GINA FALLS IN LOVE

The Story of a Biting Eclectus

By Andrew McDonald

As I understand it, Gina was a hand-fed and human-bonded Grand Eclectus. I never see pictures that look quite like her so I tend to believe the sub-species designation. Someone decided she was such a beautiful bird that they would breed her. So to break her human bond, they isolated her for a period of time. I don't really know how long. After the isolation time they tried to breed her. She killed the first male they put in the cage. Things went downhill from there. She was no good as a breeder, and because of the isolation she had turned mean and distrustful of people.

Probably the only thing that kept her from being put down was her appearance. Because she was so pretty I guess the breeders ended up trying to sell her as a pet again. Those owners could not handle her so they brought her back. This apparently happened several times until she somehow ended up in a pet shop.

My Mom ran into some cash after someone ran into her <grin>. She was in the pet store and ended up buying a Cockatoo, an African Grey and a Cockatiel, and several thousand dollars worth of birds and cages. She saw Gina and was amazed by how she looked but I think the price was just too high, several thousand dollars, so she just looked. She kept going back to that same shop for various things and Gina was always there. She makes the cutest little coo, sounds sort of like "Hmmmmm?". My Mom thought it was awfully cute so she picked her up and was wandering around the store when she noticed that the employees were in shock. Apparently some woman had picked her up the week before and had ended up in the emergency room for stitches in her hand.

Since Gina apparently had decided to tolerate my Mom, the owner of the store dropped the price, threw in a cage (a really cheap one) and my Mom took her home. Since Gina had bitten all the employee's there, they were probably thrilled to be rid of her. Mom had her for a couple years. Gina was never a snuggle bird but at least she had a stable home. Mom could play with the other birds but Gina spent most of her time in her cage. It was still kind of sad but at least Mom was not going to abandon her.

My Mom ended up moving in with me about 4 years ago and she and the birds ended up living in the basement. I noticed Gina right off. The cockatoos are pretty; I have never been wacky about the Greys. Her cockatiel Gabby was cute but he was just that, cute. So silly me, I was pretty brave. The only way to get Gina out was with a stick. And after you had her out you kept her on the stick. You did not try to pet her; you did not offer fingers for a step up. This went on for a while. If you opened her door she would wander out but sticking appendages in the cage meant bloody stumps, not that anyone was stupid enough to try. I was pretty persistent. I don't know if it was the challenge of doing something that nobody else had been able to do or what. One night I was sitting by Gina's cage. I had her door open and was trying to coax her out without the stick. I kept saying, "Come on Gina. Come on". I tried for about an hour while watching TV and talking to my Mom. A couple days later my Mom yelled for me. I went down and heard Gina saying "C'mon" in the sweetest voice. She could already say a couple other things, "Hello" and "I'm a good girl" but this was the first thing she had learned since my Mom had bought her. We decided that this bird should be mine and I moved her upstairs with me.

One of the first things I did was buy a new cage. Hers was 24x24x30. It was one of those take-apart cages with wingnuts holding everything together. It was impossible to clean because Gina makes this paste with her pellets. That's why I call her the goo-girl. So I got one of those one piece California Cages 24x36x54 with the dome. It stands almost as tall as I do and it has plenty of room. At the time I figured this would serve two purposes. First it would give her a bigger, nicer space and secondly, probably more important, it would break whatever territorial claims she had on the old cage which might help. Looking back I think it did. Then the real fun began. I was not content to deal with her at the end of a stick so I got a bit more forceful with the step up. I started the command while using the stick and occasionally I would replace the stick with fingers. This often resulted in bites but I kept trying. I don't think it's possible to get an animal to trust you unless you can make that effort yourself. Sometimes this means a little (or a lot of) pain. I contemplated wearing leather work gloves but decided that would be just like the stick. We were going to have to make real contact to get anywhere.

Once I was able to get her out of the cage we would just sit and watch TV or whatever. She was not really snuggly at this point; she just sat on my hand and eventually my shoulder. At the time I was not aware of the height/dominance problem or I might have thought more about the shoulder. We started out by eating together. Tater tots are probably not the best food for a bird but she sure does love them. She gets so excited eating them that after a few bites she just goes into what I can only guess is baby-feeding mode. She makes these excited sort of begging sounds. It's really cute. I started feeding her with the fork but eventually I used my fingers to feed her. I never got bitten doing this. She was always very gentle taking food from me. This gave us the idea to actually hand feed her, like a baby, in an attempt to re-kindle some of those hand-fed feelings. I bought some Kaytee baby formula, and fed it to her with a syringe. This really did help.

Then gradually I worked on touching her, petting her, etc. Again, more bites, especially when trying to pet her back or her chest. But she bit less and less as time went by. She still whirls her head around when I pet her head or back but once she sees what is going on she goes back to whatever she was doing or she nibbles on me. We spent a lot of time together. If I was home, she was out with me, taking little bites of whatever I was eating. True to her Italian name, she loves pizza, spaghetti, and chili. I don't let her have too much though.

As time went by she became more and more trusting of me. I can now pet her anywhere, under her wings, that little spot under her beak, her chest, her back, the top of her head, her feet, her beak whatever. She even nibbles on my fingers from time to time, mostly tasting them with that weird tongue of hers. She occasionally tries to preen my 5-o'clock shadow and my hair and even chews on my ears from time to time. I am always amazed at how she can pick at a single hair with that big beak of hers. To me that would be like trying to pick up a penny with leather work gloves on.

Last year I started flipping her over on her back and holding her with her feet sticking up. She does not like it but she does not really fight me either. She gets a pretty good grip on my fingers with her feet but has never bitten me. I am tempted to try holding her like this for her next toenail trim just to see if I can impress my vet.

She is such a snuggly bird now. I think her favorite spot is plunked down on my chest taking a nap. I know it's a no-no but she sometimes falls asleep with me. I don't move at night (my wife has confirmed this) so I feel pretty safe about it.

And most importantly, other people can handle her as well so although she is bonded to me I am not the only person she tolerates. Actually the last person she bit was my wife over a year ago. Lorry was trying to force her to step up and I think Gina was being stubborn. Lorry did not read the signs and got nipped. I never have problems getting her to step up but she did not really know Lorry at the time. Even my 12-year daughter can hold her although she is pretty freaked knowing that Gina can bite really hard. She has never seen it happen but I have warned her and showed her some of the scars.

So Gina has turned into a great pet. We are going to build a new house in a few years and have plans to build an aviary/sun room for her to live in. Unfortunately, Gina developed a chewing/plucking problem a couple years ago. My job heated up and I was working too many hours. Even when I was home I was working and it was not practical to snuggle her all the time. Recently I read about the aloe in the water and it seems to have helped a lot. And I make an effort to spend as much time as I can with her. Her feathers are starting to grow back in and she is leaving them alone so far. I just hope that the last couple years plucking does not mean she will not be fully feathered. She is so pretty. I am hopeful, new feathers pop out everyday. The only spots I am really worried about are the middle of her chest and the tops of her wings.

So don't give up on those mean birds. If you don't know their history it may just be that they don't trust people. Gina had no reason to. Everyone kept abandoning her. I have had dogs and cats and none of them have ever shown me this kind of loyalty and affection. For a while after we finally started getting along she would get so excited when I came home that she made hiccup sounds. She is such a sweet little bird. My mother can't believe the difference.

These are such magnificent creatures. I sometimes wonder if we are doing the right thing. Are we being greedy for wanting to have these birds in our homes? In Gina's case I was not the one who brought her into this situation. All I could do was make it better for her. I think I did. Would she be happier soaring through the trees of Indonesia? Not as she is now. She is too attached to her tater tots and I hope she is too attached to me. Maybe the life these birds live with us is not better or worse than their natural life, it's just different. We certainly provide these animals with something they could not get in the wild; a good diet, safety (mostly) and lots of neat stuff to play with, not to mention love. A lot of the people in this group really do care for their fids. It's strange but in a good way.

I know I will be devastated when I lose Gina. She might outlive me although I don't think she could take it if I was gone. She has had such a rough life. I am glad she made it to me and glad that I could make her life better.