CathnPoe
New member
Hello all,
My name is Catherine. I'm a student (just finished a philosophy and art-history degree) and am due to go into Masters next year, as I wish to go into art teaching. After 6+ months of vigorous parrot research (it consumed me to the point on obsession as HUNDREDS of hours were dedicated to behavioural and Eclectus research... as my family and boyfriend will tell you), I can rejoice in parrot companionship.
I have already posted a little on this forum, but can finally post from personal experience rather than from book-knowledge.
My darling Eclectus parrot, Poe (Solomon Island/ Red sided cross) arrived 2 weeks ago. He is nearly 12 weeks old and I have been watching him grow since he was a month old.
He is a little ball of joy and has the most gorgeous personality I could have asked for. He loves cuddles and adores head-scratches!! That's right, all those "eclectus-don't-like-head-scratches-because-of-their-feather-type" is not the case with Poe. He rubs his head into my hand and closes his eyes while I scratch around his beak, cheeks and eyes.
I toilet trained (or rather toilet-commanded) him within 3 days.... he stills poos on me, but will poo on command so as long as I offer him the opportunity every 5min or so, I remain clean!
He doesn't have good foot coordination yet, so falls off perches when he falls asleep. When he naps on me he lies down on my chest and chatters endearingly.
His vocabulary has been rapidly developing and he has really developed his own voice as he experiments with different tones and clicks. The only times he squawks is when he's just flown into a window (the breaks don't work so well, but he's getting better).
He loves playing "beak", where I grab his beak and say 'beak' and then give it a scratch. Very cute.
On the second day I had him, he flew for the first time. There was no stimulus; no fright or jolt. He just decided it was time. He played with toys from the first day despite many people saying not to put toys in the cage for the first week. He leapt to and from his boing the very same day he flew as his confidence literally soared with his new found ability.
He is the most cuddly little chap and while is content to sit quietly in his cage, eagerly comes out for cuddles.
He has just got over a staph infection that he contracted from the breeders home, so the poor fellow was on antibiotics for the first week he was in his new home. He dealt with it like a pro. He was also malnourished from too much egg&biscuit, so his peak was very pale. But has really picked-up and now has a mango-coloured beak after just 2 weeks! I was giving him my organic mix of soaked beans /broccoli/ blueberry/ strawberry/ carrot/ sweet potato/ pumpkin/ rice/ passion fruit/ apple/ zucchini/ quinoa/chilli/cinnamon (yes, there is a lot of cooking) and to all this I mix his specially adapted suppliments provided to me by my vet... who also happens to be one of the world's Eclectus specialists, Dr Rob Marshall. (I'm very lucky... and now very poor.)
He has no fears, no hesitations, loves new people, loves baths (and hair-dryers), likes the harness (as it means going outside), tries all new foods and happily feeds himself (if I have the time to let him munch for two hours).
Wow, can you tell I'm in love? What a rant!
Thanks for reading and I'll see you all on the forum.
xx
Catherine and Poe
My name is Catherine. I'm a student (just finished a philosophy and art-history degree) and am due to go into Masters next year, as I wish to go into art teaching. After 6+ months of vigorous parrot research (it consumed me to the point on obsession as HUNDREDS of hours were dedicated to behavioural and Eclectus research... as my family and boyfriend will tell you), I can rejoice in parrot companionship.
I have already posted a little on this forum, but can finally post from personal experience rather than from book-knowledge.
My darling Eclectus parrot, Poe (Solomon Island/ Red sided cross) arrived 2 weeks ago. He is nearly 12 weeks old and I have been watching him grow since he was a month old.
He is a little ball of joy and has the most gorgeous personality I could have asked for. He loves cuddles and adores head-scratches!! That's right, all those "eclectus-don't-like-head-scratches-because-of-their-feather-type" is not the case with Poe. He rubs his head into my hand and closes his eyes while I scratch around his beak, cheeks and eyes.
I toilet trained (or rather toilet-commanded) him within 3 days.... he stills poos on me, but will poo on command so as long as I offer him the opportunity every 5min or so, I remain clean!
He doesn't have good foot coordination yet, so falls off perches when he falls asleep. When he naps on me he lies down on my chest and chatters endearingly.
His vocabulary has been rapidly developing and he has really developed his own voice as he experiments with different tones and clicks. The only times he squawks is when he's just flown into a window (the breaks don't work so well, but he's getting better).
He loves playing "beak", where I grab his beak and say 'beak' and then give it a scratch. Very cute.
On the second day I had him, he flew for the first time. There was no stimulus; no fright or jolt. He just decided it was time. He played with toys from the first day despite many people saying not to put toys in the cage for the first week. He leapt to and from his boing the very same day he flew as his confidence literally soared with his new found ability.
He is the most cuddly little chap and while is content to sit quietly in his cage, eagerly comes out for cuddles.
He has just got over a staph infection that he contracted from the breeders home, so the poor fellow was on antibiotics for the first week he was in his new home. He dealt with it like a pro. He was also malnourished from too much egg&biscuit, so his peak was very pale. But has really picked-up and now has a mango-coloured beak after just 2 weeks! I was giving him my organic mix of soaked beans /broccoli/ blueberry/ strawberry/ carrot/ sweet potato/ pumpkin/ rice/ passion fruit/ apple/ zucchini/ quinoa/chilli/cinnamon (yes, there is a lot of cooking) and to all this I mix his specially adapted suppliments provided to me by my vet... who also happens to be one of the world's Eclectus specialists, Dr Rob Marshall. (I'm very lucky... and now very poor.)
He has no fears, no hesitations, loves new people, loves baths (and hair-dryers), likes the harness (as it means going outside), tries all new foods and happily feeds himself (if I have the time to let him munch for two hours).
Wow, can you tell I'm in love? What a rant!
Thanks for reading and I'll see you all on the forum.
xx
Catherine and Poe
