TimeLordGirl
New member
I've sorted through the posts here and found similar situations, but nothing QUITE like our predicament with Coconut. Please note that I am a total Newb. I never owned a bird or lived with birds up until 7 months ago. I was strictly a cat lady ... and then I found the love of my life and his goffins. 
Background: A year ago, before I knew my fiancé, his most beloved goffin cockatoo Tucker, suddenly died of congestive heart failure. There was nothing that could have been done. Cookie, also a goffin cockatoo, my fiancé's ragged looking little girl was Tucker's BFF and left alone. So my beloved felt he and Cookie needed someone to fill Tucker's empty void, and he came upon Coconut.
Coconut (a male bird) was a consignment goffin cockatoo from a woman claiming to be his one and only mama. After a few months it was obvious to my fiancé, that he and Coconut weren't simpatico. Cookie and Coconut had learned to get along with each other, but they are not BFF's. So my fiancé attempted to rehome Coconut, when another woman claimed to have been his original mama. Describing things about him that an owner would know. When my fiancé tells me this story I joke and say, 'these birds need something like Car Facts. Show me the Bird Facts! That way you know the truth."
So knowing that there is a second original mama makes us think that what we know about Coconut, might not be the truth and he might not have legit upbringings, which might be why someone would lie to get him off their hands. Coconut has a split personality. I'll get into that.
So then I met my beloved fiancé and his 2 birdies in May 2012. I moved in shortly after with my two cats. Coconut was just as much of a jerk to my fiancé, now, as he was before I moved in, and got Deliah (a silly young goffin cockatoo). Coconut likes me way more than my fiancé. He's always been skittish around my fiancé, and he warmed up to me. My fiancé said it was because the owner he bought him from had long dark hair like me. Coconut does like my hair.
So here's the deal. He runs away from my fiancé. Coconut will "step up" on command to my fiancé command and give a kiss to my fiancé, but like he has to, not like he wants to. With me, Coconut won't "step up" but he will kiss me and eventually come to me if I am hanging around the cage long enough.
Now he calls when he wants more food in a bowl, and he is standing over it. If I go to try and fill the bowl while he is standing on it, he will bite me. This is Nasty Coconut, the side that runs from my fiancé and is a jerk to me at times. He screams like a harpy if something isn't going his way or wants me to look at him for a while. Cause if he is screaming, he doesn't want me to touch him. I've tired but he bites. He tries to bite me at times when I am just near the cage, like a snap dragon, but I now can tell when he is Nasty Coconut, and I do a test. I say, "Night, Night?" his favorite phrase. If he says it back, Nice Coconut emerges, and I can pet him. It's like this all the time. He is generally in Nasty mode 85% of the time. My fiancé and I are considering rehoming poor Coconut again, but we really don't WANT to do that, since we now know he has a less than known past.
He is terrified of my fiancé, for the most part. I've been kind of working with Coconut to see if we can't keep him on his Nice side more often. Now when we got Deliah, a 2 year old cutie-pie, we thought it might help loosen Coconut up. See Cookie is an alpha-bird, and she chases Coconut sometimes, but she also takes care of him and he lets her preen him and visa-versa. They act like brother and sister. Cookie only speaks in baby-talk and never learned any words. Coconut speaks, says loads of things. Deliah speaks too, and mimics -- picking up new phrases and words everyday. I noticed when Deliah was first around, Coconut stopped talking. He wouldn't talk around her for some time, up until recently. Now it's a contest, but Deliah is just talking because she likes to. Coconut is trying to talk to get my attention. I get that. He too has taken to mimicking me. I have asthma that makes me cough, so when I cough, he will soon make coughing noises.
So he and I are friends for 50% of the time. My fiancé is away for a week on personal business, so I am doing the super bird care, more than usual. Usually one bird is hanging out with my fiancé in his game room in the evening. He rotates his time between Cookie and Deliah, but Coconut doesn't want to spend time with him. So that's our story. We're not sure how to solve the split personality problem with Coconut, or find a way to see if Coconut can't bond with my fiancé.
I'm listening to Sarah McLachlan's song "Perfect Girl" and the song says, 'Don't worry. You will find the answer if you just let it go ... everything will come around in time.'
Maybe that's the key. We just let him be and live with him as he is and hope that in time, he does come around. However, I'd like some tips on behavioral modifications, for a Newb. I am a cat woman. I was recently introduced to birds when I met my fiancé in May this year.
So if anybody has a Cliff Note's guide to handling a split personality goffin cockatoo or an idiot's guide to behavior modification for a goffin cockatoo, that's what I am looking for. Thanks for your help!
-Mary
Background: A year ago, before I knew my fiancé, his most beloved goffin cockatoo Tucker, suddenly died of congestive heart failure. There was nothing that could have been done. Cookie, also a goffin cockatoo, my fiancé's ragged looking little girl was Tucker's BFF and left alone. So my beloved felt he and Cookie needed someone to fill Tucker's empty void, and he came upon Coconut.
Coconut (a male bird) was a consignment goffin cockatoo from a woman claiming to be his one and only mama. After a few months it was obvious to my fiancé, that he and Coconut weren't simpatico. Cookie and Coconut had learned to get along with each other, but they are not BFF's. So my fiancé attempted to rehome Coconut, when another woman claimed to have been his original mama. Describing things about him that an owner would know. When my fiancé tells me this story I joke and say, 'these birds need something like Car Facts. Show me the Bird Facts! That way you know the truth."
So knowing that there is a second original mama makes us think that what we know about Coconut, might not be the truth and he might not have legit upbringings, which might be why someone would lie to get him off their hands. Coconut has a split personality. I'll get into that.
So then I met my beloved fiancé and his 2 birdies in May 2012. I moved in shortly after with my two cats. Coconut was just as much of a jerk to my fiancé, now, as he was before I moved in, and got Deliah (a silly young goffin cockatoo). Coconut likes me way more than my fiancé. He's always been skittish around my fiancé, and he warmed up to me. My fiancé said it was because the owner he bought him from had long dark hair like me. Coconut does like my hair.
So here's the deal. He runs away from my fiancé. Coconut will "step up" on command to my fiancé command and give a kiss to my fiancé, but like he has to, not like he wants to. With me, Coconut won't "step up" but he will kiss me and eventually come to me if I am hanging around the cage long enough.
Now he calls when he wants more food in a bowl, and he is standing over it. If I go to try and fill the bowl while he is standing on it, he will bite me. This is Nasty Coconut, the side that runs from my fiancé and is a jerk to me at times. He screams like a harpy if something isn't going his way or wants me to look at him for a while. Cause if he is screaming, he doesn't want me to touch him. I've tired but he bites. He tries to bite me at times when I am just near the cage, like a snap dragon, but I now can tell when he is Nasty Coconut, and I do a test. I say, "Night, Night?" his favorite phrase. If he says it back, Nice Coconut emerges, and I can pet him. It's like this all the time. He is generally in Nasty mode 85% of the time. My fiancé and I are considering rehoming poor Coconut again, but we really don't WANT to do that, since we now know he has a less than known past.
He is terrified of my fiancé, for the most part. I've been kind of working with Coconut to see if we can't keep him on his Nice side more often. Now when we got Deliah, a 2 year old cutie-pie, we thought it might help loosen Coconut up. See Cookie is an alpha-bird, and she chases Coconut sometimes, but she also takes care of him and he lets her preen him and visa-versa. They act like brother and sister. Cookie only speaks in baby-talk and never learned any words. Coconut speaks, says loads of things. Deliah speaks too, and mimics -- picking up new phrases and words everyday. I noticed when Deliah was first around, Coconut stopped talking. He wouldn't talk around her for some time, up until recently. Now it's a contest, but Deliah is just talking because she likes to. Coconut is trying to talk to get my attention. I get that. He too has taken to mimicking me. I have asthma that makes me cough, so when I cough, he will soon make coughing noises.
So he and I are friends for 50% of the time. My fiancé is away for a week on personal business, so I am doing the super bird care, more than usual. Usually one bird is hanging out with my fiancé in his game room in the evening. He rotates his time between Cookie and Deliah, but Coconut doesn't want to spend time with him. So that's our story. We're not sure how to solve the split personality problem with Coconut, or find a way to see if Coconut can't bond with my fiancé.
I'm listening to Sarah McLachlan's song "Perfect Girl" and the song says, 'Don't worry. You will find the answer if you just let it go ... everything will come around in time.'
Maybe that's the key. We just let him be and live with him as he is and hope that in time, he does come around. However, I'd like some tips on behavioral modifications, for a Newb. I am a cat woman. I was recently introduced to birds when I met my fiancé in May this year.
So if anybody has a Cliff Note's guide to handling a split personality goffin cockatoo or an idiot's guide to behavior modification for a goffin cockatoo, that's what I am looking for. Thanks for your help!
-Mary
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