New elcetus mom

[Oliver17]

Hi all We adopted a elcetus named Oliver from a rescue. We have no idea how old he is, or where he came from. He is missing one of his toes in front, he seems like he is moulting, he is losing little white fluffy feathers.
I'm very confused on the diet (I read books, read posts here).
He also has done this pose where he lowers himself(straightens his back), doesn't bite or say anything. We are not sure what that means, people I have asked thoughts are mating thing.

I want to do right by him, in it for the long haul. I want to be close and be able to step up, dance and sing all the fun stuff.
I also know it will take time too, we are super excited

Thank you,

 

[itzjbean]

Congrats on your new Ekkie! Good on ya for taking Oliver in and giving him a home.

Just to clarify, you have adopted an Eclectus, not an Electus. There's another c in there. Very common mistake, but now you know

I have no experience with Eclectus and will therefore let some experienced Ekkie owners guide you here. They do require more fruit/veggies in their diet than other birds. They don't do well on a pellet diet. That is about the extent of my knowledge on Eclectus. They do have a tendency to have behavioral changes when hormones come into play, like other species.

Be sure to read through all the threads on the first 5-10 pages of threads here in the Ekkie forum, and hopefully some owners will be by soon to give you some more insight. Good luck, and again, welcome!

 

[tashawithanekkie]

Congrats to you and to Oliver!

The diet can be a little tricky. Do you know what the rescue has been giving him? He'll need lots of veggies. Broccoli, kale, sweet potato. He might not like it much at first, depending on what he's used to. This forum has a ton of great info and some very wise people who are owned by ekkies. The stickies at the top of this subforum are a great place to start.

Good luck in your ekkie journey!

 

[chris-md]

Hello and welcome!

Are you able to get a photo or video of his behavior? It sounds a little to me like he just wants attention but without a photo, it’s hard to tell based on your description.

The diet for ekkies: they have longer digestive systems than other birds. Which means they need 2 things:

1) higher fiber content in the diet
2) lower nutrient content. Longer system mean more surface area available to extract nutrients. So don’t overfeed (feed, just don’t overfeed) powerhouse, nutrient dense foods such as quinoa, blueberries, etc.

They need to be one a fresh veg and grain diet. Some tropical fruits are great but they are rather sedentary birds so it can be easy to overfeed sugar in all forms.

Best of luck!

 

[Violet_Diva]

Congratulations on your eclectus!

Firstly, the position you described - If he gets low and puts his head down he might be begging, sometimes slight wing twitches accompany this pose to add emphasis. So he might be asking to come out of his cage, or to be moved, or fed. The fun is in trying to work it out

As you know, diet is important. There's plenty of info on here.

Important foods are ones that contain beta carotene (Carrot, Sweet Potato, Red Bell Peppers). I'd recommend one of them in every meal. Vegetables have better nutritional value as their content is more akin to the eclectus' native fruits. A little Kale can give calcium. I'd recommend majority veg, and a little fruit as too much fruit sugar isn't good. (NEVER FEED AVOCADO! It's poisonous.) At the mo, my eclectus get fed a raw meal in the morning - something like Peppers, Sweetcorn, Kale, Carrot, Beetroot as a base and then a couple of fruits like Pomegranate, Orange, Apple, Coconut. Then a cooked meal in the evening - either Butternut Squash cooked in a smidge of coconut oil, or some cooked Rice and Pulses. And for supper a teaspoon of dry seeds. Any more seeds than that can be damaging to the liver.

I'm sure you've probably read lots already, and have more reading to do. I'll look forward to reading about your journey with your new green friend

 

[Anansi]

Hello, and congratulations on the new member of your household!

Lots of good info already posted. Just want to reemphasize the importance of Vitamin A, as well as a varied fresh food diet in general. Veggies, fruits, sprouts, legumes, grains. As Violet_Diva mentioned, carrots, bell peppers and sweet potato are great for Vitamin A. Pumpkin as well. Leafy greens are huge. Dandelions and endives are particularly good.

Here is the site I consider the ekkie dietary bible: fruitandveg I'd definitely read through every nook and cranny of that site. Great stuff.

Proteins are good, but don't overdo it. Some ekkies are more sensitive to an abundance of protein than others.

 

[davefv92c]

the diet is not hard once you figure it out
and get you a system going. i feed the same chop to my cockatoo,and amazon also
i make it up in 4 day lots. Max will eat anything he don't care what it is if he finds it in his bowl he is going to eat it, that is all veggie. then i will add a couple of piece's of what ever the fresh fruit of the day is along with whatever else i may find in the fridge. sweet potato is a daily staple in their chop then i mix it up different items every 4 days. i don't cook any of their food and not much gets pealed either. i just figured who the heck preps their food in the wild no one,and i would rather they keep as much as their natural habits.oh i forgot i do use the stuff thats a mix you have to cook before feeding but i have not used any of that for quite a while i think the stuff is called feather bright or something like that.

 

[Oliver17]

Thanks to all, luv the quick response. One more question, we thought they are not suppose to have seeds, therefore what do you use for training? We know everyone says their favorite snack but what could be examples of training food.
The rescue said he was turned in with the color pellets(weird shapes) but their vet asked them to try and wean him off and onto the rosebud pellets and fresh veggies and fruit.
They told me about the avocado, they also said onion and cherry tomatoes no stem.

Thank you very much, nervous and excited

 

[davefv92c]

frozen pee's work, i don't train my birds to do anything but i do know Max just loves em.
no pellets at all, Eclectus feed, you can find it on Amazon i use that and also the hook bill feed. Max gets both everyday along with his bowl of fresh and only gets fed 1 time but there is always something in his bowls if he is hungry. the left over feed gets put outside for the wild birds every day when i put new feed in. i also put left over feed in a small birdbath i have and the deer come in the yard at night and eat that, figured i may as well get my money's worth.lol

 

[Violet_Diva]

Initially with my girl, I saw that she was eating the pomegranate first (in her mixture of food), so I stopped giving pomegranate during meals and began giving individual pomegranate arils as treats. A little messy but effective. So this eventually got switched out for almond slivers. Just have to keep track of how many are given as nuts aren't something you can give much of. The slivers mean you can make a single almond last much longer.

My boy was used to having access to seeds all day when I got him from his previous owner. Which meant he then really looked forward to his seed mix at night. The first thing he'd pick out and eat? Banana chips. Not a very healthy treat, but it was the only food I could get him to work for.

I'd recommend just spending time watching to see what foods get picked out and eaten first. try to work out what aspect of that food is appealing? Is it the texture? Flavour? Colour?

At the moment my guys sometimes get a pomegranate aril, bit of banana chip, a slither of almond, garlic sticks.

Every bird is different and will have different preferences. For example, my girl Bella LOVES a bit of walnut and will go crazy for a nibble. But my boy Dexter HATES walnut, he'll just spit it out if I give it to him.

Spend time experimenting with different foods and watching the reactions. I'm sure your new little friend will let you know what they like best.

 

[tashawithanekkie]

About seeds -- they're like birdie junk food. I read somewhere no more than 1 tsp per day. Duke was a seed addict, I still have to mix some in with his chop. You could use a little for training. I use sliced almond or banana chips for training. Also sometimes millet berries. In time you'll get to know what his favorites are, and then you make them the training food and take it out of his regular meals.

 

[coopedup]

good advice so far....i'll just add that shape and size are also important. Though Wrangler eats nuts, etc with his feet...he doesnt seem to want to eat his meals that way. I have to chop the food (apple, pepper, cucumber, whatever) into a size that he can manage without using feet, otherwise he just tosses it out of his bowl. Conversely, I often skewer an apple and hang it in his cage. It becomes a meal or a shred toy---depending on his mood. The constant here is that he does NOT use his feet for either. If you are converting from a crap/junk diet---be patient. It's taken me over a year to come up with foods and combinations (combined with him finally giving up on ever being served something other than veggies) that he will actually dive into rather than ignore. He's started branching out and at least trying other foods as i present them---got him to eat acorn squash just this week. Also, keep trying with the same food. Foods he rejected 6 months ago (cucumber) he now eats with no issue. Add anything in the onion family to your do-not-serve list. Garlic, scallions, chive. We use slivered almonds for treats. I save the pistachios (unsalted) as a big reward for a job well done. For anyone else reading this, a heads up on a favorite treat. You can get a "nana" pomegranate bush. Its an ornamental, can be grown in a container and produces TONS of small golf ball sized fruits. We are currently raiding a bush we found on our walks while we wait for ours to grow.