Advice Needed

Hello! I have acquired an 8-year-old Goffins cockatoo and need quite a lot of advice. She has been through a few home changes and as far as I can tell from reading on this forum, her diet is all wrong and her behavior isn't appropriate. She is under duress and has been picking at her feathers enough that she actually had quite a lot of blood in her cage one night. That was a few nights ago and hasn't happened since. She is still picking but not as bad. She has a few bare spots under her wings where I can see the quill in the skin. I am also inexperienced when it comes to this type of bird. The good news is she seems to adore me and I am more than willing to learn the proper way to take care of her. She has a wonderful personality and I have become attached to her already. She doesn't show any aggression and loves to ride on my shoulder as much as possible. Her previous owner allowed this and I didn't know it wasn't advisable until reading this forum. Part of my problem in figuring all of this out is I'm not sure how to change her already-established habits without stressing her out further. I have read a lot of good advice in these forums, but not sure how to introduce them given the stress she is under. I am wondering if there is a book anyone could recommend that really goes into the tiny details of what daily life should be like with this bird. I'm not sure how long she should be covered, how long she should be allowed out of her cage, how much socializing I should do with her, and how to actually socialize with her. I know I need to get her playing with toys so she plays with them instead of picking on herself, but any attempt I have made at introducing toys have not gone well. I have tried putting them out across the room and gradually moving them toward her, but she runs away from them or shows absolutely no interest. I know this is a long post and I am asking a lot, but I appreciate any advice I can get. I would even welcome phone calls to discuss Lola if available. Thanks so much!!

First off let her adjust before you start to change things in her life. After she has adjusted let her out as much as you can or at least 4 hours a day. Play with her and socialize her as much as you can. Cover her for 10-12 hours a night. Feed her the diet she is on now, unless it is just sunflower seeds, and after she has adjusted to living with you switch her to pellets preferable harrisons, zupreem or roudybush. But above all get her checked by a vet to make sure she isnt plucking because of an ilness and to just make sure she doesnt have any ilnessess in general.

The area under the wings - is it up at the top of the underportion, sort of like an "armpit" of sorts, at the base of her wing? That's fairly normal. Sugar has the same thing under both wings. I can see skin and quills, which is what it sounds like to me.

In regards to the rest, Cdog is correct. How long have you had her? How many homes has she had? It takes time for them to adjust to us, which I didn't realize could be as long as a year until I joined this forum, and I've worked with rescue birds before.

I'm in the process of starting to socialize Sugar. Right now, all I'm doing is either letting her be with me when I'm talking to my neighbors and by putting her in the Pak-O-Bird and taking her places. Usually just on a walk through the park. This way, she gets to see people, but she's safe in her carrier and gets to observe, with usually no notice whatsoever. I've done this a handful of times and I've noticed that she's no longer freaking out about going into the carrier and she's no longer nearly as anxious when we're out and about. My goal with her (and this could be literally years down the line) is to get her harnessed trained so she doesn't need to be in the carrier any more when I take her places (except in the car, but I'm a bit of a "nut", I also strap in my dog using a seatbelt harness). I'm not an expert and I'm sure many people will say the way I'm going about it is wrong, but it's working for us. Sometimes you just have to do what works for you and yours, much like how some parents cosleep and others insist on keeping their infants in their own cribs

And never feel bad about asking a question. It is the only way we learn!

Currently she is eating mostly a seed mix. Her previous owner gave us bags of peanuts, which I have discontinued giving her and also told us to give her toast every day. She loves carbs of any type. We had gotten in the routine of toast in the morning, colby/monterey jack cheese in the afternoon and popcorn at night but now I understand I need to discontinue most of this also. I have ordered millet and birdie bread, but she is afraid of millet sprays and lately hasn't touched any of the vegies I put in her bowl. She gets excited when she sees anyone eating cereal.

I wouldn't say she is picking in the armpit, more pretty much right in the middle of where the fat part of her wing sits. Some background, Lola was with her original owner for 8 years and because of a conflict in her home had to rehome her. She gave her to my daughter, who was away at college, since my daughter is an animal lover, but for some reason Lola doesn't like my daughter. She was there for about 3 months. In the middle of April we moved Lola to my house and then in the middle of May we went on a 10-day vacation and had caretakers come in to care for Lola and also our two dogs, so poor Lola has had a lot of disruptions recently. Hopefully my house will be her forever home, but there seems to be a bit of a custody issue with my ex-husband, since he knows the person who gave our daughter the bird, he feels he should get her if it doesn't work out with my daughter, but he doesn't even like birds and has mean cats, so I'm pretty dead set against this. Anyway, thanks everyone for listening and helping - it means alot