Bonding with 3 yo ekkie

[EclectusLover7]

Had a male ekkie for a week now. He seems a little hot and cold with me. He loves sitting on my shoulder and just spending time with my when I'm in the room. But he's been bitey with step ups and being touched in any way 50% of the time. This makes getting him back in the cage a nightmare. Any tips to build trust with him? Right now I am also very cautious of him and I just want to trust him and be friends!

 

[Thechoplady]

I would suggest target training to help build your bond with him. Also i would not let him on your shoulder...shoulders are for birds that are 100% trustworthy.

 

[EclectusLover7]

I would suggest target training to help build your bond with him. Also i would not let him on your shoulder...shoulders are for birds that are 100% trustworthy.

I've been trying, he typically just gets bored after a minute or two, he becomes disinterested in treats after a while. But I will keep at it, any tips to keep him interested? I'm using sunflower seeds as they are his favourite to the point that he ignores almost anything else I feed him.
I've heard the same thing about shoulders. He can get agitated if I don't let him up and it makes him even harder to deal with. He seems very content there and hasn't really hurt me from there as yet.

 

[kme3388]

Great advice above. Most Ekkie’s don’t like to be touched. They are well known to not like to be touched. There is someone on that their Ekkie allows him to touch the feathers. Maybe he will chime in with his magic. Mine doesn’t bite me, and hasn’t yet. He would if I touched him, and ignored him pushing my hands away. Target training worked well for Nico. I use pine nuts. I spend a lot of time with him, and I do take him out daily. He’s very familiar with me. He is not so great with strangers, and can be aggressive towards them. I knew this upon adopting him. As I was warned he may become a 1 person bird as others he’d been adopted out to struggled with him. So if you live in a house with multiple people maybe have everyone involved in handling him to try to prevent the one person bird situation. My husband was away for a few weeks about a month after getting our Ekkie. He must have chosen me to be his person in that time frame. After that my husband got bit repeatedly by our Ekkie. He means business too, and is out for blood if my husband comes anywhere near me.

 

[EclectusLover7]

Great advice above. Most Ekkie’s don’t like to be touched. They are well known to not like to be touched. There is someone on that their Ekkie allows him to touch the feathers. Maybe he will chime in with his magic. Mine doesn’t bite me, and hasn’t yet. He would if I touched him, and ignored him pushing my hands away. Target training worked well for Nico. I use pine nuts. I spend a lot of time with him, and I do take him out daily. He’s very familiar with me. He is not so great with strangers, and can be aggressive towards them. I knew this upon adopting him. As I was warned he may become a 1 person bird as others he’d been adopted out to struggled with him. So if you live in a house with multiple people maybe have everyone involved in handling him to try to prevent the one person bird situation. My husband was away for a few weeks about a month after getting our Ekkie. He must have chosen me to be his person in that time frame. After that my husband got bit repeatedly by our Ekkie. He means business too, and is out for blood if my husband comes anywhere near me.

Yeah I knew that going into it he probably won't want lots of pats and such, he's pretty content just on my shoulder or on top of his cage most of the time. I'll keep persisting with target training but sometimes he gets scared of the stick and other times he just loses interest, bites it and walks away. I'm sure once I get it down things will improve. I live with my partner as well and make sure she comes to see him at least once a day. Whenever we have visitors they come say hi while he's in the cage so hopefully he won't become a 1 person bird. Being that he's 3 already and he is pretty good with my partner I think he'll be ok

 

[kme3388]

Yeah I knew that going into it he probably won't want lots of pats and such, he's pretty content just on my shoulder or on top of his cage most of the time. I'll keep persisting with target training but sometimes he gets scared of the stick and other times he just loses interest, bites it and walks away. I'm sure once I get it down things will improve. I live with my partner as well and make sure she comes to see him at least once a day. Whenever we have visitors they come say hi while he's in the cage so hopefully he won't become a 1 person bird. Being that he's 3 already and he is pretty good with my partner I think he'll be ok

If you ever get bored go read about Ekkie behaviors in the wild. It seriously explains a lot. I nerded out one day, and learned a lot.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

Have you tried pine nuts for training yet? It seems like most ekkies are crazy about them, ours is. Ours is very food motivated, especially for a pine nut. You may have to experiment to find out what his hands down favorite is, and only use it at training time.