Help from Cockatoo Owners?

Hi everyone. I am an undergraduate student doing work on cockatoo play behaviour. I will be working with 12 hand-reared individuals in a lab but will have very limited time so I don't think I will be able to do pilot testing. So I would like to know if parrot owners (specifically Goffin cockatoos if possible) could let me know what their parrots' attention span is like, playing with a single simple toy (eg. a parrot safe wooden cube). I need to have a general idea of how long it will interest them for and how much that varies between individuals. If you could provide videos of the bird playing so I can look at the behavioural patterns that would be awesome too. My deadline is next week Saturday to figure out the length of my tests so would be much appreciated if any of you guys have the time to do this before then. Thanks!

I don't own a cockatoo, so I'll leave your questions to those who do. Hopefully someone who does will see this soon and give you some answers.

I just wanted to point out that, if these 12 hand-reared Goffins are all coming from different households/sources, you should remember to practice quarantine procedures for their safety. Even a healthy looking bird can harbor contagious disease, and if even one is compromised it could put the other 11 at risk.

For all I know, your testing methods already take this into account. But I wanted to put that out there just in case.

Best of luck with your study!

I have a terrific video of a hand-fed and very tame Goffin doggedly unthreading a nut from a bolt.

Just saw this and am getting ready for a family event all day, but will post more later tonight. (west-coast time) Will be very happy to fwd it to you!

If mine is left to his own (without my interaction) an its a toy that he loves, he will play with that toy until he destroys it or has taken it apart into pieces. Mine seems to like color wooden toys the best, and the more complicated that can be torn apart the better.
Now, if I interact with him during play, and we are playing fetch or playing with a single item, or what hand contains the "treat/toy" etc, we have played for a over 30 minutes and he still would play. My little guy has a lot of energy, and absolutely loves interaction from me particularly.
Member Scott would be a great person to answer later.He has multiple Goffins (and he has always helped me with "goffin" questions).

I hope I helped. Goffins are very smart and very active little guys. Always busy and always trying to solve the "puzzle". My Goffin is 3.5 years old and was hand-reared.

Goldenbaby said:

If mine is left to his own (without my interaction) an its a toy that he loves, he will play with that toy until he destroys it or has taken it apart into pieces. Mine seems to like color wooden toys the best, and the more complicated that can be torn apart the better.
Now, if I interact with him during play, and we are playing fetch or playing with a single item, or what hand contains the "treat/toy" etc, we have played for a over 30 minutes and he still would play. My little guy has a lot of energy, and absolutely loves interaction from me particularly.
Member Scott would be a great person to answer later.He has multiple Goffins (and he has always helped me with "goffin" questions).

I hope I helped. Goffins are very smart and very active little guys. Always busy and always trying to solve the "puzzle". My Goffin is 3.5 years old and was hand-reared.

Click to expand...

Thanks, always happy to help!!

Colored blocks of wood are the favorites of mine as well. The wild-caught male is the most dedicated buzz-saw and is happy to tackle macaw-sized toys!

Update to the OP survey:

I have 3 videos of a my 20 year old hand-raised Goffin (Gabby) unthreading a nut from 2.5 inches of bolt. That's a lot of revolutions, and Gabby discovered the most effective method is using his tongue to continuously rotate the nut. The back-story is he and his brothers are the proverbial destructive Houdinis and have either destroyed or learned to bypass every lock on their cages. The nuts/bolts have been retired, and when necessary the cages can be secured with a length of stainless-steel wire. I am in the process of replacing the cages with a *hopefully* more secure locking system!

I have another interesting video of him attempting to problem-solve access to muffins inside a clamshell-type container. The lower half is black plastic contrasting with a clear upper enclosure. Gabby understands lifting along the demarcation of halves is key, yet he lacks the beak-strength to accomplish the task. The video shows him tackling several sides of the container as well as looking at the muffins from the top and testing the material with his beak.

The videos reside on my iPhone and I'm not particularly savvy with media transfer. I can forward them to you from the phone either by email or message. AFAIK as a new member you don't yet have PM privileges on the forum, but I believe one of our moderators can act as intermediary with the relevant communications! Let me know if this will help your research!!

You're right, Scott. Any of us mods can forward any personal email address info between the two of you, as doing so over the open forum is not allowed and personal pm's are not allowed with a post count under 30.

Another option though, Scott, would be for you to simply post a YouTube link right here in this thread. Not only simpler, but we'd all get to enjoy Gabby's tactics!

Yes, please, Scott! Gabby has lots of fans that would enjoy his skill with nuts, bolts, and containers.

Allee said:

Yes, please, Scott! Gabby has lots of fans that would enjoy his skill with nuts, bolts, and containers.

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OK, here ya go! Finally created a YouTube channel:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9C5YuRxOYk"]Gabby unthreading a nut! - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpAwKvrHWrM"]Gabby trying to open a container - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSdt23mt0yE"]Angel and Gabby sharing a moment - YouTube[/ame]

Thank you, Scott! Amazing videos. Gabby was definitely focused on his tasks. How long before he gave up on the muffins?

Allee said:

Thank you, Scott! Amazing videos. Gabby was definitely focused on his tasks. How long before he gave up on the muffins?

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Thank you Allee! Watching the fuzzy videos on the big-screen has probably convinced me to replace my perfectly workable iPhone 4S with a 6!

That was about the extent of Gabby's infatuation with the muffins. I gave him the reward of a tiny pinch of one of the pumpkin muffins!

Thank you for sharing those videos, Scott. I loved watching all three!

Anansi said:

Thank you for sharing those videos, Scott. I loved watching all three!

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Thanks Stephen! The video that includes Angel (Vos Ekkie) highlights her upper beak overgrowth. She was a week or so away from her vet trim that ocurrs at roughly 3 month intervals. We purchased Angel during the latter stages of handfeeding from a trusted breeder and she was weaned by my mom, an experienced hand at raising our Goffins from the tender age of 3 to 4 days. (another story, but they had very disinterested parents!!)
Angel developed normally with beautiful feathers, but at roughly 5 years or so the majority of feathers disappeared leaving a fluff of down. Blood tests and cultures were essentially normal, and IIRC in that vintage thyroid testing was inconclusive, so she was given a course of medication that assumed a low value - no help. Within 2 to 3 years she again spontaneously regenerated normal feathering. Roughly 15 years ago the bottom of her lower beak became mottled with a pebble-like texture, leading to a chronic split and overgrowth of the upper beak. Once again, blood panels and various cultures were within normal guidelines, and she has learned to tolerate the dremel grinder! Our current vet believes she developed some sort of infection that permanently altered her beak structure. FWIW, she has had the same variable diet rich in fruits/vegetables, a smallspoonful of seed 3 days/week, and a few Zupreem pellets as a treat.

I was about to ask what third video, for some reason it didn't show up on my screen earlier. Are iPhones becoming self aware?

Angel is very pretty, sweet video of her with Gabby. Poor thing, she's been through a lot. It must have been frustrating trying to find the cause of her feather loss and then her beak condition. Avian vet care has made great strides but there's still so much to learn. Angel and all your birds are lucky to have such caring parronts.

Scott said:

Anansi said:

Thank you for sharing those videos, Scott. I loved watching all three!

Click to expand...

Thanks Stephen! The video that includes Angel (Vos Ekkie) highlights her upper beak overgrowth. She was a week or so away from her vet trim that ocurrs at roughly 3 month intervals. We purchased Angel during the latter stages of handfeeding from a trusted breeder and she was weaned by my mom, an experienced hand at raising our Goffins from the tender age of 3 to 4 days. (another story, but they had very disinterested parents!!)
Angel developed normally with beautiful feathers, but at roughly 5 years or so the majority of feathers disappeared leaving a fluff of down. Blood tests and cultures were essentially normal, and IIRC in that vintage thyroid testing was inconclusive, so she was given a course of medication that assumed a low value - no help. Within 2 to 3 years she again spontaneously regenerated normal feathering. Roughly 15 years ago the bottom of her lower beak became mottled with a pebble-like texture, leading to a chronic split and overgrowth of the upper beak. Once again, blood panels and various cultures were within normal guidelines, and she has learned to tolerate the dremel grinder! Our current vet believes she developed some sort of infection that permanently altered her beak structure. FWIW, she has had the same variable diet rich in fruits/vegetables, a smallspoonful of seed 3 days/week, and a few Zupreem pellets as a treat.

Click to expand...

Wow. Poor Angel. So never a deficiency in vitamin A or calcium? Does she get exposure to sunlight? Sometimes a lack of vitamin D3, which is generated via sunlight absorption, can be a contributing factor as well.

But yes, I've definitely heard of infections being the culprit as well. Just not as often, so I'm not as familiar. Does he have any idea what type of infection might permanently alter the structure of a beak?

Allee said:

I was about to ask what third video, for some reason it didn't show up on my screen earlier. Are iPhones becoming self aware?

Angel is very pretty, sweet video of her with Gabby. Poor thing, she's been through a lot. It must have been frustrating trying to find the cause of her feather loss and then her beak condition. Avian vet care has made great strides but there's still so much to learn. Angel and all your birds are lucky to have such caring parronts.

Click to expand...

My iPhone is particularly self aware as it has a HAL 9000 app that spouts many of the murderous computer's musings! (I'm a huge fan of 2001)

Thanks! Gabby is the only bird Angel will tolerate in close proximity!

Anansi said:

Wow. Poor Angel. So never a deficiency in vitamin A or calcium? Does she get exposure to sunlight? Sometimes a lack of vitamin D3, which is generated via sunlight absorption, can be a contributing factor as well.

But yes, I've definitely heard of infections being the culprit as well. Just not as often, so I'm not as familiar. Does he have any idea what type of infection might permanently alter the structure of a beak?

Click to expand...

No deficiencies noted via lab work. She gets some sunlight but a bit more may be helpful. Her current vet seems to have no hypothesis other than infection, and the original forensics are long gone.

I'm not surprised she has no deficiencies, though. Angel is beautiful.
Do you keep her flighted?

And btw, how long was it after being presented with the nut and bolt did Gabby start unthreading it?

Anansi said:

I'm not surprised she has no deficiencies, though. Angel is beautiful.
Do you keep her flighted?

And btw, how long was it after being presented with the nut and bolt did Gabby start unthreading it?

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Angel has always been flighted but generally uses the ability to descend from a high object. A very infrequent flyer against gravity!

Gabby's cage was the first of the stainless steel cages to have the locks destroyed, so a long narrow bolt was jury-rigged. He almost immediately began to loosen the nut from inside, but did not have sufficient access to completely remove. The video was taken shortly after he was let out.

Thank you all so much for your responses.
All cockatoos already live and interact together and have done so for the past few years so they will not need quaratine to interact with each other. I'll watch the videos and read the rest of the messages now, thank you all so much for the help.