Cockatoo has major issues.

[Sarahtheumbrella]

Well, first off hello. I am new to this site, but know that everyone here is very kind and helpful.

I have quite a few problems with my nine year old umbrella cockatoo Sarah.

Problem one:
My family and I cover her up at about 9 o clock every night. She goes to sleep without a fit (next to the occasional squawk or two). But she wakes up super early at 6-7 am. This gets frustrating to everyone especially on weekends when we are trying to rest up.

This was not a problem until we moved her into her bigger cage and used several bed sheets to cover her HUGE cage instead of the custom sheet from her old cage. I wonder if maybe the material we cover her with is too thin. Then the sun rising wakes her up. I worry because now in summer she screams earlier every morning. I find my self "walking on egg shells" whenever I am awake before she is so I don't wake her.

Problem two:
She also has some separation issues, but I can handle it. I understand that they scream in morning and afternoon, but how long should they scream in afternoon?I find Sarah non-stop screaming from 6-9pm. Even when I am right in front of her. Is this too long?P.S. this is what gets everyone in my family mad, because we all are trying to finish work at this time.

Problem three:
Biting. I am terrified of handling her. She seems to like my dad best, but my family(except me) has no time for her. I am the one with her the whole day(next to school). I clean her cage, and change her food, etc. She is not motivated by anything next to attention, but I am too afraid for physical contact. She is a phobic bird and therefore gets overstimulated very easily. She will be fine one moment and then suddenly strike, and strike rather hard. I have been bitten every time I have attempted to handle her, and it just really discourages me. This is also why I hesitate to train her.
She not a mean bird at all though. She cuddles on the sofa with my dad whenever he takes out the time. She eats dinner with our family from a perch we put outside her cage. We often give her the bird edible parts of out meals (bread, fruits, veggies)although she doesn't seem to like any of it.
Any tips to how i can get over my fear of her first. I feel maybe if I can interact more and slowly introduce her to other rooms all the other problems will dissipate.

I am fine petting her when she is inside the cage. She seems to feel safer there. So she rarely gets overexcited. Sometimes we just sit together at watch TV while i pet her through the bars. Sometimes she falls asleep while i pet her.

My family all hate her, but even though she is a pain I love her. I cant imagine life without her. When I asked my neighbors about her screaming,they say that she annoys them, but not seriously. They are just four-six year old kids (their parents do not understand English) and they can only hear her when they play outside, but they elderly couple to the left say they never hear her.

I always feel like a horrible owner. This is my first cockatoo, or pet for a matter-of-fact,and I really get frustrated sometimes being the only one taking responsibility.

Sorry for asking soo many questions. I thank anyone who took the time to help me.

Thank you soooo much in advance.

 

[wenz2712]

Welcome to the forum

There are many Cockatoo Owners on here! I am sure someone will be along shortly to help with your questions

 

[lene1949]

How long have you had Sarah?

Cockatoos daily cycle depends on the sun, when the sun goes down the birds go to sleep, and when the sun comes up, they wake up... So basically she needs 12 hours sleep every night...

I think the reason she screams from 6-9 is that she needs to go to sleep.

You say your family all hate her, but that your father cuddles with her on the couch??

It's very unfortunate, that you are too afraid of her to find her good points... You can train her through the cage bars, using clicker training... It will give you as well as Sarah confidence... Targeting is the way to begin... There is a yahoo group spe******ing in clicker training..

It's a huge responsibility to take in an Umbrella cockatoo as a first bird... Have you looked at mytoos.com... They're very helpful as long as you say you rescued your bird, not bought it... and they know a lot about cockatoos...

 

[melissasparrots]

A few things for the morning screaming. 1. I would definitely look into heavier sheets for the new cage and make sure the blinds or curtains are closed on the windows so minimal light comes through. Also, if she does scream in the morning do not give her a single response. Her screaming should be met with total silence. Mine like to do this during the time change in spring and fall and as we progress into summer. I just stay in my bed and don't respond at all. Now, once I get up its a free for all. Its not very realistic to expect people to be up and around and not have your cockatoo awake. 2. You could try a sleep cage which can be something as simple as a smaller parrot cage or a small dog carrier. Those are easily covered with thicker material. A lot of people have had success using those. However you also say she is phobic. The definition of phobic varies from person to person, however if its a major scary fiasco to get her out of the cage and into a sleep cage, you might want to skip that option. 3. As I said, you can't really expect her to stay quiet in the morning with people around, depending on the phobic issue that might complicate things. But have you considered just waking her up, giving her some breakfast and sitting near her while you eat your breakfast or do some aspect of your morning routine? Sometimes just getting them up and acknowledging them with you will stop them from feeling like they need to contact call. The goal if you do that should be to uncover her BEFORE she has a chance to start throwing a screaming fit. If you uncover her after she starts screaming, then you just teach her that screaming gets her what she wants and you will have more screaming. If the root cause of the problem is that other people are sleeping when you first wake up and your footsteps cause her to wake up and disrupt the other sleepers, your best bet might be a sleep cage in another room, in a corner, with the door closed and covered. Depending on the how things really are with the phobic issue.

Regarding the evening screaming, that is pretty excessive. My sulfur only lets out a couple squawks here and there if that. My goffin's screams intermittently potentially for quite a while, but it tends to be more short outbursts rather than constant screaming. Is there any chance that something is going on in another part of the house that she wants to be a part of? There again, the phobic issue could get in the way. If it were me, I'd make sure that sometime shortly before she starts screaming, she got some intensive one on one time, some trick training, maybe a little walk around the house or a short car trip in a carrier to give her something to think about. Maybe give her supper before 6pm and do some foraging toys so she's busy foraging instead of starting to scream. It sounds like she's either upset at being ignored or she's got a bunch of pent up energy that needs to be focused. Never acknowledge screaming. Take steps to prevent the situation that leads to the screaming so it doesn't start. You will have some screaming to deal with regardless, but something's wrong if she's going on for three hours at a stretch. Maybe tell us what is usually going on in your family at about that time of day and where everyone is in relation to the bird during these screaming fits. Personally I would have a play gym for her and let her be out with the family during that time if her fear issues will allow that to happen without major trauma.

Regarding the phobic issue, this can be trickier than all the others if its really phobia. From your message I'm kind of doubting it. Phobic means fear. Phobic birds tend to bite only defensively when they feel they have no other choice but would generally rather get away. A lot of them will do things like sit in a nearly comatose state will shivering while somthing scary is going on or they will thrash around in their cage in a panic trying to get away. So is she doing any of that? What is she phobic of? You and no one else or certain objects or situations? Specifically what makes you think she's phobic other than biting you? Describe in more detail what you are generally doing when she tries to bite you and does she do this to other people in the family under identical circumstances? How do you respond when she bites?

 

[terry52449]

These are all very good suggestions. Cockattos are a huge challenge for anyone so be very patient. The fact that you are bonding with her through the bars is very good. Keep up the good work. Big tip stated earlier is never go in the room when the bird is screaming. Be patient and wait til the bird has calmed down for at least 5 minutes or so. Then go in and praise the bird even with a treat or two. She will associate being quiet with praise and a treat. Be patient!!!!

 

[Sarahtheumbrella]

Dear Lene1949,
My family likes her when she does something cute,and on nights that she is screaming excessively they hate her. On her good days my dad does not mind being nicer to her. I know that they all love her inside, but since she bothers them so much they really get mad.
I have seen mytoos before I got Sarah.There is some great raw facts there. We were prepared for everything they said there, but she seems to be too phobic, something we didn't see at the rescue. Thank goodness Sarah does not pluck out her feathers!

Dear Melissaparrots:
Sleeping matters
1. thank you so much for your REALLY great advice. She has a travel cage, but she is afraid of it. Whenever we manage to get her in we always take her to a shower (hates it) vet (scared of it) boarding (hates it) out to the garden (most movements scare her), or drives (stresses her)So moving her into a separate cage is hard.
2. I think that ignoring her will work, but when I tried this morning, she screamed with miniature intervals for about an hour and then started flapping her wings against the cage(weird. She does this whenever I ignore her for too long) with even more desperate screaming. I felt kind of scared at this point so i uncovered her. After the episode however; she woke up all happy and talky. She is singing and dancing right now.
3. She is a part of my breakfast schedule. During school my bus comes way too early for her at 6am,so i just sneak out of the house. But during summer she wakes me up and I give her a piece of my egg, or fruit, and then play with her a lot and change her food bowls. Then i go into my room to sleep for an hour or three, and then come out watch Tv. Do chores. Eat lunch.She stays quiet for all this time. During daytime she just plays with all the toys she has, and the toys i make her. I make her foraging toys which she seems to love, but she only works on these toys during the day time. I feel however I need new foraging toys ideas.

Phobia/biting:
1. I feel she is phobic. Taken to a new place she has almost sudden anxiety. When my dad tried to take her to his room she bit on to the door frame and wouldn't let go. she is scared of anything on wheels, but dances to sounds. She is not afraid of loud noises, next to that of a lawnmower. We bought her a play stand, but she was terrified of it, so I took of the wheels, still terrified. Took of the giant circle under the stand, still terrified, took of the cups still terrified, and eventually there was just a metal stand that she was still terrified of. She trashed around in the cage and flew off her perches in the cage, and retreated to the highest corner on the opposite side,and started breathing heavily.We are trying to get her conditioned to this by putting it in front of the cage for an hour a day. She now doesn't trash around if it is near her cage now, but she still stays on the opposite side and shakes.
2. Her bites are sudden and if she means it, you get it. Some times she does a "go away" bite, she just quickly jerks and touches the hand, but doesn't physically bite it. And the "hyper bite" when she gets overexcited and suddenly bites with quite some pressure. Whenever she bites, i just go an put on a band-aid. I just leave the room, but come back in a bit anyway, and treat her as i normally would.
3. When she bites outside the cage she is usually on my hand and I am trying to walk her to the sofa. Then jumps off my hand.
Once, on the sofa I tried to make her step up to go back and she bite my arm.
4.When inside her cage she bites whenever. Once when i was changing her food, and once when I was petting her. Once when my finger was in her foot. My family noticed that she usually bites at 6-9pm the hyper time (my dad comes home at 6pm). Other than that she is usually great.We let her out at 5 if not earlier. After dinner 7pm she just paces back and forth on top of her cage and screams. Whenever I offer her a toy she takes it in her beaks and literally plays with it for a second. Then she throws it on the floor.
5. She bites my dad when they are traveling from cage to sofa, or when she climbs up on his shoulders and he tries to get her off. Also when she is cuddling and she gets excited by movement, then she bites him. She bit my grandma on the head when she walked right under her dinner perch to change water(I told her not to).

We did a vet checkup just a few months ago and the vet said she was fine next to some preening issues. She didn't preen her head as much as she should, so we just have to help her out.We just give her showers once a week.He also said she was underweight, and she looks to have gained weight. We will go back to the vet soon to find out.

I think maybe that she gets bored on her cage,and I want her to be a part of the family, but frankly she is too scared. Any tips on what kind of stand she would not be afraid of? She is afraid of vet weighing scales, so the vet has to hold her in a blanket. She DOES NOT like that.

Below is a pic of her on her smaller cage, interested in the camera.

 

[greycloud]

Awwww...she is beautiful!! I have a rescued 30+ yo U2. He is such a love but came with horrible screaming issues. You have gotten some good advice, but your answers show that this girlies really has some issues. Before I go further I want to state that sometimes birds do not do well in home situations, especially if they are a danger to their human. These birds are usually most happiness in a sanctuary environment.
Where are you located?

With cases like these I recommend that people start over. Pretend it is day one and you just brought her home.
No handling, snuggling, free time. You need to win her trust and build a bond that none of you have. (Dad many have a bit of bond but her biting him and climbing to his shoulder are a no no.)
Believe me when I say she knows she is not liked. Even though it is due to her screaming. Start by having a set bedtime and wake up time with her getting 10-12 hours of sleep. Cover her with a comforter(I use two for my large cage). Uncover her in the morning before she starts to scream, otherwise you are rewarding her by uncovering during the scream. If she starts to scream before wake up give her a sec and wait for the littlest silent span and uncover her and praise her well.
If she is in the hub bub of the household you may need to move her to another back room where she has some private time. Some birds become over stimulated by daily home life.

Start by sitting across the room from her cage. Read to her, sing, play with bird toys in your lap, use a happy but calming voice. Every few minutes get up, no eye contact and drop a very favorite treat(one that will only be used for these training sessions) into her bowl and sit back down. If she stays quiet, eats the treat of occupies herself in anyway without unwanted behavior then praise her well.
Over the next few days to 2 weeks you are going to start to move the chair closer to her till you are next to her cage. The you will continue but start offering food directly to her with praise.
The next step is opening the cage, then to touching, then step ups.
It is important to remember that even though she may already do some of these things still start from scratch.
These behaviors are not a quick fix and these steps can take up to 1-2 months or longer.
It is important that she be allowed to voice her natural screaming morning and evening for a reasonable amount of time. Ignore all unwanted behavior.
By using positive reinforcement as I described above she will learn you are a calm, happy person that brings yummies and you expect nothing from her in return.
I would like to see a pic of her cage set up.

 

[KatherineI]

Everyone has fantastic suggestions! I'm new to Cockatoo ownership myself, so I can't really tell you anymore than's already been said. Take their advice, seriously. It will help.

And welcome to the Forum

 

[Sarahtheumbrella]

In response to greycloud:

Yes, i fear and know that she would be better off in a sanctuary environment. I am located in Georgia. But, I would really like to prevent it. She loves people and talking,and I think she has potential to be a great bird. I am an only child, and my parents are really busy, so she is my "sibling" in the house. It gets lonesome and even eerie sometimes,but now with her life seems better. For me atleast...
I have always wanted to work in the animal field , so I guess this is good training. I try not to give up, and two-four months is a small time to pay for a life of friend ship.

Your training sounds like a great idea!Start all over. How long do you say I should do this a day?I wouldn't mind, because I am an avid reader, so i could read those books aloud. Plus an avid singer

What would you say is a reasonable amount of screaming time? So tomorrow, would you suggest I wake up earlier than she and un-cover her? I will try to get my hand on some comforters to cover her instead of bedsheets.

Also while i startover should anyone else in the family have any part in it? how should they act?

Any ideas on what foods would motivate her? I have tried everything... she seems to like chick peas, is that okay?


I really hope this works! Thank you for your expertise~
I will get my hands on a pic of the cage as soon as I can fnd the camera...this may take a while...

 

[friedsoup]

if you can find one I use a Curtain from a Hotel with a black out liner (how far are you form Forsyth Ga?) to cover the cage. Your a kid and I'm a grown man and no afraid to admit Too's that bite scare me so don't let that embarse you listen to the advice you get here and post back so I can give you a place to get that black-out curtian.

 

[Sarahtheumbrella]

Thank you, but I am REALLY far from Forsyth. This night I got some unused comforters from the basement and used them. She got freaked out, so I covered the front with the comforter and the back with the bed sheet.She is only hanging out in the back part , but she will get over it. She is not shaking or having her beak open, so I think maybe she is more curious than scared. She hasn't screamed since I covered her, so I am VERY relieved.

Gosh, i am posting like a maniac, but finally i am seeing some improvement. So I am VERY excited.

Going to uncover her before she wakes up this morning, can't wait!

 

[melissasparrots]

I would either uncover her before she starts screaming, or wait her out. The flapping is just one more way to get your attention and make herself seem more desperate. When I wait for them to stop screaming, I wait for them to be quiet for a little while. Like about 5-10 minutes or so. Even if it takes a few hours. I think you have a bird that very badly wants attention, but she doens't know how to behave herself and she's afraid on top of that. You have some layers to her behavior issues.

A lot of birds are afaid of play gyms. I would move it next to her cage and leave it there. Then open her cage door and let her come and go from the gym as she pleases. If it takes months for her to voluntarily go to the gym on her own then so be it. Sometimes the more attention you draw to something scary, the scarier it becomes. So keep everything casual. If she wants to go to her gym great and don't draw a lot of attention to it if she does. If not, then thats fine too. That means if she goes to her gym, don't do something like run over and act all excited. Either ignore her so she thinks she's going unnoticed and is free to explore on her own, or a very low key "good girl" and thats it. Keeping treats on the gym is always good. Even if she doesn't touch them for a couple years.

So it seems maybe from the pattern of biting that she doesn't trust where you are going to take her. Yet, if your able to sit next to her and pet her through the cage bars without problem, that means she likes you, but the cage is her safe zone and anything that makes her think she might leave her cage is scary. Or if she's away from the cage and doesn't know where you are going to bring her, then she gets scared and bites. If I were you I'd make the cage your base of opporations. Don't try to make her leave the cage. Try to set it up so she can leave the cage of her own free will. Try sitting next to while watching TV and just leave the cage door open. If she just wants to sit and be petted through the bars like normal then that is fine. If some day in the future she decides to come out and crawl into your lap or sit on the arm of the chair for petting, then that is fine too. Remember, if she doesn't trust you, then trying to sweet talk her into doing something will be met with skepticism. Play hard to get. Make her come to you or ignore her. And if she does come to you, don't draw a lot of attention to it or get greedy and try to push her for more interaction. Always give her the option of leaving. If she comes to sit on the arm of the chair, ignore her unless she's making it very clear she wants to be petted. You can maybe bring some treats with you and sit them on the chair so that she has to come over to you to get the treats. Have them ready to go so you don't have to do something scary like move your hand to give her a treat. They are already sitting there and available for her to take if she wants them. Remember if she does come to you, don't try to take her away from the cage until much later when she's coming to you all the time when out of the cage. Baby steps. She may initially just come out and and play on top of her cage or crawl down the sides and look at you. Just ignore her when she does. If she snatches a treat and runs back to her cage to eat it, thats fine. Someday she will start spending more and more time sitting and eating the treats.

You can also try some clicker training too. You don't even need a clicker for it. Just make a clicking noise with your tongue and give her a treat. Click and treat, click and treat for a few days so that she learns that she gets a treat right after the click. Then have her do something simple for you to get the treat. Like touch the end of a spoon or chopstick. Touch, click, treat. Touch click treat. This is called target training. After she's got that down you can have her start moving to follow the chop stick a few inches in some direction before she gets her click and treat. This should help build trust and you can do it through the cage bars while your sitting next to her watching TV. Keep sessions short and remember, keep praise calm, low key. If she's good praise her but don't draw a lot of attention to it. Sometimes it takes a lot of bravery for a scared bird to come to you especially out of their cage/comfort zone. If you go overboard on what your asking them to do or draw a lot of attention to it, then they get scared again and want to bite or get away. If she does come to you, since she has a history of biting, it might be good to get some little stuffed animal or wadded up paper towel and if she goes to bite you, stuff that in her beak and push away. Sometimes they will come to see you, but then they won't know what to do while on you since they aren't used to doing that, so they will get a little wound up and bite. So having something to put in her beak will be good. Teaching her simple tricks will also help so if you have problems with her coming to see you and then getting a little aggressive, you can show her what she is suppoed to do by having her do some tricks. If she bites when you try to put her back in her cage, why not just stand up and walk away. If her cage is her safe zone and the chair is right next to the cage, chances are decent she will just go back to her cage.

If not, you can use that spoon or chopstick that you trained her to follow and have her follow it back to her cage. Remember, it may take years to accomplish a relationship where you are able to pick her up and move her away from the cage on your hand. Right now you should concentrate on building up trust. Trust that you won't make her do something scary like leave her safe zone. If she bites, make sure it was not because you were pushing her to do something that she didn't want to do. If she bites because she was a little wound up and aggressive, you can treat it a few different ways. Best is try not to handle her when she is crest up and screaming or strutting around. That way you prevent the bite. If she goes out of her way to bite you, then I'd just walk away from her. If her cage is her safe zone, she probably will not follow you away from that to bite. Just make sure you aren't teaching her to bite to get rid of you. To do that you have to make sure you aren't trying to make her do something she's not ready to do yet.

Her pacing back and forth in the evening might be a good time to trick train her. Or do a simple game like reverse fetch. You give her something, she throws it on the floor and you give it back to her. You get to be the dog in this case. Something where you can interact with her, but not be touching her. Some birds are territorial about their food bowls so be careful then. Some cockatoos(mine) like to hold your finger in their foot like they are sweet little angels and then they get sneaky and bite it just because they can. I think its the cockatoo equivalent of a practical joke. Just don't let her hold your finger in her foot for any length of time. Even birds that are afraid outside the cage, can by quite cocky inside their cage where they are comfortable.

Your bird is a rescue bird and sometimes they come with issues. As totally unfair as it is, sometimes if they have a tendency to be phobic, the person they are most afraid of is the person that is their main care giver and that tries the hardest to be their friend. Be patient. Work on having a relationship with her even if it isn't always a physical relationship. If you notice she gets wound up and bites easy, keep physical interactions short and end them before she has a chance to bite. Maybe time her. If you notice after 5 minutes of petting, she starts getting over excited, end it at 4 minutes.

What do you have in her cage for toys? How big is her cage?
I disagree with the person who said cockatoos are best off in sanctuaries. Some of the saddest, most miserable cockatoos I've seen have been sactuary birds where they were one of 100 birds and they never got the human attention they craved. Sometimes even birds like yours that are afraid badly want human interaction. They are just to scared to do it appropriately without getting into trouble. Or nobody taught them what they are supposed to do

when interaction with people. Or someone didn't know what they were doing and taught them a lot of bad habits that need to be undone.

The bird in your picture looks happy in her eyes so she must have some joy in her life. I think its just going to come down to teaching her how you want her to behave and that will require clicker training so you can teach her tricks to do instead of bite. And never pushing her beyond her security so she gets out of the habit of thinking she needs to bite to get people to stop doing what she doens't want them to do because that is the only way to make scary things go away. REMEMBER, YOU CANNOT TEACH A SCARED BIRD THAT SOMETHING IS SAFE BY FORCING IT ON THEM. FORCE ONLY REINFORCES THAT IT IS SCARY. That means dealing with fear issues can take years to overcome and it can be 2 steps forward 1 step backward. Just because she overcomes fear one day, doesn't mean your home free. She can and will slide back to being scared the next day and you'll just have to be patient and start from square one again. It can sometimes take months before you consistently notice a small bit of progress. And another few months before another very small hurdle is consistently overcome without backsliding. When in doubt, don't try to hold her, take her some place or physically interact. Do those things only when its VERY clear she wants them and is willing to come to you in order to get them. And even then, keep it short and end it before she has a chance to get into trouble or change her mind and get scared or bite.

 

[Sarahtheumbrella]

Once again thanks Melissaparrots,

Midday Starting over method:
So yesterday, I just sat on the dining table chair furthest from her and read a book to her. In about five minutes she started to do that famous cockatoo chatter (the one that makes it seem they are talking to hear themselves talk) while I read to her. Then after a minute or so she gave up and started preening herself,next she got a bit antsy and started to let out a few mini-squawks,which I ignored, and after that she just fell asleep.I stopped reading about thirty minutes after she fell asleep.

She likes chick peas (garbanzo beans) and the pack my dad got me were expired so I had to settle for mango. Greycloud suggested that at first I put it in her bowl so I did. She paid no attention to it whatsoever, and I know that she saw me put it in there.

After that I went into my room for a second leaving the door wide open, and to my dismay she started to scream, so I just shut the door so I didn't go deaf, and could ignore her more thoroughly. After i shut the door however she stopped screaming. I waited for a minute of silence and then I went out and gave her another mango slice, that she paid no attention to.

Today after a bit I found some chick peas so I decided to start. I read her the book and she just listened and preened her head using her foot. Then I gave her a chick pea after making a clicking sound. She almost immediately ate it and then started screaming for more. I just continued reading in the same tone. She calmed down and then I gave her a another one after making a clicking noise. She once gain screamed for more, and I continued the process until eventually she didn't scream too much. But as soon as I left she was off screaming her head off. I just ignored and then when she stopped I came outside, and then I let her out.

Mornings:
The day before yesterday is the first night I tried to cover her in a comforter. I woke up at 7:00am (on sunday) to uncover her, and unlike usually she was not sifting around,and I uncovered her. So I guess that's a plus

This morning however, it either subconsciously pressed snooze or something, but I woke up at 7:40. I thought maybe I woke up because she screamed. So I waited about a minute, and all I heard was her rustling around in her cage. Her moving around usually means she is awake, and so I uncovered her. She slept a whole 40 mins longer than usual!

Also I followed mellissa'a advice and unlike usual I did not try to coax her into coming near the comforter. I treated it like it was not there, and then she came over and stuck her foot out. I held her foot and she looked up sideways at the comforter and I guess scaled it. Meaning she stretched all the way to her tallest length then squeezed down into her cuddle size. I pet her foot while she watched and then after a few seconds covered her completely.
Tonight:
I just covered her now and Ta DAH! she is NO longer afraid of the comforter, for now. She even got brave enough to chew on it. I am going to make it one hundred percent comforter once I know for a fact she is comfortable.

Also, I have a question, what stand do you experts recommend? There are those that sit on a table and those with a plain stand with wheels, and those stationary ones that cost a lot of $$$. A bird fair is coming into town July 14-15 and they have all types of stands, so I am waiting.




Also, yes, that is what my dad says, she always wants attention, but doesn't know how to behave when she gets it. I do not think that she hates anyone.When ever people are over she always kindly tells them hello, and loves it when they come over to say hi to her. She loves everyone, but I think that she likes my dad the most. He has had some wild parrots so he is very calm when handling Sarah. And she really isn't a danger to us. Those bites i told you about happened over the year and a half we had her. About seven bites in a year and a half is not that bad.

Afternoon:
She makes me mad with all of her evening screaming. I try to play with her, but she is waaaayyy to hyper. I tried to giver her a toy and she lunged at it. I tried clicker trainer to touch the back of a plastic spoon and she ripped it out of my hand and chewed on it for a second, then she threw it down on the floor. I tried to give it back to her, but she looked as if she was going to bite.
She screamed even when I was literally talking to her. And the MAJOR problem is that I can't ignore her. When I do it just makes everyone frustrated. Even when I try to explain the training. My mom wants me to watch Tv with her in my parents room, and whenevr I go, my dad calls me back outside to stop Sarah from screaming. If I ignore it my dad gets frustrated and so does my mom, because she can't hear the Tv. So basically I have to sit in the living room. And even then she screams. I finally got my hands on some chick peas and I gave her some this evening hoping it would calm her down, and there is no way that I would give her something like a chick pea when she is so antsy, so I put it in her cage. She didn't eat them however.

I find superior happiness in my bonding sessions, but then in the afternoon I hit the all time low. Below are the pictures of her cage. She really only plays with her toys when no one is home, or when she thinks no one is home. Other than that the whole day she is screaming for attention, getting attention, sleeping, or preening. She mostly has wooden chew toys, and sometimes I get little glad boxes and put some paper and cheerios in and she enjoys opening the box, but then again she plays whenever no one is home, but she will never play when I want her to be quiet.She is a big chewer.