Eclectus Parrot

 Eclectus Parrot For Sale Sydney

Hen Eclectus
Hen Eclectus

The spectacular eclectus parrot has roughly ten sub-species which all stem from the dominant race of the “grand Eclectus”. They can be found in many locations around the world such as New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Cape York Peninsula and Australia.  For these birds, intelligence is the key. Make sure you decorate their cage with toys that they can chew, swing and play on. This will not only make your bird much happier but it will greatly decrease the chances of your bird developing bad habits like feather plucking or excessive squawking.

Pet Bird – Eclectus parrots as pets are beautiful to look at as well as being an active member of the family! They live for around 45 years and are reasonably easy to breed. They are very good talkers and will always surprise you with how fluent their words are pronounced.

Mating Eclectus parrot
Mating Eclectus parrot

Bird Cage – As with any bird, there is no such thing as a cage too big! It is recommended that you house your bird in the largest cage you can afford; this will benefit the wellbeing of your bird.

Eclectus Food – Eclectus parrots should be fed a healthy diet which includes..

Seed– feed your Eccys a good quality seed mix Parrot mix for young Eclecus i prefer small parrot mix for adult birds as it has less sun flower seed.

Fruit– oranges, apples, plums, rockmelon, pear, pomegranate, strawberries, blue berries, guava, stone fruit, kiwi fruit, start fruit

Vegetables and greens-Seeding grasses,  sweet potato, corn, spinach, broccoli, carrot, green beans, cucumber, capsicum, carrot tops, capsicum, chilli

Pellets– As an Eclectus Breeder i have had great results with many pellets as they are all designed by Vets in Australia and around the world.  We recommend Kaytee, vetafarm paradise pellets, Roudy bush pellets and especially when breeding Tropimix large parrot.  I had great success with breeding birds with kaytee pellets.

Calcium– Do not give eclectus parrot’s shell grit or cuttle bone as this can effect the birds crop but instead add the calcium via the water supply or place a calcium perch in the enclosure.

Vitamin D– Essential for the bird to absorb calcium birds naturally receive this through sun light but if your bird is inside or behind a window this will filter out the vitamin D which is essential to the health and well being of all parrot’s.  There are supplement’s available which contain vitamin D alone or have vitamin d and calcium combined.

Sprouted seed– A sprouted seed mix is available also a good quality cockatoo seed mix will also work well as a sprouted seed mix.  Some breeders also use just sun flower and safflower.  Firstly rinse the desired seed clean so any trace of colour in the water is gone. Place seed in a stainless steel dish fill with water and soak over night.  Be sure to place aviclens in the water during the soaking process.  The amount to place in the water will be in the bottle.  The aviclens is a very important step as it stops bacteria build up which will happen during this process and can actual make birds sick.

The next day rinse the seeds again and place them in a closed plastic container or bag with holes in the bottom with a fork.  This is important as it stops the seeds from becoming unusable and spoiling.  Place the containers somewhere warm such as a window where some sun comes through to help the germination process.

When the seeds have sprouted around 24 hours in summer and a 48 hours in winter place the sprouted seeds in a container and rinse with aviclens to remove and bacterial or fungal build up and they are ready to be served.

 

With a healthy diet, your Eclectus parrot will become very robust. Vitamin supplements should be given regularly

Do not feet your eclectus grit, lettuce, avocado or anything containing cocoa.

Eclectus Parrot Nature–Make sure they are socialized from a young age preferably with another eclectus of the opposite sex. This is important because as an older bird, your parrot may become less interested in its own kind when it reaches breeding age.  It is also important that you provide behavioural enrichment to keep the birds mind active, when it learns that a reward is given for good behaviour it will be more likely to tame up quicker. When handling your bird you should be firm yet gentle, never flinch or be scared of the bird because this will make them feel dominant over you and in turn, will encourage bad behaviour. The best thing you can do for your bird is spend time with it, not spend time on it.

Length

around 34 cms

Weight

430 – 550 grams

Eclectus female nesting
Eclectus female nesting

Breeding Eclectus parrots

Ive found with pairs i have had to wait until they are about 2 to 3 years old until they are old enouph to breed.  Which is a long wait!  But is well worth it as i went through a number of pairs with no success and through time i realised why?  I had purchased a number of pairs which i believe were actual breeding pairs.  They were in perfect feather very nice looking birds.  I sat on these birds waiting for them to breed until i realised why they were not breeding.  They were either too old to breed on infertile.  This is why i recommend anyone wanting to start breeding birds to start with young bird’s as there is alot of people wanting to sell birds which are too old or simply infertile.  For this reason i recommend starting off with younger bird’s and being patient.

When you have a good breeding pair they are relatively easy to breed.  There is a saying with eclectus parrot’s easy to breed and difficult to feed.  This is because they need a varied diet to get the best out of them. which i have written about above.  Food must be plentiful especially when they are raising young.

Birds will breed well in nesting logs and boxes alike.  The eclectus photographed above was breeding in a much larger log than i have used in the past.

Eclectus Parrot Eggs
Eclectus Parrot eggs

 

Eclectus Breeding Hen
Eclectus Breeding Hen