New to Cockatoo's

Hi,

I am Joanne and new to this forum. I am from Wales in the UK. I have an African Grey but I am picking up a Ducorp Cockatoo later today. I am starting to get anxious now as the more I read on the Internet the more I hear they make awful pets :0white1:

The local specialist bird place here usually has Ducorps cockatoos and they seem to have a big personality and love attention, although they're a little loud for my tastes.

If you look at it objectively, all parrots make awful pets - they're demanding, messy, temperamental, destructive, expensive and capable of inflicting serious injury. Fortunately there are also qualities that make up for all of those things! As you're probably reading, cockatoos have a reputation for being particularly challenging but there is plenty of support and information around here to help you down the right path with this.

Oh, the reason I chose a Ducorp is because I read that they were quieter than others. I have visited the bird and the owner says its a very quite bird. The owner also had a Moluccan out in the conservatory, wow he was loud !!!

I guess every species would have louder and quieter individuals. My galah is a sweet-heart when it comes to noise, very quiet by any species' standards, and I don't know how Ducorps compare to umbrellas and moluccans so I guess it depends what you're comparing to. Certainly the Ducorps I've met locally are not what you might call shy and retiring though!

Cockatoos tend to have a very bad reputation, and some of it is well deserved. Most of it, however, depends on if the new home can cope with the cockatoo peculiarities.

Cockatoos like to scream. Our Ducorps is quiet *for a cockatoo* but he's not quiet compared to many other birds. He likes to scream, and when he screams at his loudest, it hurts my ears if I'm in the same room. Now, he doesn't actually do it that much, and not for prolonged periods of time, so we don't perceive it as a problem at all. And luckily, neither do our neighbours! Most of his noises, apart from the loud screaming, are pretty cute, so that helps.

We've also got an African Grey, and the Ducorps can reach noise volumes that our Grey can only dream of. However, the Grey is often talking, chatting, whistling etc, so she makes noise more often, but at a lower volume, if that makes sense.

There is no guarantee that just because your Ducorps was quiet in his previous home, he'll be quiet with you. And vice versa (which was the case with ours, thankfully). There are ways of working on excessive screaming, but you need to be as sure as you can that you can tolerate the high volume, before you bring him home, because every cockatoo WILL scream at some point.

I've only met one Ducorps, ours, so I don't really know how much of his behaviours are typical Ducorps. But it seems that most of the cockatoos (the white ones at least) are very similar in behaviour. The Ducorps are fairly small, and the beak is also relatively small (which doesn't mean they can't give bad bites!), and they can't quite reach the volume of for example a Moluccan. This makes them slightly more suitable to have as pets. A lot of cockatoos (well, a lot of parrots in general) have issues from having been taken from their parents at an early age, and they grow up thinking that humans are potential mates, which can then cause issues when they reach puberty (which is an age where a lot of cockatoos are rehomed, simply because the previous home cannot cope with them anymore).

That said, our Ducorps is absolutely lovely! But you need to be able to adapt to their needs, to understand their needs, and to give them what they need in the form of entertainment, enrichment, diet, and environment.

They are curious and very very clever, and will figure things out remarkably fast. They'll be able to explore every inch of your house and if they come across something they shouldn't chew on, it's your fault only, not theirs Don't leave things lying around, they'll find them.

How old is your Ducorps? What's his life story?

He is 18 months old. His owner has a Moluccan and a Macaw which he spends lots of time with, the Ducorps is frightened of them so he is getting left out and not having much time spent with him so has become a little timid.

I am a sucker for a sorry birdy and my Congo was from a bad start and we have completely changed him round from a diet of chips and chocolate (don't know how he not poisoned but on viewing I saw her feed him chocolate biscuits) to Harrison's pellets, veg, pulses ect. She had him nine years and we saw him snap at her, he is silly tame now.

I am home a lot as I do sleep shifts at work so only really work 2 full days a week, my partner is 9-4 job so we can give lots of time. I am one of these with no kids so the bird will always come first and what I can do to make his life more enriched I will do.

Sounds like you'd make a good home for him, then

Our Ducorps is absolutely wonderful, and I've not once regretted taking him on We don't know much about him, but have been told he's old enough to have gone through puberty. You'll have that to look forward to, but most things can be worked through

One thing I'd say, though, is that you need to be prepared that they might not be able to be out of the cage together (you're probably aware of that already, but better say it too many times than not at all). Our Ducorps, Io, was fine with the others for the first few months. Then he became more confident and he will now fly over and attack the others if they're out together. It can be worked on, of course, and he's made some progress. But at the moment he and the other two are out at separate times. You do have that advantage that a Ducorps is pretty much the same size as a grey (or slightly smaller, depending on how big your grey is), so they'd be on fairly equal footing. Our Meyer's is so much smaller than Io (one fourth his weight) that we don't really want to risk anything. It's much easier when all the birds are of similar size.

When are you picking him up? Do post photos and let us know how it goes!

I'm in the UK too, by the way. Are you a support worker, by any chance? I am and I also do a few sleep ins

Aww that's nice of you. I am in Cardiff, U? Yes I would like to see them sharing a Java tree but am aware this might never happen. I love the Meyers there is one in the parrot shop I go to and she is 32 years old and a proper darling !!!

You never know, just be vigilant and maybe they'll end up friends

I haven't met many meyer's, but our Luna is a little darling. Feisty, but the sweetest little thing.

I'm near Southampton.

Well Snowy has arrived. The cage he arrived in has one perch and nothing else. The cage is a little rusty and has rusty padlocks fastened to it that wont come off. It's depressing to say the least. I will replacing this ASAP. I have spent £60 on toys so it looks a bit brighter.

The bird looks in good condition and have no worries weight or feather wise. He doesn't seem very interested yet in playing or his toys and also doesn't move very much but he is eating and drinking. I don't know if its me that thinks its strange as I am used to my Grey being very agile round the cage and hanging upside down on everything (My Grey is a rehome from an owner that gave him no toys and he has gone crazy since and loves everything I give him) or I am worried that the rusty cage might have poisoned him and maybe he isn't feeling great (not seen him chewing it, just using his beak to move around if he decides to move that is) I can tell straight away if my Grey is ill as I know him, but with Snowy I don't, his owner said he is that laid back he is horizontal. He does preen a hell of a lot but not plucking.

I am sat close to the cage talking to him and getting him used to me moving around. He does small but half hearted hisses at me but not everytime I go near