Eclectus can start talking before they are weaned, depending on the individual bird and on the handfeeder's voice and how much time is spent repeating words to the baby. One of my baby girls went to her new home on Friday. She just turned five months old and is a big talker but as sure as I tell an adoptive parent that their new baby can talk, the baby will clam up for a week and make a liar of me. I told the new owner of this baby that I "thought" her baby could say hello, so wouldn't you know, the first report I got after the baby arrived was that she jumped out of the carrier, snuggled up under her new mom's chin, and said hello about a dozen times! There is only one predictable thing about Eclectus, and that is that they are totally unpredictable! I think that Eclectus have the most human-like tone to their voice of any of the talking birds. My Kiwi has many voices. One is my voice and another is an old man's gravelly voice like someone else mentioned. My husband thought it would be cute to teach Kiwi this horrible phrase and he did it when I was not around. I was absolutely stunned the first time my beautiful Kiwi innocently proclaimed in his scratchiest and most devilish voice, "I'm a pervert, ha ha ha ha ha!" I have always been careful not let my birds pick up undesirable words and phrases, so even though I was not amused at what my husband taught him, I still collapsed in laughter the first time I heard it. Now Kiwi knows that it's a crowd pleaser so he always says it for guests when he is indoors. He is famous among our friends for that one phrase. If anyone is trying without success to teach your Eclectus a word or phrase, try singing it! For some reason, this works wonderfully well on birds that have no interest in talking. When they repeat it to you, it probably will not sound like singing, but for whatever reason, many talking parrots seem to learn faster from singing than speaking. Just make up a tune to accompany what you are repeating for the bird to learn and sing it the same way each time.

Since you have read "what" I feed, maybe you are asking "when" and "how much". First, here is "how" I arrived at the Ecletus diet that has been so successful for me and many other Eclectus owners and breeders. I was fortunate enough to benefit from the trials of others who had problems trying to feed Eclectus flocks all pellets. I was impressed by the many cases of toe tapping, wing flipping, feather plucking and a variety of other health problems that were reported in Eclectus parrots eating predominately pellets. I know of at least one large flock of African Greys that breed and apparently do well on a pellet diet and I hear of other parrot species that do not have nearly as many problems with pellets as Eclectus do.

Somehow, our birds seem to NEED those juicy fruits and fibrous vegetables to maintain health. I often hear of Eclectus parrots dunking pellets in their water dish and even stuffing them into the drinker tube of water bottles. It has often been repeated, although I've never seen proof, that Eclectus have a longer-than-average digestive tract, perhaps indicating that in the wild, they eat a lot of fibrous foods to eke out the nutrients that they need. They are said to be super efficient at extracting all the nutrients from plant-based foods offering minimal nutrition. This certainly would help to explain their difficulty handling the "nutritional concentrates" of vitamin/mineral supplements--and pellets. Pellets do offer nutrients, but in the Eclectus diet, I think they should be considered a vitamin/mineral supplement rather than the base of the diet because they are a concentrated source of nutrition, perhaps the opposite of how the Ecletus digestive system is configured. My favorite way to supplement vitamins and minerals is to offer fresh juices made of organic fruits and vegetables. This healthful supplement is considered to be a treat by my birds. Otherwise, the only supplement that I use is wheat grass powder sprinkled lightly on the soft mix three times a week. It is difficult for us to provide the high amount of chlorophyll that Eclectus parrots eat in their natural environment, but wheat grass powder helps to provide this missing nutrient and gives them the rich and vibrant color that makes them so beautiful. To date, I have never heard of wheat grass powder causing toe tapping, wing flipping or other symptoms that sometimes accompany supplementation with spirulina, a nutrient-dense supplement that probably is too rich for a digestive system designed to efficiently assimilate the nutrition of a fibrous diet with minimal nutrients.

Fruits, vegetables, and sprouts are great foods but limited in protein. My birds enjoy a soft food mix that contains brown rice and whole corn, neither of which contain all the amino acids that make up a complete protein. However, combined they DO contain all the amino acids of a complete protein and Eclectus seem to love this combination of foods. It contains corn and rice (a complete protein), beans (another good protein), and sweet potatoes which contain fiber and beta carotene--substances that keep Eclectus healthy--in a combination of tastes and textures that they really enjoy.

Besides these protein foods, I feed hard boiled eggs, with the shells, three times a week. Eggs are the most nearly perfect protein food. Protein quality is expressed as biological value which measures the rate of efficiency that protein is used for growth. Eggs score 93.7%--higher than any other food! Whole hard-boiled egg is also the best source of Vitamin D, and the calcium in eggshells is the correct ratio for parrots. I sometimes feed , chicken drumsticks, and bits of well-cooked turkey, fish and shellfish to provide a variety of protein. It is thought that most parrots in the wild eat some animal sources of protein (bugs, dead lizards and other appetizing fare. ;)

There is no way to perfectly mimic the seasonal feeding habits of wild Eclectus flocks, but when a fruit that has a short season is available here, I might feed that fruit every day for a week, approximating the way a wild flock returns to fruiting trees day after day until the ripened fruit is gone. If you feed your Eclectus parrots pomegranates, you already know that they rarely tire of their favorite seasonal fruits no matter how often they get them. Right now (September) my birds are pigging out daily on scuppernongs--my favorite thick- skinned grape--also called "Georgia bullets" and it seems to be a favorite of my Eclectus flock too. The season for scuppernongs or muscadines as they sometimes are called, is short indeed. The first ones are just arriving at local markets and by the end of September they will be gone.

In the wild, Eclectus parrots seem to have two main feeding times daily. In the morning when the flock awakens hungry, they seek out food and eat until they are satisfied. Then they play, squabble, nap, preen, bathe, travel to other areas searching for food and water sources, tend the nest sites, and of course keep an eye out for predators. In late afternoon, the flock feeds again in preparation for the overnight fast.

I use this natural cycle to feed my birds, feeding them early in the morning and taking advantage of their hunger to give them the foods that I want to be sure they consume, such as sprouts, fresh fruits and veggies, soft food mix, and protein foods. In the afternoon, they get some of the same foods again plus an unfortified seed mix--gathered from the health food store, bird supply stores, and the supermarket--plus nuts, healthy leftovers from our meals, and occasional millet sprays. They get fresh water at the morning and the afternoon feeding. The young birds indoors have water and a seed & nut mix available full time but the outdoor birds have no food or water overnight to avoid attracting insects.

As for portions, I always "overfeed". I think this could be one of the reasons that my birds are so prolific. In their natural environment, birds go to nest when food is abundant enough to support their young. The only method that I have not tried for stopping them from laying is limiting their daily food supply. It seems that they live to eat and I truly enjoy feeding them, so it would be difficult for me to restrict their food. I could never successfully keep obesity-prone birds such as Rosies or Amazons--they would all be obese! Now you know why I call myself the "pheeding phool"--I really enjoy my birds' enjoyment of good food.

If you prefer not to waste food, you can determine how much to feed your birds by observing what is left in their dishes. If the dish has been "licked clean", offer more food until a little is left when they are finished. When you have only one or two birds, it is much easier to tailor their diet to their changing appetite. Sometimes they will relish one food for a week or two and then not want it at all for awhile. The portions that I feed might sound excessive, but we know how they "peel" everything and that alone cuts down on the amount actually eaten. Here is an approximate schedule with approximate amounts. I feed at least two fruits and two veggies (often more) at each feeding but I make SURE that they get something dark green and something deep red, orange or yellow (for beta carotene) every day. Greens are an often overlooked component of the parrot diet--picture what they eat in their natural habitat. If a pair has babies in the nest, I give them extra food several times a day and they have soft food mix available all day. They feed their babies hard boiled egg every day. The reason they allow me to be a third wheel in their family is that I am an excellent "food schlepper"!

MORNING FEEDING per bird (double for pairs)