Cockatoo never wants to be in the cage

[chadwick]

My two macaws have access to go in and out if their cages which are next to each other for 10 years now! There is really nothing they can get into and if they chew something up oh well! They are much happier this way! No screaming they are so calm.


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[chocobyted]

Hey chadwick, I really wish I had that luxury - somehow the moment I am not looking my cockatoo finds something to break with his beak. 3rd chair is also destroyed... I am going to try to salvage the parts to see if I can make back one of the chairs from the unbroken parts of the others.
He doesn't seem to pick on the cables (yet!), our Canadian cockatiel is crazy about the cables and sockets... and the cables are almost everywhere so it is not safe.

We had 2 dogs and of course they are not caged even at night, but their interests are different from cables, top of wooden chairs to their own toys.

I was happy that the cockatoo was getting used to a box with toys in it as his playground and now chew on others but the moment I am not in sight he gets his head out of the box and searches for me, biting on other things in his way (chair!). It makes me wonder if it would work with a video of me just looking at him to satisfy his search for the human

 

[noodles123]

Letting birds out of cages unsupervised is really quite dangerous for them. Yes, they enjoy it, but they can chew on toxic paints/stains etc or get squished, or electrocuted etc...I really recommend caging them when you are not around to monitor what they are getting into (for the bird's sake) and for the sake of your home.

 

[ParrotGenie]

Never leave them unsupervised, you won't have no house left. Cockatoos love chewing wood. I give them untreated wood and cut it into blocks and my empty water bottles and other trash like rolls and paper . They seem to like garbage more then the expensive toys I give them. It help keep there minds off destroying my stuff and wood trimmings around the house.

I remember one guy that adopted a female moluccan cockatoo and didn't believe in caging the bird when he left to work and came home to a couple of his expensive genuine leather couches destroyed. He learned and built a large enclosure in room for her, I borrowed him a cage in the meantime.

 

[ParrotGenie]

Boxes are a No No they tend to become hormonal during this time of year and start digging and shredding behavior trying to built a nest. Males do nest as well, it not just the females. Give him wood toys, or blocks and etc instead.

 

[chocobyted]

I have wooden blocks in the box so he is actually chewing on those, he goes through them very fast though. Where do you get them usually?
If I don't keep this in the box then he starts to pick on everything wood like the chairs. Is this how it is for you as well (and are all your chairs eaten?). He doesn't seem to stay on a specific chair.

 

[chocobyted]

Oh and his stainless steel large parrot bell (so he can't get to the striker part). He is not shredding the box itself.

 

[Scott]

I have wooden blocks in the box so he is actually chewing on those, he goes through them very fast though. Where do you get them usually?
If I don't keep this in the box then he starts to pick on everything wood like the chairs. Is this how it is for you as well (and are all your chairs eaten?). He doesn't seem to stay on a specific chair.

I visit Home Depot and purchase a long section of untreated 2 x 4 and have them cut into one foot sections. Drill a hole in the center and string one or two sections on stainless steel chain and attach to roof of cage. My Goffins in particular love that format and reduce them to toothpicks! Far more cost effective than purchasing block-style toys!

 

[ParrotGenie]

I have wooden blocks in the box so he is actually chewing on those, he goes through them very fast though. Where do you get them usually?
If I don't keep this in the box then he starts to pick on everything wood like the chairs. Is this how it is for you as well (and are all your chairs eaten?). He doesn't seem to stay on a specific chair.

I visit Home Depot and purchase a long section of untreated 2 x 4 and have them cut into one foot sections. Drill a hole in the center and string one or two sections on stainless steel chain and attach to roof of cage. My Goffins in particular love that format and reduce them to toothpicks! Far more cost effective than purchasing block-style toys!

Exactly what I do. Yes my female has chew chairs and wood trim. One time I want outside for a couple of minutes to talk to someone and she chew up a piece of wood trim. She knew she did wrong as I was coming up the stair and heard her fly back to her cage and then I saw she ripped off and chew the wood trim. She gave me that guilty look and was quite in her cage, she was hoping I would think it was Cooper that did it. I knew it was her as she been after that piece of trim for a while.

Shockingly my male U2 is well behaved and don't really have to watch him, he has yet to chew on anything he not suppose to. It my female U2 that like to destroy stuff. She toss my iPad Pro a year as she was piss I was using it and not paying attention to her, so she waited till I walk away far enough and she flew to it yell at it and toss it to the ground and cracked the screen. It had a nice line through it thanks to her.

 

[chocobyted]

Thank you all for your advice!

Snow is doing better these days - got used to me being a boring human (that doesn't have time to play with him non-stop). I still will have to take him to Canada as my parents want to look after him after I told them I found the sanctuary to send him (my other thread at http://www.parrotforums.com/cockatoos/84340-airline-would-fly-cockatoos-cabin.html). He will be happier there with a bigger house + garden + wood cutting equipment for endless wood supply for him to chew on.

He is more calm and grounded these days though (attaching pic). He doesn't seem to be interested in biting me either, got used to just hanging at my arm rather then shoulders. I realized also things that he goes crazy about are things he just wants to see closer (they might look scary until he "inspects" them closely). These are things that actually look like a bird, if you stare at it long enough, such as hair dryer, water spray, plant fertilizer spray he hates knives though and tries to jump at and get it, so not possible to eat something that needs to be cut with him at the table...

His crazy screams are still there but after I moved him from 3rd floor to 1st floor he doesn't go for hours, just a few times and gives up - phew!

 

[Betrisher]

I can get untreated pallets for nothing from a local transporter. I break them up and use a hole saw to cut 'biscuits' (cookies) out of the timbers. I drill holes in the biscuits and string them on paulie rope for the birds to play with. The remaining 'holey' timber is simply pushed through the cage bars to make a (temporary) extra perch. The birds turn it into matchwood in no time flat!

Native timbers are the best, though. You'd need to check what's safe in your area, but I know that Australian Eucalyptus, casuarina, bottlebrush, paperbark, grevillea and hakea are all fine for birds. Whenever I'm driving through bushland, I'm always on the lookout for fallen branches which can be stripped of their bark and turned into lovely smooth natural perches by my birds.

My dear old galah, Dominic, was famous for eating one entire architrave off the top of our back door! He did it all by himself, inside a month and my poor husband was nearly in despair ('I'm married to a woman who just stands there and smiles while her bird literally eats us out of house and home!') He overdramatises, though. He put up a new architrave and Dommie didn't eat much of that.

If you can get really thick cardboard tubes (like packing cylinders or the bolts that fabric is sold on), you can drill holes through it and stick in stainless steel bolts. Secure them with stainless steel wingnuts and your birds will have a ball unscrewing them! (NB. Tie a bit of chain or leather to each wingnut to prevent them getting lost).

I have almost as much fun making toys for my birds as I do actually playing with them!

 

[chocobyted]

I can get untreated pallets for nothing from a local transporter. I break them up and use a hole saw to cut 'biscuits' (cookies) out of the timbers. I drill holes in the biscuits and string them on paulie rope for the birds to play with. The remaining 'holey' timber is simply pushed through the cage bars to make a (temporary) extra perch. The birds turn it into matchwood in no time flat!

Native timbers are the best, though. You'd need to check what's safe in your area, but I know that Australian Eucalyptus, casuarina, bottlebrush, paperbark, grevillea and hakea are all fine for birds. Whenever I'm driving through bushland, I'm always on the lookout for fallen branches which can be stripped of their bark and turned into lovely smooth natural perches by my birds.

My dear old galah, Dominic, was famous for eating one entire architrave off the top of our back door! He did it all by himself, inside a month and my poor husband was nearly in despair ('I'm married to a woman who just stands there and smiles while her bird literally eats us out of house and home!') He overdramatises, though. He put up a new architrave and Dommie didn't eat much of that.

If you can get really thick cardboard tubes (like packing cylinders or the bolts that fabric is sold on), you can drill holes through it and stick in stainless steel bolts. Secure them with stainless steel wingnuts and your birds will have a ball unscrewing them! (NB. Tie a bit of chain or leather to each wingnut to prevent them getting lost).

I have almost as much fun making toys for my birds as I do actually playing with them!

Wow that sounds amazing! It also sounds like you live in Australia where there might be bushes and trees where cockatoos thrive playing with !

I live in California, Silicon Valley - I barely come across a tree let alone fallen branches or anything that looks like a branch (not even pebbles, just mulch), so the only place I can get stuff is Home Depot. Canada would be better for Snow, my parents live next to a national park. I will send them your note on what they might want to try !!