Eclectus Parrot Training and Entertaining Problem

[Teammuffin]

Hey all.

I am having a little trouble training my Eclectus Parrot Shanks. He has never bitten me, not even once and seems to like me quite a bit, he always wants to be out on my shoulder.

I am trying to clicker train him while teaching him to step up but whenever a lot of the time he doesn't step up and then when he does I click and give him a treat but he just holds the treat in his mouth and doesn't eat it for a long time. I have tried many different treats (raspberries, almonds, peanuts) but he never eats it right away. I train him in the afternoon when he should be getting a bit hungry but he still doesn't eat anything I give him right away. Does anyone know why this is and is there anything I can do about it?

Also I was trying to play some games with him but he never seems excited. I have tried playing peekaboo, I have tried to dance to entertain him and a few other things that I have found in my research and he always just looks at me and sometimes does a little squawk. I feel bad because it seems like I can't entertain him.

Please help me out if you can. I want him to have the most enjoyable life that he can.

Thanks.

 

[Aussie Ben]

Sounds similar to my eclectus in many ways. I understand how you have trouble entertaining him, they are not the most 'playful' parrots and mine gets very loud and frustrated when he is bored. This does not mean that you cant have fun with them though. My ekkie has most fun sitting on me which can be rather annoying. I have found different types of toys that he enjoys such as bells, and toys with dangling ropes that keep him fairly entertained. Scrunched up paper with treats inside also works. Pick-a-boo has never worked for me, he ended up saying the word but never actually played. Also try cashews as a treat, mine used to love almonds until I gave him a cashew - now he is obsessed with them. I am clicker training my ekkie too, he has 5-6 good runs and then he stops and stares at me; so I still don't quite understand either. I think it is in their nature to stop and stare at things lol.

What is Shanks diet like? do you feed him his treat as part of his meals? How old is he? Sorry if you have mentioned this in another thread.

Keep at it, you will get there!

 

[Teammuffin]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Good to hear that it is not out of the ordinary for him to be like this. Not that there is anything wrong with him being like this. I still love him more than anything in the world just want to make sure he is having fun. Is there any danger with doing the trats in a piece of paper thing? That sounds like it could keep him entertained but I worry about him with a lot of things haha.

He is just under 6 months old. I feed him fresh fruit every morning between 7 and 9 am and boiled vegetables at night, around 7pm, then put him to bed at 8pm. None of the treats I have given him have been in his regular diet.

Thanks again.

 

[Teammuffin]

And he has a bit of pellets in his cage in case he gets a bit peckish between meals.

 

[Aussie Ben]

can't think of any problems with paper wrapped treats, as long as the paper is as chemical free as possible. You can also use paper towel. Just be careful, mine only likes it scrunched longways like a giant hard candy. If its any other way he will often attack it out of fear. Usually he just grabs it in one foot and chews out the treats. You can also hang it from the top of the cage. Just supervise him the first few times to make sure he doesn't hurt himself (you never know). Also make sure he sees you put the treats in the paper, you may have to help him unwrap it the first few times to help him understand. I wouldn't use too many layers of paper at 6 months. Mine is 3 years old and often has trouble getting through 2 sheets lol - they are not big chewers

As far as I can tell that diet is fine too.

 

[greycloud]

Hi! Your baby is still young and eclectus tend to be a little cautious at times. One thing my birds love is treats such as mixed nuts, a little seed, nuti-berries wrapped in a coffee filter like a piece of taffy. I hide them in toys and around the cage.
You could try offering a small toy when clicker training instead of food treats. My birds love those little balls with bells inside sold in the cat sections. *NO catnip toys!
They like to take the ball then drop it in my hand. Back and forth we go.
I think as soon as he finds something to inspire him he will come around!

 

[Teammuffin]

Thanks for all the help guys. He has started eating his treats really fast and has learnt to step up like a champ.

I tried playing with him with one of those cat balls and he is really really scared of it, as soon as he sees it he gets really scared and runs up my arm and hides on my shoulder. I have tried easing it into him by showing him the ball and giving him a treat with the same hand as I am holding the ball in and he takes the treat then runs away scared. Is there a way to fix this?

Also what weight should he be at this age?

 

[Aussie Ben]

Glad to hear he is eating his treats.

Also what weight should he be at this age?

From a published chart I have, an Ekkie at that age should be near abouts a stable weight. As for what that is, it often depends on subspecies, do you have any idea what he is? Your best bet for weight is to go by the keel bone which is that bone that runs up and down their chest area. You should be able to feel it (gently ), but not see it. My Red Sided Ekkie is 3 1/2 yo and maintains a weight of 370grams. Some of the larger sub species can weigh over 600grams!

 

[Quantumcat]

My Scarlett doesn't really play with toys either - I hung a cat bell in her cage once, and she sort of looks like she's playing with it but more like she really hates it and wants it to suffer horribly and die a slow painful death. We only have one game we play - she whistles the first half of the wolf-whistle and I whistle the second. If I whistle the first part, she whistles the second.

Something she likes is a whole corn cob hung in her cage, with the leaves still on. She spends all day pulling the leaves off or chewing through them, then the next couple of days eating the kernels (of which she drops about three quarters).

Apparently you can't do it too often though since corn is very fattening (according to my vet). To hang it, shove a very long (flat-headed) screwdriver down the middle (best if the corn is room temp not cold), then put a piece of string across the top of the screwdriver and push it down the hole. Tie a couple of knots in the string to keep it there, and hang! (If he doesn't know what it's for, try a de-leafed corn cob first, then a cob with partial leaves).

Scarlett is incredibly motivated by sunflower seeds. Have you ever tried those as a treat? I can get her to exercise for up to twenty minutes flying from me to her cage and back, giving her a seed when she comes when she's called. She will also do her little tricks for ages and ages as long as the seeds keep coming (I always get bored before she does!). I like to kid myself she loves to perform but really all she cares about are the seeds.

The tricks were mostly taught by getting her to follow the seed in my hand. If your Eclectus doesn't like seeds that could be a problem! Have you ever given him passionfruit? Scarlett loves it and I think all Eclectus do. You might try dipping your finger in some passionfruit pulp and training him that way. Start with "turning around" (get him to follow your passionfruity finger around and when he does let him bite your finger) and if he can do it, you can stop dipping your finger in the juice and let him stick his beak into a passionfruit half for one second as the reward.

 

[Mel]

Ahhh they are such special little guys

Shadow is about the same age as Shanks and would do the same with treats. We had a friend of a friend over who happens to be a parrot consultant. I told him about her inability to take treats, he offered her one and the little bugger took it and ate it making a big liar out of me. SO if you have any troubles I suggest get an expert from the other side of your country over and ur ecky fids will do thier best to make you look silly

Shadow loves the hanging skewer with chucks of F&V on it, hanging ropes and a cat ball with a bell inside, you can hear her throwing it about all day long

 

[Birdamor]

Ekkies are not playful birds, they are most content just perching on your shoulder and gently grooming you but they do like to do 'gymnastics' on their cages. Try black olives as a treat (cut the small ones in half), both my ekkies would fight off a pterodactyl for a black olive! LOL

 

[etse20]

Willie likes to play with a brown paper bag, he just chews holes into it. He also likes the red-bull box. We put his toy wooden blocks inside the box, he, dump them out and then start chewing on them. He will attack the red and purple blocks, the other colors he play with.

 

[Ecclipse]

When I had my brown headed he also showed the same signs of not wanting to play but when he was well I tried a trick which worked with him. I took a ball with a bell in it and when he was on my shoulder I started to focus on moving the ball around and "playing" with it. I made like I was having great fun and ignored him. When he went down off my shoulder to investigate I still ignored him moved the ball away to carry on playing. After doing this a couple of times he also wanted to play....I feel that he would of played more after that if he wasnt so sick but I defianetly got his attention. Hope this helps....good luck I must say that the saying about training your parrot actually means the parrot trains you. Its amazing how they suss people out so quickly and then sit back and watch us learn slowly how to suss them...hahaha...I love parrots

 

[Ecclipse]

Thanks for all the ideas on entertaining...learnt so much Gonna put some into good use.

 

[rockslinger]

I've read a lot of the posts and websites about training Eclectus. They are pretty trainable. The best luck I've had was www.birdtricks.com

 

[etse20]

Willie's newest fav is nuts in the shell, especially almonds. I need to crack the shells first as he can't crack them open. Once it's cracked, he can open up the shell and chew on it for a long time. He is motivated by seeds and nuts. We have some success in doing high five. They are actually really smart birds, he got the hang of it after only several tries.

 

[erictheviking]

I have a eight weeks old eckie (Vos) and Realized that it's very slow in learning compare to my sun conuer which is about the same age. Been trying to teach him " step up" but it seems very clumsy and refuse to step up despite of the number of attempts I made. Is this normal?

 

[Oedipussrex]

Seems to be an ekkie thing. Pickle will not bother with any toys unless he knows or thinks there is food inside them. he has a few baby toys which play music and have flashing lights when you press the buttons and he seems interested in them, but has never bothered to press the buttons himself
Foraging toys and games work really well

 

[lene1949]

Paulie (male eclectus) plays with his hanging toys, foot toys and swings upside down from his playgym... He's not much for cuddles or sitting with me... Rather independent...

 

[Trina]

Eclectus are trainable they are so smart but they get tired of training very quickly. I taught my conure to play basketball in a week yeah she will just pick the ball up for now LOL for about a second and i started that a month ago for her. I did get her to wave, lay on her back, shake her head no ( but this is a natural reflex for them so its easy to teach no) within a day but she is still learning to open wings on command. Some tricks take longer i think but i notice when she also take time eating she doesnt gobble anyhting up within a minute so i act excited so a quiet clap and use praise and rub her beak which she likes alot. She is not a trick bird i know it but it gives me time with her and once i see she looks at somethin else and gets board i ask her to wave and do something else.

For entertainment she watches TV she likes TV especially cartoons i have this bird baby sitting dvd i got at a petstore to i play on loop when i leave the house sometimes