cuddly gentle bird but has a loud cry sort of.

Ok thank you Pedro.

My local rescues have quite a few ekkies, mostly females but a few males. Also, lots of 'toos, 'zons, macaws, conures and tiels. I have never seen a caique, very few IRN's, no Alexandrines, rarely greys or parrotlets.

A good article written by Steve Martin on this same subject. I have tried to post the link but it doesn't work for some reason.

Lots of amazons, greys, toos, and macaws in my area. Mostly amazons. There has been an amazon on craigslist for about 5 months looking for a home, and the people keep refreshing it so I am pretty sure its not a stale add.