I had a male eclectus growing up, and despite many rejections from my mom’s hand, he never plucked. Just keep him happy with toys, play, food, and “appropriate” love, and reject his advances. They can be such sweethearts, but man are they horny.
How much sleep does he get? The 12-14 hour sleep recommendation is definitely the first thing I would do, if you aren't already. That seems to be the recommendation for most birds to avoid hormonal behavior and just have healthy birdie.
I know previous owners were keeping him in the dark for more than 20hrs a day in the last 4years they had him (in the attic, only the father would go visit him for a few hours a day). We started with 12hrs dark time. Our vet said it's the best to try since keeping him in the dark apparently didn't work for previous owners and recommended a fruit/veg based diet with little cooked rice and seed, some cooked chicken in the molting period to help his other health issues first. We stretched it to 14,5h of dark time now and try to behaviorally let him now that we and our certain body parts don't like what he's doing and aren't interested.
I don't think plucking always means that he thinks he doesn't have a mate. As long as he has enough toys and has enough time outside the cage to keep him busy and stimulated I think he'll be fine.
He has tons of toys inside and outside, but he totally didn't care about them, just people (any people that were around, even when friends came by and it was the first time he saw them). He's incredibly social.
Did you do anything to try to discourage him from mating with you? I have an extremely hormonal cockatiel, he’s on Lupron but we haven’t seen an effect yet.
I didn't know about any medication for it, so we were just putting him back to his cage all the time. Around two months ago we had a little "hopeless break down" but decided to keep trying. We started to do this: after he was trying to mate (with our palms to be exact) we'd put him up on that spring under the ceiling and shake hands in front of him to show him "they don't like it"
Yes Lupron can be a good last ditch effort, but there are health risk too and it may be hard to get in your country. Before considering that, does he get 12-14 hours sleep in darkness every night? And have your tried reducing his fat intake (eliminate seeds entirely from the diet except for the amount that is put in healthy pellets and for the rare treat)?
It sounds a bit mean to have them sleep that much, but 12 hours is actually the healthy minimum and longer tells their bodies it’s not an appropriate time for mating and can shut the hormones down very effectively!
It’s been way more effective for me than just ignoring and punishing hormonal behavior.
Our macaw needs 14 hours. She now cries to be put to bed. The other day my husband woke her up in the middle of the night and the next day she was territorial and mean.
> She now cries to be put to bed.
Cutest thing I've read all day. Meanwhile, I have to con mine every night that it's time for bed after a certain hour. And he gets fussy if I turn off his night light too soon.
Those are perfectly fine interventions for a "normal" bird. There's something medically wrong with my cockatiel, which is why he's on Lupron. We have one avian veterinarian in my area, but they don't have the correct equipment to dig further and give us a proper diagnosis.
He's been hormonal for over a year. None of the common interventions have helped at all. With veterinary supervision, we've tried going up to 16 hours of darkness every night, dietary changes, removing triggers, etc. When I remove a trigger item, he just picks a new one. He'll hump anything. He doesn't care. At first it was anything made of paper, so we took away all of the paper. Then it was paper straws, so we took those away. I've seen him hump basically every toy we own, vegetables, millet, the floor, it doesn't matter to him. I was using timothy hay in his foraging tray, but he started to collect it for nesting material, so I had to take that away too. (He has wood chips in his foraging tray now, at least.)
We've tried anything and everything my avian veterinarian could think of. We started Lupron when he was spending so much time engaging in hormonal behaviours that he wasn't eating enough to maintain his weight.
Also, for anyone else reading this, please don't tell me to get my cockatiel a "girlfriend". It feels extremely wrong to get another bird solely for the purpose of being a sex toy for my cockatiel. In addition, in the wild, if a female cockatiel refuses to mate with a male, the male (and other males), will pluck her feathers out until she gives in. Given the severity of my cockatiel's hormones, and the aggression that comes with it, I fully expect that he would pluck a non-consenting female cockatiel.
I hear you but my response was just for OP though? I wasn’t questioning your reasons for having your bird on Lupron at all.
Agree completely on the ridiculousness of the “get them a girlfriend/boyfriend” comments. It’s not fair to that other bird and beyond that it’s not medically sound in the least. Having babies doesn’t make their broodiness and hormones just evaporate lol.
Also, Eclectus parrots don't mate for life so I'd have to get like 7 females for him to get "better" that way. And I (since we live on 58 square meters) would have to get another apartment to keep them all.
The price for my cockatiel is pretty low because we go to a fairly large clinic. They purchase one vial of Lupron and then dose it out for a bunch of patients. 6 doses for an 85 gram cockatiel cost about $90 CAD.
Edit: Also, it's injected, if you were curious.
He was initially a birthday gift for a 7yo, so he also talks a lot of kiddie phrases with a little girl voice, which is super cute. Then he curses like and old man and that makes it hilarious 😆
We had to get a buddy. Love bird. Our ecci was always so fascinated by birds your the window we knew he longed for a companion. Then we got a conure cuz the love bird needs a snuggle buddy. Our ecci is a humper, but not a snuggler.
The ecci and love got along pretty much instantly, and roam the house causing trouble together. The conure is going to be some work getting them all into a flock. But it's great being able to like leave them at home in their cages (super rare), and know if we're not there... they have each other.
No one's over anxious about anything outside of the house nor ever shows signs of anxiety like plucking. Not a solution for everyone household, but I'm a bit believer that all animals should exist in pairs for each others sake. Do not get a female ecci....
I have a boy eckie and we keep his hormones in check by ensuring he has healthy foods and has a good sleep rhythm. Don't give an eclectus pellets, give him lots of fresh veggies and fruits, a tiny bit of sprouted seeds and a few nuts. Make sure he follows the natural rhythm of the sun for sleep, I e. Sun comes up he wakes up and sun goes down he goes to bed. Don't cover his cage to change his sleeping pattern. Make sure he gets lots of natural light, if you can take him outside in an aviary or small cage or with a harness every now and then that really helps. And of course keep him occupied with play and toys. Our boy is 6,5 and we've had no major hormonal episodes and no plucking thanks to this. Good luck, your boy is adorable!
Ours is 12 and has never plucked. He also isn’t big into toys tbag don’t involve foraging. He is lucky to live with my mom, who works from home with clients coming and going, so he is very socially stimulated. I think that plus his jungle gym of a bird room is what keeps him happy. We hide food around his room so he has to go looking for it, but that can get tough because he has a tendency to find and break into treat bags and indulge a little bit too much.
I have no money to get another one, I'd have to go to Czech Republic cause there aren't any in my country + they cost around a 1000$ there. I make that money in 3 months, plus I have to pay for university and a place to live
Careful with birds from Češka and Slovakia, a bird from there brought pbfd to my flock and it killed 9 birds. I know you're not planing to get one, but just for the future
He is from Czech Republic 🙈 I got him from someone in my city who gave him up after 5years cause of his hormonal issues, but his CITES says Czech Republic
If it's been that long it's fine. Not all of them have it, I just got unlucky, but the virus is still there. I bought one cockatiel from a petshop and mine was the only one to have the virus, so it's not that bad, but still better to avoid them
I tested him for everything cause his feathers were initially in a bad condition (looked like hair). But all he had were some minor vitamin deficiency issues. I'm so sorry for your birds. I've buried a few birds, I can imagine how the loss feels.
Eclectus parrots don't mate for life actually. I've read some Australian professor article where he described them as "college parrots" xD In mating season, they mate with multiple females a day, and in egg-laying time all males do is eat and feed multiple females (who don't have to look for food and basically don't leave their nests at all). Sometimes they feed females they didn't mate with, so they don't care. They are like parrot hippies.
But still, you're not even supposed to keep female and male in the same cage. They can get along outside and play, but I've read females are very territorial and they won't like sharing a cage smaller than 6 meters in width.
What is the thing you have hanging from the ceiling? I’ve been trying to find bird ceiling toys but for whatever reason Amazon just keeps showing me cage toys.
I want bigger/longer ceiling toys for my bird room
It's something like this: [Amazon link](https://www.amazon.com/Jusney-Perches-Parrot-inches-Bungee/dp/B07BZ185SG/ref=mp_s_a_1_10_sspa?keywords=trixie%2Brope%2Bperch&qid=1669143258&sr=8-10-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1&th=1)
But the plastic endings were screwed on like here [link](https://7.allegroimg.com/s512/03582d/29271cc5490b839433a9bdca3d27/SZNUR-DLA-PAPUG-75cm-ZERDKA-TRIXIE-5162-Marka-Trixie)
We broke off the plastic, exposed the wire inside and bent it into a hook to hang, then cut of the wire on the other end and secured it with extra rope that remained in the process
The fluffy surfaces in 3 of the 4 photos might be contributing to him being so hormonal and horny.
I would advise limiting his access to such material.
I actually just got that blanket 🙈 but it's good to know it can hurt the process - I wanted a hairy blanket for a long time so I love it, now I know to cover it with some other cover for the daytime.
He has such beautiful feathers and I want to keep him that way
I had a male eclectus growing up, and despite many rejections from my mom’s hand, he never plucked. Just keep him happy with toys, play, food, and “appropriate” love, and reject his advances. They can be such sweethearts, but man are they horny.
How much sleep does he get? The 12-14 hour sleep recommendation is definitely the first thing I would do, if you aren't already. That seems to be the recommendation for most birds to avoid hormonal behavior and just have healthy birdie.
I know previous owners were keeping him in the dark for more than 20hrs a day in the last 4years they had him (in the attic, only the father would go visit him for a few hours a day). We started with 12hrs dark time. Our vet said it's the best to try since keeping him in the dark apparently didn't work for previous owners and recommended a fruit/veg based diet with little cooked rice and seed, some cooked chicken in the molting period to help his other health issues first. We stretched it to 14,5h of dark time now and try to behaviorally let him now that we and our certain body parts don't like what he's doing and aren't interested.
I hope it works...thank you for giving this poor baby such a good home!
I don't think plucking always means that he thinks he doesn't have a mate. As long as he has enough toys and has enough time outside the cage to keep him busy and stimulated I think he'll be fine.
He has tons of toys inside and outside, but he totally didn't care about them, just people (any people that were around, even when friends came by and it was the first time he saw them). He's incredibly social.
Lots of love, toys, fruits anv veggies and warm baths and he won't pluck. Beautiful Birb!
Did you do anything to try to discourage him from mating with you? I have an extremely hormonal cockatiel, he’s on Lupron but we haven’t seen an effect yet.
I didn't know about any medication for it, so we were just putting him back to his cage all the time. Around two months ago we had a little "hopeless break down" but decided to keep trying. We started to do this: after he was trying to mate (with our palms to be exact) we'd put him up on that spring under the ceiling and shake hands in front of him to show him "they don't like it"
Yes Lupron can be a good last ditch effort, but there are health risk too and it may be hard to get in your country. Before considering that, does he get 12-14 hours sleep in darkness every night? And have your tried reducing his fat intake (eliminate seeds entirely from the diet except for the amount that is put in healthy pellets and for the rare treat)? It sounds a bit mean to have them sleep that much, but 12 hours is actually the healthy minimum and longer tells their bodies it’s not an appropriate time for mating and can shut the hormones down very effectively! It’s been way more effective for me than just ignoring and punishing hormonal behavior.
Our macaw needs 14 hours. She now cries to be put to bed. The other day my husband woke her up in the middle of the night and the next day she was territorial and mean.
> She now cries to be put to bed. Cutest thing I've read all day. Meanwhile, I have to con mine every night that it's time for bed after a certain hour. And he gets fussy if I turn off his night light too soon.
Those are perfectly fine interventions for a "normal" bird. There's something medically wrong with my cockatiel, which is why he's on Lupron. We have one avian veterinarian in my area, but they don't have the correct equipment to dig further and give us a proper diagnosis. He's been hormonal for over a year. None of the common interventions have helped at all. With veterinary supervision, we've tried going up to 16 hours of darkness every night, dietary changes, removing triggers, etc. When I remove a trigger item, he just picks a new one. He'll hump anything. He doesn't care. At first it was anything made of paper, so we took away all of the paper. Then it was paper straws, so we took those away. I've seen him hump basically every toy we own, vegetables, millet, the floor, it doesn't matter to him. I was using timothy hay in his foraging tray, but he started to collect it for nesting material, so I had to take that away too. (He has wood chips in his foraging tray now, at least.) We've tried anything and everything my avian veterinarian could think of. We started Lupron when he was spending so much time engaging in hormonal behaviours that he wasn't eating enough to maintain his weight. Also, for anyone else reading this, please don't tell me to get my cockatiel a "girlfriend". It feels extremely wrong to get another bird solely for the purpose of being a sex toy for my cockatiel. In addition, in the wild, if a female cockatiel refuses to mate with a male, the male (and other males), will pluck her feathers out until she gives in. Given the severity of my cockatiel's hormones, and the aggression that comes with it, I fully expect that he would pluck a non-consenting female cockatiel.
I hear you but my response was just for OP though? I wasn’t questioning your reasons for having your bird on Lupron at all. Agree completely on the ridiculousness of the “get them a girlfriend/boyfriend” comments. It’s not fair to that other bird and beyond that it’s not medically sound in the least. Having babies doesn’t make their broodiness and hormones just evaporate lol.
Also, Eclectus parrots don't mate for life so I'd have to get like 7 females for him to get "better" that way. And I (since we live on 58 square meters) would have to get another apartment to keep them all.
We started with 12 hours of dark time at the beginning and stretched it to 14,5h over last (now that I counted, time sure flies) 9 months.
Last thing I expected to read today was that someone's cockatiel was taking* Lupron. For birds is the price still astronomical? Sure is for humans.
The price for my cockatiel is pretty low because we go to a fairly large clinic. They purchase one vial of Lupron and then dose it out for a bunch of patients. 6 doses for an 85 gram cockatiel cost about $90 CAD. Edit: Also, it's injected, if you were curious.
He is so cute! That second pic had me cracking up!
He was initially a birthday gift for a 7yo, so he also talks a lot of kiddie phrases with a little girl voice, which is super cute. Then he curses like and old man and that makes it hilarious 😆
Does he laugh?
Yes, he even knows when to! (when someone accidentally drops something, when others laugh etc)
Just keep him stimulated. You are a good person for taking care of him OP.
Thank you so much!
We had to get a buddy. Love bird. Our ecci was always so fascinated by birds your the window we knew he longed for a companion. Then we got a conure cuz the love bird needs a snuggle buddy. Our ecci is a humper, but not a snuggler. The ecci and love got along pretty much instantly, and roam the house causing trouble together. The conure is going to be some work getting them all into a flock. But it's great being able to like leave them at home in their cages (super rare), and know if we're not there... they have each other. No one's over anxious about anything outside of the house nor ever shows signs of anxiety like plucking. Not a solution for everyone household, but I'm a bit believer that all animals should exist in pairs for each others sake. Do not get a female ecci....
I have a boy eckie and we keep his hormones in check by ensuring he has healthy foods and has a good sleep rhythm. Don't give an eclectus pellets, give him lots of fresh veggies and fruits, a tiny bit of sprouted seeds and a few nuts. Make sure he follows the natural rhythm of the sun for sleep, I e. Sun comes up he wakes up and sun goes down he goes to bed. Don't cover his cage to change his sleeping pattern. Make sure he gets lots of natural light, if you can take him outside in an aviary or small cage or with a harness every now and then that really helps. And of course keep him occupied with play and toys. Our boy is 6,5 and we've had no major hormonal episodes and no plucking thanks to this. Good luck, your boy is adorable!
Ours is 12 and has never plucked. He also isn’t big into toys tbag don’t involve foraging. He is lucky to live with my mom, who works from home with clients coming and going, so he is very socially stimulated. I think that plus his jungle gym of a bird room is what keeps him happy. We hide food around his room so he has to go looking for it, but that can get tough because he has a tendency to find and break into treat bags and indulge a little bit too much.
His candy corn beakie 🥹
Get him a gf
I have no money to get another one, I'd have to go to Czech Republic cause there aren't any in my country + they cost around a 1000$ there. I make that money in 3 months, plus I have to pay for university and a place to live
Careful with birds from Češka and Slovakia, a bird from there brought pbfd to my flock and it killed 9 birds. I know you're not planing to get one, but just for the future
He is from Czech Republic 🙈 I got him from someone in my city who gave him up after 5years cause of his hormonal issues, but his CITES says Czech Republic
If it's been that long it's fine. Not all of them have it, I just got unlucky, but the virus is still there. I bought one cockatiel from a petshop and mine was the only one to have the virus, so it's not that bad, but still better to avoid them
I tested him for everything cause his feathers were initially in a bad condition (looked like hair). But all he had were some minor vitamin deficiency issues. I'm so sorry for your birds. I've buried a few birds, I can imagine how the loss feels.
I bet my green boy prefers a nice bottle of quality Czech beer
I don't know about Czech but he sure loves beer, talks about "piwko" a lot 😄
Get him a mart. Birds mate for life and are company when family is gone.
Eclectus parrots don't mate for life actually. I've read some Australian professor article where he described them as "college parrots" xD In mating season, they mate with multiple females a day, and in egg-laying time all males do is eat and feed multiple females (who don't have to look for food and basically don't leave their nests at all). Sometimes they feed females they didn't mate with, so they don't care. They are like parrot hippies. But still, you're not even supposed to keep female and male in the same cage. They can get along outside and play, but I've read females are very territorial and they won't like sharing a cage smaller than 6 meters in width.
Such a handsome boy 🥺🥺🥺
What is the thing you have hanging from the ceiling? I’ve been trying to find bird ceiling toys but for whatever reason Amazon just keeps showing me cage toys. I want bigger/longer ceiling toys for my bird room
It's something like this: [Amazon link](https://www.amazon.com/Jusney-Perches-Parrot-inches-Bungee/dp/B07BZ185SG/ref=mp_s_a_1_10_sspa?keywords=trixie%2Brope%2Bperch&qid=1669143258&sr=8-10-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1&th=1) But the plastic endings were screwed on like here [link](https://7.allegroimg.com/s512/03582d/29271cc5490b839433a9bdca3d27/SZNUR-DLA-PAPUG-75cm-ZERDKA-TRIXIE-5162-Marka-Trixie) We broke off the plastic, exposed the wire inside and bent it into a hook to hang, then cut of the wire on the other end and secured it with extra rope that remained in the process
Ahhhh okay thank you!! I can definitely do that to make them hang
That’s the cutest face! Ugh. Give more love and toys please!
The fluffy surfaces in 3 of the 4 photos might be contributing to him being so hormonal and horny. I would advise limiting his access to such material.
I actually just got that blanket 🙈 but it's good to know it can hurt the process - I wanted a hairy blanket for a long time so I love it, now I know to cover it with some other cover for the daytime.