Eclectus – Dakota RIP sweet baby girl…
This little love is a spitfire with attitude! The photo (above left) shows how straggled she looked when she got here – a combination of a bad molt and diet gave her a disheveled look! The photo on the right was about 4 months later.
This girl has not decided who her friends are yet – she seems to prefer women but when shes in a bad mood ie: hormonal, even women are fair game to get a nip.
Typical of her species, Eclectus females are hormonal for about 9 months out of a year – making her a very challenging girl.
In September of 2016 , we noticed her becoming very lethargic(as noted in the above photo)stopped eating as much and had very minimal droppings. We didn’t wait to see if she would improve – we knew she was hormonal and were concerned about her having an egg. We rushed her to the Avian Vet right away.
Sure enough, she was egg-bound – this is a very scary and serious condition and can kill a bird very fast.
We had been hopeful that she would pass the egg on her own with some assistance from the vets, but it was simply to big for her to pass it.
The vets had to deflate the egg and slowly and gently remove it.
She recovered from this over time and continued to have Lupron shots over the course of about 2 months.
Because she has shown this condition, there is a good chance it will repeat itself in the future. She will need regular visits to the Avian Vet and when/if she becomes super hormonal again, she will need(potentially) to have Lupron shots and xrays to rule out any further large eggs. Full disclosure to potential adopters as this could potentially be an issue for her and a financial cost that many may not be prepared for.
She has a pretty good appetite and enjoys her vege and fruit and especially loves frozen berries. She likes plain zupreem pellets – any other pellets will cause toe tapping/wing flapping.
We try to keep a variety of toys for her and she seems to like things she can shred and small 1 inch or smaller wood blocks to chew.
She would do best as an only bird – she has no desire to hang out with other birds and likes to go into their cages and cause trouble. This can cause fights and she won’t back down. She is fully flighted and has just started attempting to fly short distances.
Because she can often be found wandering on the floor, we request no small children and preferably no dogs.
She does talk a bit and is trying to learn more words – she says “OW” perfectly, her name, and a few other sentences.
She enjoys hanging out on the back of the couch watching TV with you and when she gets bored she will wander over and preen your hair – or sit on your head 🙂
She is very treat motivated and nuts are used for training and being able to transport her around the house. Caution has to be taken with all food treats as she will eat everything and anything and can fast become overweight which is not healthy for her and increases her risk of CVD.
Please fill out an application located on our website if you are interested in this fiery little redhead!
