Some help with a new female eclectus

[Comafly]

Hi everyone. I just brought my female eclectus home 3 days ago - she is 8 months old. She is sort of tamed, but not too well. The owner did not spend much time with her and she has been predominately cage-bound. I'd just like to describe her a bit and see what you guys think is the best course of action. I'll litter it with some photos of her so it's not just a wall of text ;D

I'm still learning what she likes but her diet for the past few days has been fruit and veg with a tablespoon of seed mix - I keep the sunflower seeds out of the mix and use them as treats - she LOVES corn and capsicum, cucumber, snow peas, broccoli, pear, rockmelon, strawberry, and kiwi fruit. I always keep it about a 70/30 ratio of veg/fruit. I am able to feed her from my hand through the open cage door just fine, she loves to talk and trill and often responds whenever I talk to her, she comes out of her cage and hangs out on top and climbs around the sides - she will always walk up to the door whenever I approach the cage. I can approach her without her freaking out and she is fine with getting very close to me - I've even gotten her to step up twice, with a lot of fuss to be fair haha.

However, all of the things mentioned above will sometimes come with some biting - but never hard enough to actually hurt - its more like a squeeze. Her moods seem very erratic and will sometimes be friendly and other times very aggressive. She loves ripping apart the leaves and sticks of the bottlebrush and bougainvillea I've put in her cage, and also just biting the bars of the cage. I think she is in eclectus puberty at the moment, and she is also going through her first moult.

She also really doesn't like being put back in her cage when she is out, but I really don't want to keep her in her cage all day, especially seeing as she comes out willingly and seems to really enjoy the time out. But just earlier when I tried to get her to step up she really didn't like it and flew away and tried to grab a curtain and flapped down to the ground. She froze on the floor and was breathing very heavily so I gently picked her up and put her back in her cage. She's a little startled but still fine eating from my hand and talking just a few minutes after.

Is it worth trying to properly tame her while her moods are so erratic?
How do I deal with the biting apart from ignoring her when she does it?
Do I just not let her out of the cage anymore until I've properly tamed her?

Sorry for the giant post, I completely understand it can take months and months to even earn a parrots trust, I'm just slightly nervous that I'm doing everything wrong. Doing a lot of research and putting it in to practice are two VERY different things. Just looking for any and all advice on the subject, and even some personal stories and experiences would be amazing.

Cheers everyone!

 

[Mango121913]

Welcome! Congrats on your new baby!
Patience is key. She will learn your commands and body language. It takes time, but if you are persistent, offer rewards, she will do anything to make you happy! She will realize, when you're happy, she's happy. When you're sad she will do her best to Cheer you up.

 

[Sunset_Chaser]

Congratulations! Have you checked out the special diet ekkies need? Land of Vos has a ton of great info, there's a lot of chop recipes on here as well which you may want to check out, here's a few

http://www.parrotforums.com/eclectus/48375-eclectus-diet.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/51258-abc-chop-beginners.html
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/49831-chop-day-recipe.html

Some links contain more links, this is what I could find quick, if you search chop you'll get pages and pages of reading

 

[labell]

The biggest thing to start working with her right away stepping up and down from a perch/stick. This will keep you from getting bit and get her to follow your commands so that you can easily take her out or put her into the cage. My gal Jillie also came to me around 7 months old and had not been worked with much, for quite some time I had to use the stick and rewards to get her out of the cage now she steps up to my hand every time as sweet as you please. It will take some time, has she been clipped that was one of the things that made the process longer I think with Jillie as she had been given a hard clip by the breeder and had no confidence. That also changed when her wings grew back in, she was not as frightened by everything.

 

[Taw5106]

I got a female Ekkie three weeks ago and she's sooooooo energetic. She responds to a bowl and spoon real quick. I have been working with her on food because she is seed driven. Right now organic, brown rice is a winner(thank you Labell), and I mix in items like corn, red pepper, potato, peas, and broccoli. She's picking at them slowly but she's getting fed. We have a long road with my princess, lol. Bottom line, brown rice with other items is working.

 

[Birdman666]

Is it worth trying to properly tame her while her moods are so erratic?

Yes. Absolutely.

How do I deal with the biting apart from ignoring her when she does it?

You don't ignore biting, you just don't show fear when she does it...

Control the beak with two fingers, and gently push it away before the bird latches on. Do basic step up practice and laddering.

Do I just not let her out of the cage anymore until I've properly tamed her?

Absolutely Not! You'll worsen her cage bound issues! How can you possibly tame her, if you don't let her out of the cage and handle her? They become tame because they get handled. Birds that are not handled do not stay tame. Which is the root of the problems you are having now...

 

[Birdman666]

The biggest thing to start working with her right away stepping up and down from a perch/stick. This will keep you from getting bit and get her to follow your commands so that you can easily take her out or put her into the cage. My gal Jillie also came to me around 7 months old and had not been worked with much, for quite some time I had to use the stick and rewards to get her out of the cage now she steps up to my hand every time as sweet as you please. It will take some time, has she been clipped that was one of the things that made the process longer I think with Jillie as she had been given a hard clip by the breeder and had no confidence. That also changed when her wings grew back in, she was not as frightened by everything.

Another way to do it is to wrap a thick towel tightly around your arm.

 

[Comafly]

How do I go about getting her back in to her cage, then? She does everything she can to not go back in and ends up freaking out.

How do I get her to not be afraid of me putting the perch near her to try and get her to step up? She just backs away and tries to bite it. Its a duplicate of one of the perches she uses every day. I tried just having it near her and giving her a treat whenever she touches it, but she only touched it once and just walked away the rest of the time.

 

[camo]

How do I go about getting her back in to her cage, then? She does everything she can to not go back in and ends up freaking out.

How do I get her to not be afraid of me putting the perch near her to try and get her to step up? She just backs away and tries to bite it. Its a duplicate of one of the perches she uses every day. I tried just having it near her and giving her a treat whenever she touches it, but she only touched it once and just walked away the rest of the time.

I like to admit upfront that I consider myself more to be in the learning stage than the teaching stage when discussing Parrots (so please consider this when reading my experience). I have been working with a 3 year old female eclectus, who at best was ignored and at worst mistreated. We found her at a poultry action on a very hot day in a tiny cage with sunflower seeds (so you can see why Pebbles might have some trust issues).

I can't help you with getting your girl back in the cage, but I thought I would share my approach to getting Pebbles to step up for me (I took things very slowly and some may say too slow, but I was more concerned about building trust, so decided slower was better). By the sounds of it you could skip a few steps, or it may only be useful as an example of how persistence and patience can pay off in a bird who has lacked early training.

I started by feeding Pebbles through the cage (until she would come to the front of the cage when I walked towards the cage). I then opened the cage and gave her treats through the door, having her take a step forward to take the treat (all the time saying "Good Girl" when she moved forward, and talking to her in an encouraging and calm voice as I put my hand in the cage). Eventually I put my hand on the perch (making a fist) and over time, first rewarding for moving towards and eventually rewarding for stepping over or onto my hand, then moved to presenting my hand with the treat in the other hand held at my elbow, so she would have to step up to reach the food. Obviously I added the command "Step Up" when she was moving onto my hand.

This process took weeks, and many many hours, but I think the time I put in has been payed back, as although we still take things slowly, she really does trust me. In comparison, my male eclectus (Gizmo) was very different, and this process was very short. As for the biting, Pebbles has never bitten really hard, but she seems to sometimes forget my hand is a hand and not a branch. I have found that when she gets like this, that a closed fist is less tempting than an open hand, and I present my lower arm rather than my hand. I have never tried offering a perch, perhaps I should, but I would say Pebbles initial reaction would be either to try to eat it or get scared, so if I was going to do this, I would probably introduce it slowly, like I did initially when introducing my hand. Gizmo still has a thing for fingers, this is something that we have reduced since adopting him, but we certainly have not completely stopped this behavior. One of Gizmo's clearest words is "No", which he likes to tell his toys when they don't do what he wants, so he clearly understands the meaning, and this word he has learned from trying to bite a finger (he doesn't bite hard, but it is definitely a bad habit we are still struggling with, but we have gotten better at reading his body language).

I have never had trouble putting Pebbles back, if anyone acts up it is Gizmo. He is very good now, but early on we had some trouble, and the solution for us was:

* We bought him out always before his meals. This way he interacted with us, while we prepared his meal, and then going back to the cage became a reward, as he got fed.

* When he was out, between meals, we always tried to change the way we would put him back, and also we would put him back, close the door, and then open the door and bring him back out (that way, going back in, doesn't necessarily mean staying in). Sometimes, we just took him to the door and then just moved back and continued on with playing.

* Lastly it was all about patience. We used to be sure we didn't have to go anywhere when we took him out. If we tried to put him back in, and failed, we just carried on with play time, and then tried again later (this is also why we would sometimes make the move towards the door with no intention of putting him away, our thought being that when we failed to put him away, this just becomes a time we didn't intend to put him away, rather than him escaping being put back in his cage).

I have never had to capture or manhandle Gizmo or Pebbles into the cage, and I have no idea if this is just because I have been lucky or through training, but I have had times were Gizmo has been out for 30 min after I first wanted to put him back (although that has not happened now for a long time). I am now starting to introduce him to being wrapped in a towel, so in an emergency he can be captured and wrapped up without stressing.

I can now take Pebbles and Gizmo to the bathroom for a shower (something that seemed would be an impossibility with Pebbles when we first bought her home) and Pebbles has recently started flying to me (although she has only done this a handful of times).

The last thing I have learned from Pebbles and Gizmo, is food and praise is king.

Cheers,

Cameron