Breeding question with tame cockatoos?

[uptbirds]

Hi all

I recently purchased a 11yr old male Umbrella Cockatoo. He's name is Darling. He is extremely tame. Took 20minutes to accept me and i drove 350km with him back home on my shoulder.

My question is what will happen when i want to breed with him? Do i need to find a parent reared female for him? will he adapt to a different situation where a lot less human contact is going to be? Will he be aggresive towards his mate?

At the moment he is quite fond of attention. Slightly plucked on his chest but i think it because of the cage that i found him in was way too small and his diet was not up to my standards.

Regards

 

[Mekaisto]

It will depend a lot on him - some hand-raised birds will completely revert back to their 'wild' behaviour when introduced to a member of their own species. Some will lose all interest in you, and focus on their new girlfriend, and others will pay attention to her but still see you as a member of the flock.

Some (especially males) will either not accept a female, or not understand how to copulate with her correctly.
He might even be aggressive with her, which is why it will be important to allow them to socialise before putting them together in the same cage.

Basically, there's no real way of knowing until it happens!

 

[uptbirds]

thanks for the advice. he stayed with another tame male for a few weeks before i fetched him and they were not aggressive with each other.

i think it will be best to get another tame female and like you said let them bond first before putting them together in a bigger cage.

 

[ShreddedOakAviary]

I recommend strict supervision. A tame male can view a hen as an obstacle between him and the life he used to have and may want back. The key here is more likely going to be what he knows from whoever raised him (we allow our cockatoos to join a flock environment and learn cockatoo manners). If he was partially parent fed, then he's got a good shot at being a potential breeder. The best breeding pairs of cockatoos here are from tame hens and wild males, not the other way around. The pairs formed with tame males have to be constantly supervised and all except one pair have to be put in separate cages at least once a year so they can get a break from each other. We have had pairs that did fine for years and then we go out and find a hen bleeding to the point of needing stitches. Those pairs we split, and the males stay here in a sort of sanctuary situation permanently (it's important to note that our previous mate attacking males and some rescued mate killers we have from other places all get along great in a flight... all males... if we introduced a hen, then the situation becomes volatile.. I have raised cockatoos as a specialty for a long time, and the key is never take your eyes off of them, and always know the bird really well first so you can see mood swings, changes in behavior, etc long before you have a problem. I've never had a hen die or be maimed, but I've had a couple of bloody instances before I put in CCTV and a baby monitor in our aviary... the baby monitor is to wake me at night or alert me during the day if a fight ensues. It helps me to know what kind of mood the cockatoos are in, and whether they're breeding or not. If you are going to do this you really need to pour in a lot of effort, thought, and work (more than for any other species we have raised) in order to be successful in the long term and not risk the life of an innocent hen. There is never not someone home simply because they require that much supervision. If I need to go on vacation (or like last year have a baby of my own), I split ALL the cockatoo flights in half dividing the pairs for their own safety while no one is listening in. They are life consuming to breed and raise (then again most parrots are). But I'll tell you that if you can raise cockatoos successfully, everything else feels downhill from their )