Hi all,
I have past experience with conures and ecclectus, but recntly found myself with a young female cockatoo whose behavior is perplexing me. I am afraid she might be at risk for developing bad behaviors like creaming, biting, etc, etc, and want to get her on the right track by understanding what's making her tick and what she needs.
She came from a place that sold her 'just weened, hand fed.' I checked them out online and it looks like a place that puts baby cockatoos into batches of yogurt cups and 'handfed them' factory style. sort of the bird rendition of a puppy mill. She's not completely asocial -- when on the floor she will follow me around the house and look for me, she'll try to climb up my arm to my shoudler if I let her (I don't let her because of the weird biting). About 1/3 the time she'll step up if I offer a hand or arm. But the other 2/3 she'll either 1 - lunge bite/chew while making little 'wawawawawa' noises or 2 - make those little wawawawawawawawawa noises while swaying back and forth, as if eyes glazed over, head a bit back (sometimes down), rocking back and forth on the perch and sometimes turning her back to me while she does this. Sometimes she'll fluff up a little while doing this, bt I don't think its aggression - more like she hasn't a clue what to do with herself, or some kind of chick thing. generally if I"m in front of her, she starts up the wawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaaaaaaaaaa business, but stops if she's exploring, following me or (sometimes only) if she's perched on me. What is the cause of this wawawawawa biting, glazing-refusal business, and how is best to steer this to better behavior?
I have past experience with conures and ecclectus, but recntly found myself with a young female cockatoo whose behavior is perplexing me. I am afraid she might be at risk for developing bad behaviors like creaming, biting, etc, etc, and want to get her on the right track by understanding what's making her tick and what she needs.
She came from a place that sold her 'just weened, hand fed.' I checked them out online and it looks like a place that puts baby cockatoos into batches of yogurt cups and 'handfed them' factory style. sort of the bird rendition of a puppy mill. She's not completely asocial -- when on the floor she will follow me around the house and look for me, she'll try to climb up my arm to my shoudler if I let her (I don't let her because of the weird biting). About 1/3 the time she'll step up if I offer a hand or arm. But the other 2/3 she'll either 1 - lunge bite/chew while making little 'wawawawawa' noises or 2 - make those little wawawawawawawawawa noises while swaying back and forth, as if eyes glazed over, head a bit back (sometimes down), rocking back and forth on the perch and sometimes turning her back to me while she does this. Sometimes she'll fluff up a little while doing this, bt I don't think its aggression - more like she hasn't a clue what to do with herself, or some kind of chick thing. generally if I"m in front of her, she starts up the wawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawaaaaaaaaaa business, but stops if she's exploring, following me or (sometimes only) if she's perched on me. What is the cause of this wawawawawa biting, glazing-refusal business, and how is best to steer this to better behavior?
