This is Oscar with his buddy Screech. Screech is my sun conure that I adore. He is a jealous one and did not like Oscar at all. Tried to nip him several times and just was not happy he had to share me. After a couple months Screech has learned that Oscar is his friend and now they can share plates of food without issue. However, I still keep my eye on my Screech as he thinks he is the boss.
Getting a jealous pet to like a new can be very difficult. I did not quarantine my birds when i first got Oscar. My conure is regularly vetted and very healthy and Oscar came from a reputable breeder that I know. So i was 100% sure Oscar had nothing to pass on to my conure & vise versa. I did vet Oscar though for precaution & he was all clear as I knew he would be. However, the ideal situation is to quarantine a new bird from your others for at least 30 days just to make sure they don't have something to give to your other feathered friends. You should especially quarantine rescue birds or birds you buy from individuals off ads on craigslist or other sites.
Eclectus are expensive parrots and because a lot of these birds are not fed the proper diet. I would recommend if you chose to get a parrot off craigslist you have it vetted before you put funds down. Go with the owner and have them vetted if they will allow it. Even a pet store bird ask to see the parrots recent vet check or ask if they can have it done. Even pet stores one would think knows how to care for parrots might not know how to properly care for the eclectus parrot. If you find colored pellets in their bowl or regular parrot seed this is one clue that the pet store or owner does not know the proper diet of an eclectus parrot.
An eclectus on a poor diet can have or lead to several issues toe tapping, wing flipping, plucking, poor feather condition, stress bands, aggressiveness, and then more serious issues like liver disease, which is common to find an eclectus with, even a 4 year old eclectus if it has been fed a poor diet for several years..
When I started looking for an eclectus i looked at a few rescue parrots (as there were not many in my area) and parrots that needed to be re-homed. Unfortunately I did not find a bird that needed to be re-homed that I clicked with. I also found a lot of eclectus on a poor diet and they had stress bands showing lack of nutrition. There was a female I did like she was in poor feather and had stress bands as well as tail bobbing; but, at 1500 dollars I was not willing to risk taking a parrot that probably had liver disease (this is what I suspected from her condition). As the owner did not want to mess with allowing me to vet her to make sure of her health status.
I saw many parrots in my venture but eventually because of the pricing I chose to get me a baby from a reputable breeder. I spent several hours at her house playing with her adults and babies until I found the one that stole my heart, Oscar. After the loss of my mothers female it was probably not in my best interest to take on a parrot with health issues or a high risk of health issues as loosing her took its tole on me and hit me very hard.
I had a lot of fun looking for my new buddy and did enjoy looking at many different parrots but it was tough to find the parrot that picked me.
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