Claudia, Red Sided/Vosmaeri Eclectus

I had been interested in eclectus for several years. I am fascinated by their personalities, and how empathetic and thoughtful they are. I also connected with how sensitive they are to dyes, chemicals, and foods, even more so than other parrots. I had been looking for an ekkie for a while, with several possible adoptions that did not work out, when I found Claudia.

After I had had Claudia a couple of weeks, I noticed she did not eat in adequate amounts, and was on the thin side. Although she would eat the food I gave her, she would eat very little of it. I immediately starting asking questions on forums, and reading books and online articles. I finally found what I was looking for. She had all the signs of having been force weaned far too early, and so had learned to accept and expect he feeling of hunger, and to only eat just enough to stay alive. When you force wean a bird, they have to feel hungry for a while, and become used to conserving their food. It was recommended to start handfeeding again, and allow them to eat that as long as they needed it. This made sense, as the only way I could get her to even go to her food dish was to sit there with it, put her next to it, and hand her small pieces of the food on my fingers. So, I started handfeeding her oatmeal every morning. In the beginning, she refused to eat it any. Eventually, I got her to start eating it, but she would only eat a tablespoon or so, and nothing else for breakfast. Finally, after a couple weeks, she started really relishing her morning oatmeal. Not only would she eat all of her oatmeal, she would go back upstairs and eat all of her breakfast. She soon gained weight, and reached a healthy weight. She also became much happier, much more active, talkative, and became very playful. She also weaned herself off the oatmeal after several months.

She did have a problem with her wings when I got her, due to a very harsh clip, and the fact that she had never learned even the basics of flying or landing. Because of the very harsh clip, the new feathers were very irritating when growing in. She barbered and plucked each flight feather or secondary wing feather that grew in. I thought that if I began teaching her how to fly, she would leave her wings alone.

So, while I was waiting for her wings to grow out, I began teaching her to fly. I would place her on my hand, with her legs hanging over the side of my hand, and would run all over the house, with her flapping her wings. When we came to corners, I would turn my hand, so she would learn to turn her body. I also would toss her on the bed over and over to help her learn to land. Not only did she enjoy these "exercises" she soon learned to love flying. Even while her wings were still slipped, she learned to land well, and as more feathers grew in, she started flying more and more. I now take her outside on a harness, and she will happily fly all over, with me running behind her.

Now she is a very happy ekkie, who eats everything and anything, and is very active. When I got Claudia, she was rather afraid of hands, but she soon started to really get over this fear. She will now let me pull her wings out all the way, and touch most parts of her body. She can also be quite destructive, and if left unattended, will climb all over room and the other bird's cages, destroying anything she can.

Claudia, doing a little fluff.

Playing on the bed

Always remember - bath time is very important and
should always be Loud!

And Claudia watching me dry off after her last large splash.

Little Miss Lola

Lola was brought into a chain petstore, on a lady's shoulder, without even a cage or any favorite items. According to the lady, she had had her for eight years, but did not have enough time for her any more, and so Lola had started plucking.

I put Lola in quarantine, and immediately noticed several things. One, her balance was horrible, so bad she stayed in a horizontal position. She was loosing weight, and had a head tremor. Her feathers were extremely dark and greasy, along with her plucking problem on her chest and under wings. She also had seizures, which are not fun at all for either of us. During these seizures, her left side would go completely limp, and she would jerk all over before collapsing. Although showers did help the feathers, somewhat, the rest needed something more, obviously.

She was diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning. As I did not want to put her through chelation immediately, having been through it myself and knowing how awful it is, I decided to try alternative liver support and aloe detox. After about two weeks of this, Lola was already bit better, and I continued it for another 4 weeks. After that was over, I put her on high doses of probiotics to build up her system. The difference these supplements made, along with a healthy diet, sunlight, and exercise, was amazing.

I also got her over to a very healthy diet, which was not very hard, as she was willing to try almost anything. She also soon learned to love toys, though she did not move around much, and tended to stay in one place. She could not fly, so as I waited for her wings to grow out and her strength to return, I slowly worked on getting her a little bit more exercise every day.

After quarantine, I introduced her to Frank. He was immediately interested in her, as she was in him. However, after she found out that he would not answer her calls, and did not know how to act around other birds, she began to get annoyed. I put their cages next to each other, and left it at that for a while. They soon began to enjoy being together, and talked to each other all day. I let them out on the playgym together frequently, when I was there to supervise. Slowly, very slowly, they became friends, in their own way. Eventually, as they wanted to share a cage, I put them together in a flight cage.

Lola is now a much happier bird, as is Frank. They spend all day playing hard, (so hard, in fact, I am replacing toys daily as they are destroyed) as well as yelling their opinions to the world, in human and quaker. Lola is also becoming a very good flyer, though she still has a bit to go.

She no longer plucks, so we are now just waiting for the feathers to come in. The first few feathers came in black, and caused a lot of swelling and pain (and were removed by her, along with some mutilating, another long story), so the follicles were obviously damaged. However, she is getting better with continuing detoxing every few months, and has feathers growing in almost everywhere except for one small area that may never get any, I don't know.

Lola loves attention from people, and is now so bonded to Frank, they both insist on being in the same room all the time. Her favorite activity with a person is, and I think always will be, cooking. She loves sitting on your shoulder as you mix things up, and just gets so excited with each new item you add, and so disappointed when I take her back to her cage (I don't let her in the kitchen if I am heating something on the stove or am opening the oven, so she has to leave before I start that.)

I know I have been incredibly lucky getting my birds to accept mates, and though it has certainly taken a lot of work to get them to that point, it is completely worth it to see how happy they become.

Lola, being her chatty little self.

A little relaxation time never hurt anyone, right?

Playing on the little bird gym,
and getting some special treats out of the foraging bowl.

Lola, in her own "urban" jungle.

The Bird Talks live Call

These are really very well run, and you can learn so much from them. They have one every Sunday at nine, EST, and you can listen to the replay all week.


The Bird Talks Live Training Webcast
(¯`•.¸¸We are SO Excited…Maggie Wright on This Sunday’s Call¸¸.•´¯)
EVENT: The Bird Talks Training Webcast
SPEAKER: Maggie Wright her website: http://www.maggiewright.net/
DATE & TIME: Sunday Nov. 02 at 8:55pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW...

http://www.AskTheBirdExperts.com

Margaret T. Wright (Maggie) is a marketing consultant,
author/publisher, and African Grey parrot expert.
Her relationship with pets has lead her to help many
companion owners to understand their companion better.

Feel free to cross post this is a free call,
so all who want to attend are welcome.

See You on the Call.

To Fun Bird Training,
The Bird Talks Admin
TheBirdTalks@yahoo.com

Frank, the ever busy Quaker

I got Frank when he was around two and a half, for serious aggression issues.

After I got him, I worked to get him used to changes, something he very much disliked, such as new toys, new foods, and new games. I got him used to new toys by slowly introducing small, simple toys across the room, playing with them, and moving them closer until he was playing with them and wanted them in his cage, and then slowly working up to bigger, more interesting toys. I introduced new foods by adding a separate dish on the bottom of his cage, a place he loved to play, with a few small pieces of the new food, as well as favorite treats. Eventually, he learned to eat a wide variety of things. As for games, I simply watched what he like to do, and tried to make a game out of it. He loved singing, so we did a lot of singing and dancing. He also loved foot toys, like balls, and "birdie soccer" was a favorite game. Along with games, I taught him many basic behaviors and tricks, like wave, come, drop, shake, turn, high five, to flap his wings, etc.

During this time, I noticed he spent most of his time trying to build a nest. This in itself is not unusual for quakers, but Frank's methods were. He would spend all day with a piece of a straw, a leather strip, a Popsicle stick, a piece of palm strip, etc., and try to weave it in the cage bars. All day, he would stand by the bars, weaving his head back and forth, but never actually getting anything woven. He did eventually learn to shove things through the bars, but that was about it. He sometimes got so frustrated, he would just start yelling, moaning, and chewing the bars as hard as he could. I started teaching him to weave as best I could, weaving palm strips, straws, and leather strips into the bars with him, trying to show him how to do it.

After doing a lot of research, I came to the conclusion that Frank was one of the unfortunate parrots that had been raised either from an egg or from a young age without any other quakers from which to learn normal quaker behaviors, or even that he was a quaker. Although I do not know this for certain, as I have very little of his history, it does fit with the little story I have, and with his behavior. Plus the fact that this is, unfortunately, an all too common occurrence.

Even aside from his nest building obsession, Frank acted, and still acts, noticeably different from other parrots and other quakers I had been around. Obviously, every parrot is different from the next, but Frank had, and still has, a very different way of reacting to the world around him, especially considering he is not a bird that has never suffered any kind of abuse. He is obviously very smart, I think perhaps, in reference to training and his use of the human language, etc, the smartest parrot I have worked with. However, he is emotionally at least as bad as some of my worse rescues.

In the first few years, he would often get very, very depressed. This did not seem to go with hormonal seasons or be related to that, though I can not say that did not play in to it. I tried seeing if it was related to diet, sunlight, exercise, anything, and although tweaking those things helped, it did not seem to be the cause. I worked with him everyday through this, though I could not always get him out of the cage. Whether he would come in or out, I continued to play games and sing with him. When I could get him out, I tried to take him around, and get him exercise and some more mental stimulation. He would go through swings of not eating very much, so his weight was often on the low side. He became even more upset about not being able to build a nest, and would literally spend days either chewing the bars, or tearing off the things I had woven in the bars to chew them. During these times, I became increasingly glad I had gotten him to look forward to having his toys rotated every day, and had helped him learn to forage. Every morning, I wove new things into his bars, switched some toys around, and hid his food and treats all around the cage. His cage, in fact, I had very stuffed with toys, mostly chewable ones and preening toys, to keep him occupied all day and make him work to get around. Although these things really helped, I still was bitten almost every day, and Frank still was depressed much of the time.

Other times, Frank gets extremely hyper/aggressive. It seems to be almost impossible to figure out all the different triggers that cause him to attack. Often, he seems happy and relaxed, but will suddenly dive bomb and attack a person or bird. Once he settles on something as being bad, it is very difficult to convince him otherwise - even beyond convincing my phobic birds. Although Frank was wary of new things when I got him, he has never been a phobic or fearful bird. Still, if he does get scared or upset with something, even things that have been fine with him before, it will send him into a blind panic that is very difficult to get him out of.

Whether he is depressed, hyper, or worried, it is always difficult to avoid being bitten. I accept his boundaries, use positive reinforcement training, the ABCs of behavior, but it is still difficult, it seems like things are always changing with him! You could say that he is very touchy, however lovable. I have heard a few people mention about parrots having mental disorders, but it is certainly not a widely researched or talked about idea. Usually the few you hear about are thought to have a form of Autism, but I know that is not Frank's problem. I heard Dr.Pepperburg speak about this, and she briefly described ADHD in parrots, and that sounded a bit more like Frank. Still, I doubt I will ever know any more than that Frank is a sweet (ehem, mostly) fellow with complicated emotions a complicated thought process!

The thing that finally really did help Frank was Lola, another quaker I ended up adopting. I had hoped that watching another quaker might help him, and it certainly did! In fact, I was extremely lucky in that not only did Frank and Lola enjoying watching each other, they eventually became very bonded, and now share a cage. Lola was a great deal older, and knew that she was a quaker (though she was bonded to people) and knew all the proper vocalizations, and used them plenty. Frank listened to her, tried to repeat them, she corrected him and he repeated again. Eventually, he actually seemed learned to "speak" quaker, or at least that was how it seemed to me, watching, hearing him make quaker nosies he had never made before. He now spends much of his time weaving new "nests" every day, removing them, and building new ones. He is now so happy, chatty, and playful, it really is a joy to see.

Frank, in his usual adorable fluff mode.

Frank, playing on his travel cage,
trying desperately to get the treat out of the wicker ball.

Waving for the camera, in his typical hog-the-attention style.

And a slightly artsy shot of Frank from below.