2 New Ekkie Questions

[Nostromo]

I'm beyond excited to be bringing home a 3 year old male ekkie this weekend. He has been eating chop and pellets for the past three months, before that, mostly seed. Apparently he takes his veggies pretty well.

My first question - for diet, how does this sound? I plan to convert to TOPS pellets, and feed only a few per day (in foraging toys if/once he is able to forage). I made a large batch of frozen chop consisting of kale, steamed butternut squash, pears, carrots, cooked beans and apples. I don't have sprouting seeds at the moment so I am sprouting a bean mix instead that I will offer with his chop. I plan to offer chop in the morning for a couple hours, remove and clean, let him forage for TOPS pellets, and offer a chop serving before bedtime. I'll reserve nuts for training rewards.

My second question - this 3 year old boy is apparently a horny little green monster. I'm guessing he's in the height of ekkie puberty. How long is puberty/heightened hormonal behavior known to last for male ekkies? For his masturbation, I plan to encourage him to make love to his toys and not to my hands, but otherwise not to intervene too much in that behavior.

 

[parrotcafe]

I think your diet plan sounds fine but you will need more veggies ( only a couple of fruits). Ekkies are hormonal year round unlike other parrots so it’s more a matter of managing it rather than waiting it out.

 

[Nostromo]

@parrotcafe I've heard differing things about fruits vs veggies for ekkies. A lot of places I've read have stated that ekkies should eat a large amount of fruits since they use the sucrose to create fat in their livers. For the hormones, I was wondering how many years puberty lasts for males.

 

[parrotcafe]

in a wild environment yes they are a heavy fruit eating species, however captive eclectus have no way to burn off all the extra energy they get from the sugar in fruit (in the wild, they burn off the extra energy by breeding year round). You will find that be feeding so much fruit, you will increase his hormonal behavior.

 

[Nostromo]

@parrotcafe Okay, that makes sense! Thank you.