Oscar the Eclectus

Another controversial subject is pellets. To give or not to give. You will find various opinions on the subject throughout the internet. However, one key thing that is always consistent is NEVER give an eclectus colored pellets.They might look more fun & interesting to eat and some are in cute little shapes; but, colored pellets contain dyes and eclectus are very sensitive to dyes. Color pellets are a leading case of toe tapping and feather discoloration. So colored pellets are right on to of the NO NO list.

Some owners swear by Harrisons while others TOPS. Some owners just feel like there is no need to offer a pellet or that they are bad. Some parrots are more sensitive than others and cannot eat pellets, no matter if its organic or the best pellet out there on the market.

Pellets should not make up a large part of the eclectus diet. I use them as backup. I put a teaspoon in a small bowl in the cage. Sometimes he will eat a few in the day other days I don't thing he touches them. But I offer them non the less incase he runs out of his veggies during the day when I am off at work. When Oscar goes to work with me he does not get pellets that day he eats all fresh foods.

If you want to offer pellets there are only two brands out there that are organic and all natural TOPS and Dr. Macs. I use TOPS for my conure and eclectus. Now my conure will eat more of the pellets than my eclectus on a daily basis.

The reason pellets should not be a large part of an eclectus diet is they get most of their fluids from their fruits and veggies. Eclectus really do not drink much water. Now they will make soup with it (dunking their food in water) they love to do that but drinking of the water is not as frequent as other parrots. My conure drinks more water daily than my eclectus and he eats the same fruits and veggies Oscar does.

Pellets just like anything else is an owners choice some eclectus have no issues while others do. So if you offer pellets just watch your feathered one and make sure they have no bad reactions to them. If they do switch to another pellet or discontinue pellet use.

Spirulina to give or not.

In my opinion it is a bird owners choice. Sprirulina is a very controversial subject. Some parrot owners are completely against it while others are not. Some people believe it can cause for toe tapping & wing flipping. However, other things can cause these conditions as well.

The only treatment is to find the cause and eliminate it. There is speculation of what causes these conditions and my belief is its diet related. However, its hard to define a single cause. A combination of different things could also cause the problem as well. Some of these theories include:

• Calcium deficiency
• Magnesium deficiency
• Nutritional imbalance
• Food allergies
• Spirulina
• Artificual colors, flavors, preservatives in pellets & processed foods
• Sunflower seeds
• Stress

If you feed commercial store bought pellets, some of these pellets contain spirulina. The reason for so much controversy over this is when one variable of diet is changed the problem symptom goes away. So a parrot on colored pellets could bring on toe tapping or wing flipping changing the pellet could discontinue the symptom. Or some parrots when a calcium supplement was added to their diet developed symptoms and when discontinued  symptoms disappeared. This can be said with spirulina also.

However in my experience with eclectus I have never encountered a problem with spirulina included in diet. If given spirulina should be food grade quality. In my opinion spirulina is a good natural source of vitamins and minerals. It is considered a superfood. I think the reputation is undeserving; moreover, my opinion is that spriulina obtained from contaminated sources is the factor rather than the spirulina itself. So if you chose to use the superfood you should only get it from a reliable source.

So what is spirulina?  It is considered microscopic vegetable it is edible blue-green algae sold as a dry powder. Spirulina is very nutritious, It has 62% amino acid contents. It is world's richest source of Vitamin B12 and antioxidant beta-carotene (20 times that of carrots).  Its also good for us humans as well.

Scientists have stated that spirulina dramatically strengthens avian immune health. Scientists tested a theory that spirulina "acts as a safe, edible broad-spectrum vaccine against bacteria or other disease-causing microbes." There findings were "Spirulina protected birds from infection with the antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and E.coli."

All reports appearing in scientific literature document the medical benefits of Spirulina. They all show that Spirulina improves the immune system, feather color & shine, fertility, and that baby birds are protected from otherwise deadly germs.

So what was the conclusion to this study?
"Birds have less sickness or recover more quickly. Fewer problems with feather plucking and better recovery from self-mutilation. Feather quality and coloration reach their peak. Veterinarians observe that infections quickly respond to treatment, and wound healing improves. Spirulina supercharges the avian immune system for better disease resistance and increased fertility."

My honest opinion is you know your parrot and diet; thus, it is the parrots owners decision to add spirulina into a parrots diet or not. Spirulina is some powerful stuff; thus, its term superfood. Truth be told to much of a good thing can be bad so moderation is the key.

I personally give my parrots spirulina just a tiny bit sprinkled on their food every other day. My mother gave it to her female eclectus for years. However just because my parrots have never had issues with it does not mean someone else's parrot will not. Its like us humans some of us or more sensitive to a food/ vitamin/mineral than others. Thus, parrot owners should research the subject themselves and form their own opinion on whether they will include it in their own parrots diet or not.

Understanding your bird's droppings could save your bird's life. It is true that when a bird becomes sick that their health can deteriorate quickly. But it's rarely true that when a bird becomes sick, it dies suddenly without showing symptoms of illness. The symptoms are there; we just have to learn how to recognize them.

Changes in the droppings can be a very early indicator that the bird is sick. Know what normal droppings look like so you can recognize a change in color, consistency, order, and/or amount. Use paper at the bottom of the cage so that the dropping falls flat and clean onto the
paper. This will enable you to recognize any changes in color, consistency, order, and/or amount. If you are able to notice this change you could save your bird's life. 

Wood shavings, kitty litter and the sorts should not be used at the bottom of your cage. Kitty litter is dusty and the dust is produces is bad for parrots. But, most importantly using these products could case you to miss a change in color and consistency in the droppings.

Using kitty litter or wood shavings might make for easier clean up for you' but, it interferes with evaluating the droppings for signs of health problems.

There are three components to most droppings. 

1. Urine consists of crystal urine called urates (white chalky material) 
2. non-crystal urine called urine (clear water). 
3. feces, which comes from the colon and consists of digested food.

Sometimes the 2 types of urine are mixed creating cloudy white urine. Important changes include color changes and amount:

• Green or Yellow Urates /Liver Disease, Anorexia 
• Brown or Chocolate Urates/ Lead Poisoning
• Red Urine or Urates/ Internal Bleeding
• Increased Urates/ Dehydration
• Increased Urine Disease/ Eating food high in water and drinking a
• lot .

The color of the feces varies depending on the types of food eaten. Red pellets and strawberries produce a red colored dropping. (This does not apply to the urine.) Blueberries and blackberries produce black droppings.The feces should be solid and tubular like a worm. It can be coiled up or uncoiled and it is okay if it is broken into pieces. 

Diarrhea is not excessive urine in the droppings. Diarrhea is the fecal material not
holding its tubular shape. Instead it is the consistency of pudding.

If the feces are fresh and black in color and there were no blueberries in the diet then this indicates melena. Melena is black droppings caused by bleeding high up in the digestive system. When the blood passes through the lower digestive system, it is digested turning the red blood into a black tarry color, staining the feces black. Your veterinarian should investigate color that cannot be explained by the diet. 

Watch your bird's droppings everyday and learn what they look like normally. When you notice a change, identify what portion of the dropping has changed. If you cannot explain the change by the bird's lifestyle then act immediately and contact your avian veterinarian.

Oscar & Screeches morning breakfast. Yummy they could not wait to get into their bowls. Screech was actually patient and waited for me to get him but Oscar of course he had to climb over all the veggies & fruits and climb into his cube to munch down on some goodness.

The Eclectus Food pyramid.

Diet cannot be covered in one post its just to broad; however, this is a good pyramid to use as a starting guide. Eclectus diet should consist of lots of veggies and fruits some will say 80% fresh fruits & veggies to 20% pellet, seed, nut, etc. However, I try to feed over 80% of a variety of fresh fruits and veggies. I also feed organic steel cut oatmeal, beans, rice, sprouts, mush, herbs, spices, flowers, organic plain granola (no nuts or anything in it). I personally feed no nuts or seeds. or any commercial parrot food that contains sunflower seeds, nuts, dried food in it or the like. Real is always best. I will not say organic is always best because not everyone can afford it and somethings you just cannot find certain things organic.

I do offer organic pellet Oscar and the conure have a small bowl in their cage and i put about a teaspoon of pellet in there. Oscar hardly ever touches it; but, I still offer it for variety and  in case he runs out of food before I get home from work. Many eclectus owners do not feed any sort of pellet at all and truthfully the more real food is the best.

Eclectus have a long digestive tract so fiber foods, fruits & veggies  are extremely important to keep their digestive tract moving along smoothly. Seeds & nuts should be fed sparingly as a treat but not part of their everyday meal.

One thing is for certain with an eclectus. They are messy messy eaters. They will fling food on your walls, floors, ceiling, their cage, and anything else within flinging distance. Afterward they will clean their  beak on their cage bars or perches.

Some new owners are not aware of a mess they can make with their food and it can be messy. I curb the messiness using a cube or a wide dish when he is fed out of the cage. A wide dish is advised for their fruits & veggies. As they like to pick through their food to find their favorite food to eat first. If the dish is to little they will toss the food out of the bowl when picking through their food.

Another handy gadget is a food cube which can be made or purchased. This contains food mess to one area and makes for easy clean up. It also keeps food off cage floors. If they do toss food out you can just slide the bottom catch piece out and collect the food as put it back in their bowls (as long as they have not pooped on it LOL) The food cube can be hung in your cage or the outside of the cage or you can put it on the kitchen counter in the AM for them to eat on and later easily move the cube to the cage when its time to go off to work.

I love the cube its such a life saver, it keeps my cage, its bars, perches, toys, floors, walls and everything else food splatter free.

Hi and welcome to Ocars' blog. Oscar is a grand eclectus and was hatched March of 2013. He is a spunky little guy and we love him alot.

My first eclectus was willed to me she was my mothers who had her since before she was married and had children. I am her oldest child and a young 38 years of age. We estimated Girlie at 37 years old as she passed away Feb. of 2014. From what, is unknown she had no health issues, was not a plucker and the vet believes from old age mixed with possible grieving for my mother.

Since I became owned by an eclectus I ventured on the net trying to absorb as much information as I possible could; however, I learned that a lot of the information posted is not ideal for a healthy lifestyle for the eclectus parrot.

I am part of many groups and learned so much but everyday you learn more. I am not an expert on the eclectus and do not portray to be one. I have learned a lot of my information from my mother, my vet (who is also and eclectus owner) and a breeder whom I got Oscar from and she is full of useful knowledge advice about all things eclectus.

My only hope is to provide information to others who have come to own an eclectus and want to be on the right path. The eclectus diet is not one like any other parrot. The our extremely beautiful, loving, and social parrots. However, their system is a little finicky so diet is extremely important so they do not have health issues later on in their life.

Come back by and take a peek at our posts. Oscar is learning I will try to keep this blog informed on dietary needs, tricks, treats, socializing, children, hormonal issues, as well as introducing them to a pet that is already in the home.