Cockatoos

MOD POST

angry_crab — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:56:03 GMT

Contact me if you want to moderate this community.

Funny Cockatoo Video

jmacek07 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:24:38 GMT

dragonflymusic — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:32:15 GMT

I have a bit of a problem I hope can be fixed before it turns into a huge problem. I have a 10 year old female U2, named Chloe. She's very sweet and loving, and seems have to attached to me more than any one else in my family. Lately, however, she's taking to nipping at my mother and grandmother, especially when I'm not around. She gets plenty of attention, both from me and from my mother, and has gotten hours of daily interaction from mostly my mother the past years while I was away at school, so it's not like she just doesn't know or like Mom. When I'm with them, she behaves perfectly.

What can I do to stop this behavior? Is there anything I can do to prevent it in future circumstances, such as if I get a roommate or get married? Thanks for any advice!

New, and a few questions

pickleboot — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:32:57 GMT

Hi! I am Nicole, and I am owned by a TAG, Belle, and a Quaker, Verdita.

I have the chance to give a home to a Bare Eyed 'Too and am looking for some advice. I know that he is 8 years old, that at this point he is not mutilating or plucking, and that he is not screaming in his current home.

Apparently he was shut in an attic for a few years- unclear on how long- but was fed a seed only diet, heavy on sunflower seeds during that time. So I am worried about liver issues, but I hope that frequent vet checks can help with that.

So any advice? Is this a bad idea? I am a SAHM, my kids are going to be homeschooled next year, so we will be around. I also have the two other birds- will that be a problem? Verdita thinks she is a big bird, and Belle is just calm, so I hope that there will be no real issues.

Thanks in advance!

Picture of our rescue goffin

prairieprincess — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:38:41 GMT

goffin cockatoo in MD.

dystopianutopia — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:51:31 GMT

we have a goffin cockatoo available in maryland.
for specific details please e-mail me :
jeepgirl01tj87xj at yahoo dot com

xphilega — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:13:02 GMT

dragonflymusic — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:46:43 GMT

I have a very sweet, affectionate 10 year old female umbrella cockatoo named Chloe. We've never really had any problems with her, except that she likes to chase our cat and bite her tail. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about how to get her to scream less. Now I KNOW that's what they do, and I was fully aware of it when we adopted her. We've been trying to do the "don't respond to them when they scream for attention, only when they've been quiet" thing for the past four years. I'm not sure it's been working that well.

We spend most of the day with her, so it's not like she's starved for attention. We usually put her down for a "nap" for a few hours in the afternoon, just so we can get a break and do things that it's hard to do with a cockatoo on your shoulder.

Also, I sleep in the same (large) room with her, and she starts trying to get my attention around 7:30am by tearing paper, making this horrible whining noise, or just talking to me. I'd much rather sleep. We cover the windows and usually put a blanket over her cage.

Do you have any suggestions for getting her to be a little quieter?

Oh, and have any of you ever lived with a cockatoo in an apartment? In a year or so I'm graduating college and have to take Chloe with me. I don't know if I would be able to find a house to live in, but I wasn't sure I could live with her in an apartment, just because of how loud she can be. Any opinions, suggestions, advice?

Thanks so much!

BLEEDING BIRD

prairieprincess — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:26:22 GMT

Our Goffin has somehow lost her entire nail and she is dripping blood - we've tried packing the area with flour and cornstarch - it's not working too well... what else can we do?????

A fantastic and heart-felt story!

prairieprincess — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 01:06:12 GMT

http://www.juliusbergh.com/cocky/

Be sure to click the "Next Page" link at the bottom for the rest of this wonderful story!

Bouncing behavior

reaching_west — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:21:25 GMT

Does anyone know why cockatoos love to bounce up and down? Surely 'too owners can identify with a bird joyfully bouncing up and down while their feet and claws dig tightly into your arm. Is there an behavioral explanation for this?

Feathers.

softpaw — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 09:00:51 GMT

I emailed angry_crab to make sure it was ok for me to ask this before I joined.

I am wanting to make some feather quill pens. Like this one here. I was wanting to use feathers other then the kind you can find in the store, IE goose and turkey. I have always admired the beauty of cockatoos and settled on trying to find some cockatoo feathers. However all auctions for them on eBay have gone WAY out of my price range, plus I have no real way of knowing how the feathers where "harvested".

I am wondering if any of you would be willing to sell or give me some feathers that your birds have naturally shed. I'd really like some from a Moluccan Cockatoo, as I am fond of the color pink, but I am not going to be picky, any kind will do. My only specific is that I need a large flat one with a good shaft, from the tail or wing. Smaller ones could be used to highlight but a large one is needed for the base.

I am NOT asking you to pluck feathers from your birds for me. NEVER!! Ones that the bird has shed on its own are what I am after, as the bird no longer has a use for it. If you are willing we can work something out either in comments or via email. My email is vannesa_Felis@hotmail.com . If you email me please make sure you put feathers in the topic. Otherwise I wont know what its about since it will go into my junk mail folder by default.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

rochester_angel — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:47:00 GMT

Hi I'm new and I need help!

I joined this group to learn about U2's because I am getting a rescue U2. He is 12 years old and was kept in a small cage with almost no human contact except for basic needs for the last 4 years. He is with a foster mom now that loves him but has too many of her own to give him the time and attention he needs. I have the time and can give him the love he needs. I have 2 parrots already that are *very* loved and and I am looking forward to adding this baby to my family.

This is Houdini, my B & G baby, he is in his travel cage from our trip to Florida.

But Goober is in NC and I am in Buffalo NY and because of the heat I can not fly him here via cargo and I can not afford to fly round trip to bring him home.

This is Goober. (I am *going* to change his name to Shadow)

Are there any suggestions on how to get my baby home?

rosequoll — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:20:08 GMT

(x-posted to cockatoos and parrot_lovers)
Some more pictures and vids of Figgy. He's doing great, and while the extent of our bonding included honking at eachother, and my petting his face, crest and scratching around his ears while he's towelled, we're doing good. He's fiesty, but gentle, and would rather walk away than bite, and when he has gotten me (when he was towelled, I slipped and my hand showed) he only firm nibbles rather than chomped.

Anyways, enjoy

Videos:
http://marsupalia.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=14&pos=7
http://marsupalia.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=14&pos=8
http://marsupalia.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=14&pos=9

A new home for Anouk.

mistralmadriiax — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:26:19 GMT

Hi everyone! I haven't been around much lately - mainly because Anouk (My beloved Male U2) and I have been happy and healthy and busy.
However, some amazing news has turned into a minor tragedy. My fiancee and I are moving to Tokyo in October to head up a new streetwear design team. We will be there approximately 3-6 years.

Photos of Anouk! http://tempestnyc.com/too/u2d2.html

While several thousand dollars and six months of preparation is not too much effort to take my darling bird with me, there is little chance that we could bring him BACK to the States at any point due to the heavy pet importation laws and bird flu regulations. I also would hate to risk his health and mental state on a 22 hour flight and possible quarantine in Japan.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I must begin to look for a new home for him.

ONE OF MY PRIMARY CONCERNS HERE IS DEFENDING HIM AGAINST THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK TO BREED HIM!! Any tips or inside information you can supply me with will be appreciated. I adopted him as a terrified yearling from an abusive household. I can't imagine anything worse then seeing my painstaking care and amazing results destroyed - as well as the cycle of abuse and neglect perpetuated through breeding.

I'm happy to give him to the best person free of charge, along with his gigantic cage and health insurance policy. I don’t wish to make a profit off of the loss. What this means is that the person who takes him must be the best that I can find.

I do not wish to ship him, so it would have to be within an easy drive of NYC.

Please speak to your bird-owning friends and get back to me with ideas. I'm going to take my time with this.

He is the best cockatoo anyone could ever dream of- smart, loving, obedient, responsive, non-biting and even gets along with dogs, cats and children. ALL of these qualities are going to be jeopardized by this change, so I'm looking for someone with the experience and patience to help get him through it. He is 5 now, with no self-destructive habits and in perfect health. He's accustomed to Harrisons, a variety of fruits and vegetables, and at least 3 hours of time out of the cage. He is surprisingly docile and self-entertaining during cage time, provided he has toys. He responds to admonitions well, and is accustomed to being scolded for screaming unnecessarily. You can expect the usual joyful yells of "HELLO! I LOVE YOU!" in the morning. He also says “What’s up, HI” and sings along to the stereo beautifully.

He prefers women, but loves soft spoken boys as well. He loves to rough house, play 'soccer' and has a bizarre stocking/lace/lingerie fetish (I often buy him cheap bras and panties to chew and destroy, after the wires hooks and slides have been removed).

In any case, please feel free to contact me at storm@tempestnyc.com to arrange a meeting.

Thanks and God bless you and your feathered children.

E

Questions.

gynocide — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 19:21:48 GMT

I'm still researching cockatoos because I would like to have one someday (I currently have cockatiels and a mini-macaw). Here's my latest set of questions.

Are cockatoos just completely out of the question for apartment dwellers due to the screaming?

What are bare-eyed cockatoos like to live with?

What are rose-breasted/Galah cockatoos like to live with?

rosequoll — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:40:50 GMT

(x-posted to my journal, parrot_lovers and cockatoos)

I thought I'd share some video's of Figgy. Two are without sound, and MOV format. The other two are AVI format and have sound.

Hosted on my site:
Mouseover for file sizes, link goes to a gallery:
http://marsupalia.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=13

Or on YouTube, if you prefer a flashplayer for videos, and the ability to leave comments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX44RNNJLfM

The rest can be found here. The quality is better on my site, but I believe the final file size is smaller on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HInDW9_YKn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prSQ5XMKUoM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rpEwmy-Duw

Edit, added in hindsight:
He still doesn't want to let me touch him. Unfortunately we took a step backwards yesterday, because I tried to get him out of his cage and he panicked and got his wing stuck on a toy I've now removed (for his sake, he was scared of it after). He's fine, physically, minus a jammed feather which he removed, but now he panics a bit when I go to touch him. I'm going to give him a few days to a week without bothering him more than leaving the cage open, talking and hanging out next to him.

On the other hand, he's started coming out of his cage once or twice a day on his own and sitting on the top of the cage while honking. he tries to fly off, crashes, and then runs back to the cage and hides inside. But! this means that he's not doing so bad and he wont end up cage bound (yay!).

great veterinarians, Figgy, and pet portraits

rosequoll — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:27:43 GMT

Sorry to post again about Figgy, but I have to say that the vet that I went to yesterday was FANTASTIC with Figgy. She let me help out as well, with the wing trim and all that, and weighing him so that I could start being more comfortable handling a larger bird like Fig. She was very nice as well, treated me like I was an intelligent person (I hate when vets treat customer and patients like either morons, or pain in the arses). She also personally called me back today after hours to follow up, and let me know that Figgy's blood tests came back clean! Yay Fig! The full check-up did end up costing me $400 AUD, but for all I got done and the level of care I received, I'd pay it again in a heartbeat.

His cholesterol was a little high, but that should be helped with slowly moving over to pellets, and more fresh veggies than he was getting at the RSPCA. He looks at veggies right now like they're a nusiance; something fun to throw at mum when she walks by. We'll get there though. =)

Details for the vet (if you live in and around Brisbane, Australia) are as follows. They're on the north side of the city:
Brighton Veterinary Surgery
470 Beaconsfield Surgery Brighton 4017
Phone: 07 3269 2223
Email: bvs@gil.com.au

Also, a last minute random sort of thing. I drew the icon of Figgy that I'm using now. Is there anyone in the community that is interested in icons or pet portraits (half a page of paper size, or A5 in other words) of their birds? The portraits are done in coloured pencil and marker, and the icons are done digitally in Adobe Photoshop. I'm trying to get more into freelance work outside of cartooning, and I need some samples so I'm running sales on stuff. If you're interested, they're fairly cheap right now, with free shipping for the portraits.

rosequoll — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:17:21 GMT

(x-posted to parrot_lovers and cockatoos:

I'm so incredibly in love with this bird. He's cranky and doesn't wanna be touched and all dirty feathered, and the most beautiful thing ever. <3<3 Luff.

rosequoll — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:47:51 GMT

Hello, I'm new. About me first, I'm a 22 year old American, living in Australia (resident, working on becoming a citizen). I'm about to head to TAFE for a certificate III in Native Wildlife Rehab and I'll be going to school in a few years for wildlife biology. I'm completely enamoured with Australian animals and I don't think I could be happier anywhere else in the world. Anyways, past that, I brought home a new family member today.

I want to introduce you all to 'Figgy' (I will be changing his name very likely, once I get him DNA sexed and he and I have gotten to know each other a little better.)

Please ignore how awfully dirty he is. He's been in a dog crate at the RSPCA for at least a month now on newspaper, and they said he hasn't been too interested in grooming, so I'm hoping a nice big cage and fresh food and lots of company will help him feel better. He was an escaped pet, picked up as a stray. He's not handtame at the moment, but doesn't lunge or get angry unless he thinks you're actually going to touch him, and then it's only a hiss and an open mouth lunge at most. He's quiet and pretty reserved and doesn't panic, scream or seem scared in the least (he just doesn't like us nasty people yet. grr..Hissss). He's been playing with his toys, and he loves the 'boing' spiral a lot. He's only made a few noises, one large skreetch to warn off my cat who was sitting on the floor staring (and boy did it! =) and a few notes that can be best described as someone saying hello through a trumpet (what a WEIRD noise. I seriously thought it was a trumpet..."Haaarooooo....Harroooooooo")

He's going to a local avian vet office I've heard good things about tomorrow, and I'll be doing a full check, workup, bloodtest, fecal gramstain (spelling?), etc and make sure he's healthy. He's quite light and underweight at the moment, and doesn't fly well, so we're hoping with some TLC he'll start to appreciate my company and become a happier well adjusted fellow. =)

As for food, he's ignored his apple on a hangy scewer, but he's munching seed (RSPCA fed seed only, and some fruit) and we've mixed the seed 50/50 with pellets, and starting in a few days I'll be picking out all the sunflower seeds first so he doesn't get picky. He nibbled some veggie mush I made earlier as well.

Goffins cockatoos.

gynocide — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:06:16 GMT

I'm currently thinking about adopting a Goffin's cockatoo. When I was in high school I worked for a bird show at a zoo and they had a Goffin's named Frankie whom I really enjoyed caring for. I've noticed that there are A LOT of Goffins out there up for adoption at rescues and on sites like Craig's List and PetFinders. Most of them are 3-5 years old. Does something happen at that age that makes people want to get rid of them or are people just morons about birds (as usual)? Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing about what anyone has to say about the species or cockatoos in general.

Question

anonymouse007 — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:29:27 GMT

My husband and I are considering getting another bird.
We have two that we love dearly and for a long time I've been thinking about getting a cockatoo.

Well, a situation has arisen and someone we met needs to rehome a Mollucan because the home he was previously in had 2 small children that bothered the bird. My hubby and I do not have children and when we do--we've already discussed the whole teaching proper interaction to pets to our kids.

That said....
Here's the story about the bird that I was given:
He's 4-5 years old, his name is Henry.
He's plucked in the past and is currently "recovering" with help of an apron.
He doesn't talk at all--and doesn't make much noise and as far as his previous owner is concerned (and the current foster dad) he doesn't bite or anything.

Now, I realize that all cockatoos can and will act different in different situations--so, just because he's that way now and previously doesn't mean that he'll be that way at our house. But, my question is this....

We do have other birds to keep him company (which, the foster seemed to think was important)....
and, we spend lots of time with our feathered kids...
but, we do both work.
They get played with in the morning for a good hour and then again in the early evening (around 5) for a couple of hours. Then, we usually allow them to stay out and hang with us until bedtime.

For all of you who have Moluccans....
is this enough interaction? I keep hearing "horror" stories (true or not?) that they need tons of attention--but, then I hear to be careful of not giving them TOO much attention b/c they can get spoiled.

I'm confused. My hubby and I can offer this kid a loving home and give it most of what it needs...but, there will be a portion of the day when it's left here with only Maili and Angelo to keep it company.

Any suggestions? advice? Words of wisdom?
Help!

Attention Macaw Owners.

gynocide — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:12:38 GMT

I created a new community for those of us owned by macaws or are thinking about being owned by them.

macaws.

Product warning.

gynocide — Thu, 11 May 2006 10:00:24 GMT

A waterproofing boot spray has sickened nearly 200 people and more than two dozen pets in the Midwest since early last year.

adnama_wpg — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:20:06 GMT

I posted a few weeks ago about a bird my friend homed. This bird had lived with an older lady who passed on. The lady had willed it to her nephew who didn't want it and took him directly to the Humane Society where my friend Jeff works.

Now Jeff loves the bird. The bird (Stanley) has been living with Jeff for a few weeks now and doing wonderful. However, Jeff probably will not be able to keep the bird. He knows that Cockatoos need a lot of attention. Jeff already has a 5 dogs and a room full of birds. Not to mention about 8 cats. This happened because of working at the Humane Society.

He is possibly thinking of finding a suitable reliable home. I'm not sure if he'll be asking for money or anything. We don't know Stanley's age but we assume he's a little older. He says quite a few phrases such as "happy birthday", "hello" and he barks and growls.

Is there anyone who would be interested in taking him? We live in Winnipeg, Manitoba and I don't think shipping to the states is an option. This is all hear say. I just wanted to know if any of you cockatoo lovers would want him. I don't know his exact type but it's the more popular (here anyways) all white bird with some yellow? He's an assumed male due to humping but no proof.

Any one? Suggestions?