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Hi from Texas!

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Hi from Texas!

Postby AvianLover80 » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:40 pm

Hey there!
I am brand new to the community and am excited about meeting fellow bird lovers, trainers, owners and enthusiasts!! My mom recently bought herself an Eclectus female and I have had a chance to spend time with her... I now have decied after much research and preparation that I would love to have a male for myself!! Hopefully around Christmas... Our local breeder is weaning some Ekkies now! I can't wait!!

Dustin
:eclectus: Malachi (Coming Soon!!)
AvianLover80
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 7
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Current: Eclectus
Past: Yellow-Naped Amazon / African Gray
Flight: No

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Pajarita » Tue Oct 28, 2014 9:46 am

Welcome to the forum! Ekkies are beautiful birds but I hope you are aware that their diet is SUPER specialized and cannot be duplicated in captivity (the reason why they die young).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Harpmaker » Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:30 am

Welcome to the forum, Avianlover80! Enjoy your stay.
User avatar
Harpmaker
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 637
Location: Southern California
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: Meyer's Parrot
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby AvianLover80 » Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:15 pm

I am quite aware and I am doing as much research as possible. My mom has an eclectus and we are finding out new things everyday. She is still young, so we hope we can give her all the nutrients she needs! It seems that Ekkie owners, breeders and enthusiasts are working everyday to make our diet plans for them more sufficient. Somebody's got to do it! ;)
AvianLover80
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 7
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Current: Eclectus
Past: Yellow-Naped Amazon / African Gray
Flight: No

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Lizz » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:38 am

Welcome to the forum.
Have you considered www.craigslist.org ? There may be one already trained that needs you.
Lizz
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 105
Location: Archdale NC USA
Number of Birds Owned: 8
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Tommy Maggie Cagney Lacy
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Pajarita » Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:58 am

AvianLover80 wrote:I am quite aware and I am doing as much research as possible. My mom has an eclectus and we are finding out new things everyday. She is still young, so we hope we can give her all the nutrients she needs! It seems that Ekkie owners, breeders and enthusiasts are working everyday to make our diet plans for them more sufficient. Somebody's got to do it! ;)



Yes, people are now beginning to realize that their diet needs to be super specialized and they are trying to come up with something that will work... problem is, for the owner to feed an ekkie right means putting A LOT of money, time and work into it and most people simply don't have all three. And, of the few ones that do, most don't want to do it for 30 years (not that anybody has managed to make the greatest majority of the captive-bred live for so long). 99.99% of people want to fill a bowl with pellets, stick a piece of apple and a leaf of romaine in the cage and call it a day -not that I blame them, mind you! I struggle with my birds diet on a daily basis (the flavor of the day, the 'right' combination of veggie, fruit and green, the different presentations, etc) and I don't even have ekkies - if I did, I would have a nervous breakdown in less than a year! :lol:
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby AvianLover80 » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:58 pm

Well, I definitely understand and agree with you, but I am that other 1% that has nothing else to do than have something to nurture and love. I'm not married, I don't have kids and I don't see that happening any time soon. (My lifestyle doesn't acommodate such things.) I am a part-time student and a restaurant manager with enough spare time on my hands to spend nurturing, loving, researching and perfecting my Ekkie's diet. My Ekkie will be my child! Nothing is gauranteed but I can't go through life with what-ifs. Again, I completely agree with you and I have heard so many stories of ekkies dying young and they "don't know why"... Well, we obviously do and I think I have a game plan. My mom and I have done a lot of research and we are working with her ekkie now. Her diet is so strict and yes, expensive but my mom and her husband are about to retire and she will be spending so much time with her little girl, Rajah. We are just at that point in each of our lives that we both can focus on our ekkies' every need. We will do it as a team!
:thumbsup:
AvianLover80
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 7
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Current: Eclectus
Past: Yellow-Naped Amazon / African Gray
Flight: No

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Pajarita » Thu Oct 30, 2014 9:35 am

I am glad you are aware of the extra care that needs to be taken with ekkies diets and that you and your mother have everything planned out. But I will tell you something that you will think it's either an exaggeration or something that will not happen to you but I can assure you it's not and it will. I love all animals but birds have been my passion since I was 8 years old (I am almost 60) and my life revolves around my birds, their light, their schedule, their diets, their health and happiness, etc . I have a husband, children, grandchildren, dogs, cats, plants and a large extended family (brothers, nieces, nephews, in-laws, etc) and all of them take a second place when it comes to my birds needs. So much so that I don't visit anybody or receive company during the winter and my husband and I take, if we are lucky, one single week vacation together every 5 or 6 years (somebody needs to stay to take care of the birds). It might seen extreme but, in the long run, this kind of care is the only way that allows you to keep an undomesticated species of difficult to fulfill physical and emotional needs healthy and reasonably happy (not because it's what I would have chosen - and certainly not because it makes any of my family happy!) And, if I knew back when I first started taking in parrots half of what this commitment was going to require of me, I would have said a very emphatic "NO!" to the lady who asked me to take in the first one and ran as fast as I could!

As a little extra help on the ekkies diet (I've been doing research on parrots diets for many years and ekkies are just at the extreme end of the difficult parrot diet spectrum so, although I don't have any right now and don't plan on taking any in, I still try to learn about them), people are now beginning to think that some of them don't tolerate salicylates so I suggest that, if you haven't already done so, you eliminate or greatly reduce them from their diet.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby AvianLover80 » Thu Oct 30, 2014 11:40 pm

Parajita,
I have to say that I deeply respect your dedication to your parrots. I know that by this point you are tired and wish you wouldn't have chosen this path but I am sure you have some brilliant and helpful information you can share with people. You should consider writing a book or posting a blog if you haven't already.
I hope you don't mind if I pick your brain from time to time. :)
How do I know what plants and foods contain salicylates? I'm looking it up now, I came across willow bark, but nothing else specific. Says it is used in NSAIDs also. Scary stuff it sounds like!
Thank you again for taking the time to inform me of the importants of my decision and the tips you have given me so far.

UPDATE!!
This is what I found so far...
Unripe fruits and vegetables are natural sources of salicylic acid, particularly blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupes, dates, grapes, kiwi fruits, guavas, apricots, green pepper, olives, tomatoes, radish and chicory; also mushrooms.
AvianLover80
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 7
Number of Birds Owned: 3
Types of Birds Owned: Current: Eclectus
Past: Yellow-Naped Amazon / African Gray
Flight: No

Re: Hi from Texas!

Postby Pajarita » Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:31 am

Yes, lots of raw fruits and veggies have it, as well as seeds and nuts (which is pretty much what we feed our captive parrots and one of the reasons why feeding them right is so hard). First and before anything else, I would never feed an ekkie pellets. It doesn't even matter if they are organic, specifically created for ekkies or manna from heaven, they are way too dry for any parrot but especially so for ekkies and the fiber is never right (ekkies need more fiber than any other species but not all fiber is good, the type that we use in animal feeds doesn't do anything for parrots -there is a study done with grays about it). I would do a strictly fresh food diet with cooked whole grains that offers all of the ones with low content, not more than twice a week of the moderate ones, not more than once a week of the high and none of the very high. This is a link I saved in my favorites under diet with folder for ekkies (they are the only species that has its own folder) but there could be better ones by now: http://salicylatesensitivity.com/about/food-guide/
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

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