Life with Cockatoos :)

I sit in my living room and stare across the room at the floor just outside my bird's cage. I look at the inside and outside of their cage and realize that they must put a great deal of effort into making sure that their beaks are through the bars when food is about to fall off of it. The perfect art of gluing fresh veggies to hardwood. I go to turn on my television and I think to myself "the color seems a little faded", Oh nope, that's just the day's layer of bird dust. I decide to take a nap. I fall asleep on my couch only to be awakened by an unfamiliar sound (the fact that it is unfamiliar is what wakes me). In my dreamy state I realize the sound is DVD's falling on the floor. The distinctive thwack of plastic on hardwood. I roll over in a panic to see Moe just as he succeeds in manuevering Iron Man through the bars. I stand up slowly and look into the bottom of his cage. I think to myself "I must have been quite tired, he's got nearly 30 titles in his little cage bottome DVD collection." I look at him and ask in my usual voice "Moe is that yours?" To which he responds by immediately dropping Iron Man and plays with the nearest normal bird toy as if to say "I was just sittine here like a good Cockatoo minding my own business". I find no point in arguing. I look down at my dessicrated DVD boxes in relief... he had not actually opened a single one. I collect the movies and move the shelf (what's left of it) over another handful of inches. I make a snack for myself and the Cockatoos and we watch Iron Man.

Moe and Sarah are the birds featured in my Avatar picture.

They know when their not supposed to do something. My alert here is a little squeal that Merlin makes when he finds something he is not supposed to have is unattended. lol

I remember when I first got Moe, he was out of his cage. I only turned my back for a moment... I suddenly felt alarmed at the quiet and went running to find him. When I found him he had gone into my bedroom and found my purse... he had discovered a bottle of Advil, and as I came running into the room he had just succeeded in opening the bottle and was gleefully tipping the advil into his beak. Oh my God I thought he was gonna die, I rushed him to the vet because even though I couldn't feel anything in his crop, I had to be sure..... birds can get into trouble so fast.

LOL. I'm glad my mom said "we can't afford one of those" when I asked for a too as a little kid. I am also glad I got Bob rather than one of his larger cousins. Too's seem difficult to me.

It sometimes takes a special divine patience to live with toos. Cockatiels are such an underrated bird... I have four (plus some babies in the brooder), and I really enjoy tiels... When owned by a bird lover they really blossom and their little quirks and personalites show through... They are probably the naturally sweetest of any bird, and by far the most likely to be neglected by owners who just let them sit in cages with no attention.... My first bird was a cockatiel named Samantha. I had her for 22 years, and losing her will be something I'll never truely get over.

lmao... thanks for story nut looks extra cute when she is up to no good!

I would say you are right about it takes a special person to live with a too . Yes I have also seen many neglected cockatiels as well . I had a friend who gave me a cockatiel and this bird was so unhappy and she did nothing but bite and hiss and scream constantly . I re homed her with a lady who had an outside aviary and the lady said this bird was so happy outside in the aviary she would whistle and sing everyday . She loved all the boys as well . Last year she had her first clutch and she is happy and living the good life . I think she was meant to be a breeder and not a pet .Im glad I did the right thing for her and it does my heart good to hear she is well and happy .

Do Lesser Sulfur Crested Toos tend to be excessive egg-layers? Mine laid 2 in December, then 2 in June, then 2 in July. I'm working with the vet to try to get her to stop. She only gets light for 8-9 hours a day and is taking homeopathic meds for hormones. I'm afraid she may lay too many. Also started her on vitamins and calcium. She thinks I'm her mate. Trying to change that.

I fostered an Umbrella cockatoo here for a while & her cage was in front of some bookshelves that go across one end of my living room. I thought that I had the cage pulled out far enough from the bookshelves that she couldn't reach the books. But no, she pulled 4 books into her cage by sticking her foot out through the bars of the cage & pulling the books into the cage & she chewed them up when I wasn't home. My Amazon is closer to the bookshelves & she has been there for about 6 months & never once has she pulled any books into her cage.

kerry said:

I fostered an Umbrella cockatoo here for a while & her cage was in front of some bookshelves that go across one end of my living room. I thought that I had the cage pulled out far enough from the bookshelves that she couldn't reach the books. But no, she pulled 4 books into her cage by sticking her foot out through the bars of the cage & pulling the books into the cage & she chewed them up when I wasn't home. My Amazon is closer to the bookshelves & she has been there for about 6 months & never once has she pulled any books into her cage.

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Haha, that's what I always referred to as the cockatoo claw machine! Our goffin would drop food(accidentally) and then go to the bottom of the cage and stretch her little leg down soooo far through the bottom cage bars so that she could reach the food that she dropped down in the pan and pull it back up. It was so funny looking, if I hadn't actually seen her doing it I never would have thought her little legs could even stretch that long.

I thought it might be better to ask here then post another topic since you guys seem to have so much experience and knowledge about cockatoos... how often do yours scream? Is it just in the morning/when you get home and when they're excited or do they just scream all the time?

cupcake said:

I thought it might be better to ask here then post another topic since you guys seem to have so much experience and knowledge about cockatoos... how often do yours scream? Is it just in the morning/when you get home and when they're excited or do they just scream all the time?

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They don't scream all the time, but when they want something from you that's usually when they scream. Mine mainly screams during evening times.

Like what I posted in your post, you should know your birds well before attempting a Cockatoo, they can have serious emotional issues if you don't know how to deal with them.

Another thing is before ever attempting with dusty birds such as Cockatoos and Greys, find out if your allergic to their powder dust, but I suppose not since you've owned Cockatiels before as they have powder dust as well....

Home every day to see it, always love jump.