Whattya know, you CAN reason with a 'too

I rock Rocky to sleep every night (no, he's not spoiled, why do you ask?) and usually sing to him as well. Quite often, he's all sleepy and snoozy but suddenly decides it's time for the floor show, and starts being silly. He dances. He raises his wings and yells "whoo!!!!" He flaps his wings while hanging onto my arm and leaving dents with his talons. And this display always ended with a chomp to my arm. I don't know why.

A few weeks ago, I started telling him "no bites!" while he was showing off, and when he lunged downward, I'd put my finger on his beak and say it again. The first few times, it didn't help a bit. But then he started giving me this injured look, like "But bites are part of the floor show!" And now, when he's showing off, he might lunge, but he stops short of biting and I always praise him effusively for not biting. The last couple of nights, he hasn't even lunged. He'll pause in the showing off and look at his favorite spot to bite, but he doesn't bite. And I praise him and tell him what a good boy he is for not biting and admit that I know biting is part of the show for him, but it's not much fun for me.

Maybe it helps that we applaud his floor show with enthusiasm and laugh at his antics and make sure he knows he's a fine entertainer without having to bite, too.

Wait, and you didn't have to turnover the keys to the car or the password to the laptop? Likely a trade-off of some type is in the works!
Congratulations! You bring hope to thousands Worldwide.

I've discovered the trick to getting along with Rocky, and it might work with other 'toos, too. Give him what he wants. Always. He wants to go with me everywhere I go. So, he goes. He goes to the bathroom, he goes to the practice room and listens to me play piano badly or the other instruments less badly, he goes to the birds' room to watch TV with me and Clyde and Freddie, he goes to the kitchen to do dishes (I do dishes, he supervises), he sits in the hallway and looks at the shower curtain while I take a shower (don't ask me why that is preferable to waiting for me on his cage, but it keeps him quiet), he watches me dry my hair and get ready for work. I assume that because we cheer his efforts, he feels we have done our part and the biting isn't necessary, or perhaps he's indulging me for having been a good servant and dragged him all over the house all evening.

I see you learned? You have to bribe a cockatoo to be able to reason with them. Baby my U2 lately has a new temper tantrum routine she does when she don't get her way. Pretty much flapping wings and loud squawking when on me, or if near by she yell and flap wings and turn around looking at me. Then she argue with you for a couple of minutes and if she really upset which is thankfully rare she do a quite softer bite enough to get point across and then argue with you and then right back to her normal self. My male U2 Cooper will just bite you when he get upset. He did that to a next door neighbor sister when she pick up baby first as baby was on the play stand outside he was high on a tree, so understandably she when for Baby first and he was jealous after 4 minutes as that his favorite person and flew over from tree he was at, landed on her shoulder and bit her quickly when she put him on her arm and then argued with her and was he was fine afterwards, he even apologize by putting his head down and doing his bonding click he does. I guess he expected her to call him down? Normally he just squawk to get her attention, or come down as soon as he see her, or put his foot out to get pick up.

Yes Cockatoo's have anger management problems at times when they don't get their way. They are infamous for temper tantrum routine.

You've learned the fine art of submission to a cockatoo! Life is so much easier now, right?!

I bet his floor show is most entertaining! Wish I could get tickets


Loki - Sun Conure [emoji169]

Congratulations! I am new to parrots and am still discovering for myself just how brilliant these guys are. It's stunning. I love that sometimes you can reason with them.

I've become friends with the M2 at work, C, and he screams whenever anyone enters or leaves the room. M2s can scream at 130 dB! It was killing my ears. I finally decided to try talking with him about it.

I told C that I'm glad we're friends. I explained that his screaming made my head hurt, and asked if he would please NOT scream loudly when I'm in the room because friends don't like to hurt friends. He listened very carefully.

I don't know how much he actually understood, but he seems to have gotten the gist! Since then, he only screams when he's really excited and forgets (all I have to do is acknowledge that he's excited and then remind him that screaming hurts me); when another 'too screams repeatedly; or when it's almost bedtime and he's cranky. (All are understandable!) When I unlock the door to come into the room, C stops screaming the moment he realizes that it's me. When I need to leave, he protests, but he waits until I shut the door to start full-on screaming. He is SUCH a good boy. I make sure to thank him several times each day.

A couple of the guys at work grumble about how loud he is, but apparently they haven't tried ASKING him to not scream!

I can try that with Rocky, but having told him in the past that his screaming when Mama has a migraine is counterproductive at best, and getting no result except more screaming, I think he may just not care to cooperate.