ekkies can't open nuts?! really?

[tashawithanekkie]

I keep seeing, on various websites, that eclectus can't crack open nuts. Mister Duke has no problem with almonds. Granted, he can't open a walnut but . . . really? Is that true?

 

[SilverSage]

Mine never had an issue lol.


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[SailBoat]

Commonly those statements are generalizations and rarely take into consideration an Ekkie on a mission /task and a will to make it happen.

Like the majority of mid to large Parrots that have never or rarely had toys to play with, or better stated make tiny pieces of are common sources of this type of statement. The Parrot had never been allow to activity use its Bill to its fullest. If you add to this a diet that is not challenging (fully prepared) the Parrot likely has not developed a comfort in activity using its Beak.

Stepping way out on a limb here, I 'believe' that an Ekkies diet tend not to have a large number of 'hard' shells to open. Working with fuzzy memory on this one, so corrections welcomed!

Enjoy your Boy's will power and joy in making big things tiny!

 

[Owlet]

in my experience working at a parrot rescue they never really gave their smaller parrots (ekkies, Amazon's, and such) anything but almonds unless it was pre-cracked otherwise they wouldn't be able to open it?

 

[RisingSun]

Sailboat. I agree. I believe Ekkies are classified as frugivores. Since they eat a lot of soft foods, combined with the length of their beaks, which appear to be built more for piercing and dipping into fruits to extract juices, they probably don't have the jaw strength of nut eating parrots.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

Thanks all! This stuff is fascinating to me. I honestly don't know much about parrots, I was mostly a distant admirer until Duke came along. And he does like to make things tiny! I guess I'm glad he doesn't have more crunch-power, for the day when the big chomp does happen to a human.

 

[coopedup]

Wrangler is selective (lazy) when it comes to nuts. He will absolutely tackle pistachios, but if they are tightly closed he may give up. Almonds are 50/50. Some he opens, some he abandons after a few minutes. Hazelnuts and walnuts seem to have no appeal to him at all. Havent tried a pecan, but I expect he'd be able to get into that----if he tried.

 

[Anansi]

Ha! Apparently MY ekkies never got the memo. Jolly and Maya, and Bixby before them, have all cracked nuts. They don't have much trouble with them at all, actually.

 

[Sandy19]

I don't have an Ekkie, but poor Peanut my Senegal can't crack a nut to save her life. She can barely get a sunflower seed open. And then she drops the seed.

 

[LordTriggs]

I'd be happy about that. Slicing ability plus pressure would definitely be a painful combo! From what I can tell They don't often deal with nuts so makes sense to me that it's not something they easily do