| Foster advice needed - CLICK HERE for the Pet Manual Forum Home Page |
| AFLane |
I'm fostering a female Eclectus from the rescue that I volunteer at, and
have come up with a real brain stumper. This bird does not recognize toys.
I've placed foot toys and hanging toys all throughout the cage. Toys are
all made from a variety of materials -- everything bird safe and very
chewable. Nothing. She doesn't move off the perch. She eats, poops,
preens only occasionally and sleeps. No interest in any of the toys. Her
behavior at the rescue was the same -- stares at the toys -- doesn't have
any interest at all. We thought that maybe she was threatened/intimidated
by the other birds -- that's why I brought her home to foster. Any ideas on
how to pique her interest?
Amy
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| AnonnyMoose |
Does she have a vitamin A deficiency? Eclectus seem to have a greater need
for it than other birds and there is a remarkable change in energy and
interest in surroundings when they get sufficient amounts.
"AFLane" <aflane@attdotnet.net> wrote in message
news:FjsBb.172760$Ec1.6605403@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> I'm fostering a female Eclectus from the rescue that I volunteer at, and
> have come up with a real brain stumper. This bird does not recognize
toys.
> I've placed foot toys and hanging toys all throughout the cage. Toys are
> all made from a variety of materials -- everything bird safe and very
> chewable. Nothing. She doesn't move off the perch. She eats, poops,
> preens only occasionally and sleeps. No interest in any of the toys. Her
> behavior at the rescue was the same -- stares at the toys -- doesn't have
> any interest at all. We thought that maybe she was threatened/intimidated
> by the other birds -- that's why I brought her home to foster. Any ideas
on
> how to pique her interest?
> Amy
>
>
>
>
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| Liquid Memory |
On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 22:49:09 GMT, "AFLane" <aflane@attdotnet.net>
wrote:
>I'm fostering a female Eclectus from the rescue that I volunteer at, and
>have come up with a real brain stumper. This bird does not recognize toys.
>I've placed foot toys and hanging toys all throughout the cage. Toys are
>all made from a variety of materials -- everything bird safe and very
>chewable. Nothing. She doesn't move off the perch. She eats, poops,
>preens only occasionally and sleeps. No interest in any of the toys. Her
>behavior at the rescue was the same -- stares at the toys -- doesn't have
>any interest at all. We thought that maybe she was threatened/intimidated
>by the other birds -- that's why I brought her home to foster. Any ideas on
>how to pique her interest?
>Amy
>
Amy,
In all my dealings with people who own eclectus's. Is that, this
seems to be the norm for them. They are a very quiet bird, rarely
making any loud noises, or playing with toys. They tend to just sit
on there perches being content with their surroundings. They can have
a good vocabulary of words, but they speak at a lower volume.
You may be better off just piquing her interest with fresh fruits and
vegetables, but don't be disappointed if she never touches her toys.
You could also try playing with her and the toys to make her realize
that it is alright to chew on them.
Have you taken the bird in for an exam? Although I doubt anything is
wrong, she might have something wrong that you cannot see or
anticipate. And it could also be that she needs time to adjust. As
with all parrots, patience is a virtue.
Tony
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| meezerchick |
hi amy-
ive had my eclectus (non rescue) for 5 months now, and he's just lately
(last two months or so) shown any real interest in toys....and fresh fruits
and veggies only in the last month--and he really mostly plays with them! i
think it was my other bird (plum head) that showed him toys were fun. just
give her time, several toys (dont keep moving them around or adding to them)
and lots of patience.
good luck!
claire
"AFLane" <aflane@attdotnet.net> wrote in message
news:FjsBb.172760$Ec1.6605403@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> I'm fostering a female Eclectus from the rescue that I volunteer at, and
> have come up with a real brain stumper. This bird does not recognize
toys.
> I've placed foot toys and hanging toys all throughout the cage. Toys are
> all made from a variety of materials -- everything bird safe and very
> chewable. Nothing. She doesn't move off the perch. She eats, poops,
> preens only occasionally and sleeps. No interest in any of the toys. Her
> behavior at the rescue was the same -- stares at the toys -- doesn't have
> any interest at all. We thought that maybe she was threatened/intimidated
> by the other birds -- that's why I brought her home to foster. Any ideas
on
> how to pique her interest?
> Amy
>
>
>
>
>
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| Kim/Dreamspinner3 |
Huh? I guess my female Solomon Island Eclectus doesn't know this!
Quiet birds? Well, yes and no--many times throughout the day she'll
let out this loud, piercing AAACCCK without any warning! It is
really, really loud! I've read about the alarm calls Eclectus make in
the wild and I think this might be what she's doing. Otherwise, she
talks, hums sometimes, and makes clicking noises--that's about it.
She is quiet in the sense that she doesn't chatter on for long
stretches of time like my African Grey or my Blue Headed Pionus. Her
alarm call is loud--almost as loud as my Blue & Gold Macaw can be.
Toys--she does play with toys, but nearly as often as my other parrots
or with as much gusto. She likes acrylic toys with interesting shapes
and colors--she like to mouth them. We also offer her "shredder"
toys--toys made of woven bamboo--which she loves to rip to pieces.
She rarely chews on the soft pine wood toy in her cage. There is
another kind of soft toy she likes, they are made of a very soft wood
and look like sponges on strings--I forget the name.
She does spend a lot of the time just sitting on her perch, just
looking around, preening, or sleeping. One thing she does love to do
is EAT! You've got to be careful with Eclectus because they can get
overweight.
To the original poster:
About getting the foster Ekkie to play with toys--sit down in front of
her and let her watch YOU play with the toys. Make a big, fun,
dramatic time of it--toss the toys in the air, feel them, bring them
up to face and act like you're chewing on them. If you have other
parrots, let her observe them playing with their toys too. Maybe this
Ekkie never learned how to play! I've read about other parrots in
foster situations that didn't know how to play with toys and they
learned by watching their human care givers and other parrots doing
so.
Good luck and bless you for taking in this Ekkie!
On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 20:34:54 -0500, Liquid Memory
<liqbbs@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>In all my dealings with people who own eclectus's. Is that, this
>seems to be the norm for them. They are a very quiet bird, rarely
>making any loud noises, or playing with toys. They tend to just sit
>on there perches being content with their surroundings. They can have
>a good vocabulary of words, but they speak at a lower volume.\
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| AFLane |
Thanks for all the kind words and inputs. :) I spoke with the rescue
director this evening to get some more of Cupcake's history. It appears
that both this female Ekkie and her clutch mate (also at the rescue) both
suffer beak birth defects. Cuppy has a severe underbite -- her lower beak
grossly outgrows her upper beak, to the point where without
monthly/bimonthly grinding, her upper beak will pierce through her lower and
eventually split the lower. I've only been involved with the rescue for 6
months, and have only seen her in a beak trimmed state -- never grossly
overgrown. Her brother (Tarzan) has an opposite condition... his upper beak
grows excessively thick and needs to be ground down.
Apparently Cuppy was kept in a cage for around 7 years without toys, being
fed a diet of baby food... the only thing she could handle due to the beak
problems. From what we can tell, she was in constant discomfort, if not
outright pain, for the entire time, which made her into a nippy little
monster. She became so nippy, that she bit off Tarzan's upper beak
entirely. Luckily, she didn't damage his beak "plate", and his beak has
been slowly growing back over the past year.
She has a "great" habit with humans... she doesn't really bite, she pinches
when agitated, annoyed, overexcited or just for the heck of it. When I say
"pinch", what I mean is, she takes the top layer of skin, pinches it in her
beak, twists and tears out chunks all with a cringe-inducing clack of the
beak. When you involuntarily flinch, she goes on the warpath and starts
ripping at your hands. This continues til you drop her, then she goes for
toes. Yes, we knew all of this before taking her in as a foster. I've been
working with this poor kid for the past 6 weeks at the rescue, and we (the
director and I) figured that maybe a change of environment would help her
out with the biting problem.
Today was the first day that I did not get bitten by her. :) I feel like
this is incredible progress. Maybe she noticed my other birds (CAG, YNA and
QP -- all rescues... I'm their love-slave) getting kisses, cuddles and tons
of praise for being birdlike. I'm hoping that she'll watch the CAG and see
how he gleefully destroys all his toys (he's a plucker that's being
reformed -- I hope).
I figured out that Cuppy definitely wants to be with us (me or my hubby).
Whenever I go upstairs or leave the house, Cuppy lets out with a
mind-numbing squawk and starts fidgeting in her cage or on the tree-perch.
This evening, she was on top of her cage (in the dining room) and I went
first into the living room and then into the kitchen. She lost sight of me,
and let out with a series of squawks til I got her attention from the
kitchen. Immediately, she stopped squawking and made the cutest little
mewling meep noise. This little girl NEEDS love
I'm going to try working with the toys a bit more tomorrow (and thereafter),
but I think I'm going to concentrate on giving her cuddles without getting
maimed. She seems to like the interaction. I've got a large supply of
bandaids and neosporin. :)
Amy
P.S. She has been checked out by an avian vet -- all the birds at the
rescue go through quarrantine, bloodwork and full check-ups. Have to keep
the other residents healthy... don't want any infectious bugs being passed
around . Also, the volunteers all have birds... don't want to bring any
bugs home to our birdies kids. So, she's healthy, but a bit of a psycho.
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| oldmolly |
"AFLane" <aflane@attdotnet.net> wrote in message
news:VAxBb.173914$Ec1.6641787@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> Thanks for all the kind words and inputs. :) I spoke with the rescue
> director this evening to get some more of Cupcake's history. It appears
> that both this female Ekkie and her clutch mate (also at the rescue) both
> suffer beak birth defects. Cuppy has a severe underbite
She is called 'cuppy'????I'm amazed. I thought my 'Cuppy' was the only bird
in the world with a name like that.
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