Hi all, I'm new to this forum and I'm just wondering how I should approach this. This is a long post, so I appreciate anyone who takes the time to read and comment!
Our family has had a moluccan cockatoo named Fireball for 17 years (he's 19 now), and yes he bites and screams, but he's a sweet bird and loves to be pet when he's in a calm mood. We used to also have a female umbrella cockatoo named Snowball who was unfortunately attacked and killed by a dog about 3 years ago (she was 14, and we've had her since she was able to come home with us). He seems to have been sad since then, but he's probably more reliant on human interaction rather than companionship from Snowball.
Fireball lives at my mom's house, and my son who is now 14 months old is now walking and is very interested in him. I know that he won't hurt my son, but Fireball doesn't know him so I don't want him to not be watched and be bit because my son gets too excited too quickly or startles Fireball. We've thought about building an outdoor aviary for him with heaters, but we don't want him to feel like he's being kicked out for doing something bad, and hurting himself or something.
So I guess the dilemma is that we love him, but we love my son and his safety more. We don't want to bring Fireball to a sanctuary because if we do decide to have him leave us, we'd like for him to go to a family that maybe has 1 or 2 additional birds (max). But, are there questions I should ask to filter through potential owners? Or are there other suggestions/possibilities we should explore?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
Our family has had a moluccan cockatoo named Fireball for 17 years (he's 19 now), and yes he bites and screams, but he's a sweet bird and loves to be pet when he's in a calm mood. We used to also have a female umbrella cockatoo named Snowball who was unfortunately attacked and killed by a dog about 3 years ago (she was 14, and we've had her since she was able to come home with us). He seems to have been sad since then, but he's probably more reliant on human interaction rather than companionship from Snowball.
Fireball lives at my mom's house, and my son who is now 14 months old is now walking and is very interested in him. I know that he won't hurt my son, but Fireball doesn't know him so I don't want him to not be watched and be bit because my son gets too excited too quickly or startles Fireball. We've thought about building an outdoor aviary for him with heaters, but we don't want him to feel like he's being kicked out for doing something bad, and hurting himself or something.
So I guess the dilemma is that we love him, but we love my son and his safety more. We don't want to bring Fireball to a sanctuary because if we do decide to have him leave us, we'd like for him to go to a family that maybe has 1 or 2 additional birds (max). But, are there questions I should ask to filter through potential owners? Or are there other suggestions/possibilities we should explore?
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!