Francie Mae
Member
- Feb 22, 2025
- 66
- 54
- Parrots
- Bare-eyed cockatoo
Hello everyone! This is a just general āfor funā Mischief update 
Nothing too pressing, just sharing her progress. I have a few questions but theyāre not of great concern.
Everyone is adjusting well to the baby and she seems like sheās adjusting well, too! Weāre still paranoid about her diet, though; sheās eaten three big meals today already (itās noon as I write this, and she wakes up at around 8am) because she was crying. She weighs 223 grams, so sheās gained 13 grams. She seems too worked up most of the time to be pet (crying, wiggling her head in the āfeed meā baby way) but she likes to sit on our shoulders. I think she likes it, at least, because she doesnāt want to step down. However, she almost always has her crest up; is the high frequency of this due to her age?
She also has no fear whatsoever of new rooms of the house or of our Labrador. Our Labrador avoids getting too close, though, as she does with the cats and chickens. She typically doesnāt approach any animal unless sheās approached first, and even then sheās very reserved. Itās her service dog training, I suppose. Still no reason to ever leave them alone together, though.
Itās just my dad and I home today, so I know no one is opening/closing doors unexpectedly, so I took a little walk with Mischief around the house. She was on my shoulder. I put earplugs in because she was crying in my ear, but she would stop and chirp if she saw something interesting. I might put a perch in my room, because of how seemingly unafraid she is of new environments.
Also! Sheās been āconversingā with my mom! Like Grim, she gets very chatty/worked up when itās close to her bedtime, but in a different way. The last few nights sheāll do this kind of chirp/squawk that strongly mimics human cadence, specifically like sheās ranting to my mom. Iām not sure if she heard that on the TV or something but it has the tone of a human conversation that might go like ā..and then she did THIS, and then she did THAT, and I was SO surprisedā¦ā but itās all squawks and chirps. She moves a lot during her little rant, too, like sticking her head or wings out. Iāve heard cockatoos are much better with tone than with words, and itās very cool to see/hear that play out.
One of my slight concerns is she doesnāt have great dexterity in her feet, and while I wouldnāt expect high dexterity from a baby, the vet said to watch out for some muscle atrophy disease that I canāt quite recall the name of. She didnāt think that Mischief had it, but she said that would be her only concern if there was more reason to be concerned. As it is now she just sometimes chews on her feet and canāt grab things very well. Hopefully itās just because sheās so little. Her feet are still soft and donāt have the hard āscaleā like quality that older birds have.
Also, sheās been pecking at her kibble and eating it in small amounts. We were going to start some ātouch this/pointā training soon but I donāt want to overload her on treats at this young of an age especially. Iāve seen people use natural non-salted peanut butter but Iām not sure if thatās safe for her. Do any of you have experience with that?
On the note of training, have you guys seen the Parrot Kingergarten documentary? Or clips from their instagram? Very fascinating stuff.
Overall, Mischief is doing well! Iāll post some pictures here, too.
Side note: this isnāt strictly related to parrot advice, so Iām not sure if I should include this in a separate thread, but this past Saturday, a week after Grimās passing, I got the fading scratch marks he left on my arm tattooed in thin black ink. Theyāre small and not noticeable, but I know theyāre there. Both my parentsā have a few smaller/medium tattoos so they were supportive. I might make a post soon of all the crafts/planting-of-flowers weāve done to memorialize him (hair wrap with one of his feathers attached, a necklace made from his wooden-bead ladder, white/yellow flowers our neighbors gave us as condolences, etc). I promise the tattoo wasnāt a spur-of-the-moment grief-fueled decision; Iāve always wanted one or two *small* tattoos, and this felt like the right one to start with. I wanted to share that with you guys because youāve all been so helpful which weāre beyond grateful for and this feels like an important part of the journey and a way to remember Grim.
Nothing too pressing, just sharing her progress. I have a few questions but theyāre not of great concern. Everyone is adjusting well to the baby and she seems like sheās adjusting well, too! Weāre still paranoid about her diet, though; sheās eaten three big meals today already (itās noon as I write this, and she wakes up at around 8am) because she was crying. She weighs 223 grams, so sheās gained 13 grams. She seems too worked up most of the time to be pet (crying, wiggling her head in the āfeed meā baby way) but she likes to sit on our shoulders. I think she likes it, at least, because she doesnāt want to step down. However, she almost always has her crest up; is the high frequency of this due to her age?
She also has no fear whatsoever of new rooms of the house or of our Labrador. Our Labrador avoids getting too close, though, as she does with the cats and chickens. She typically doesnāt approach any animal unless sheās approached first, and even then sheās very reserved. Itās her service dog training, I suppose. Still no reason to ever leave them alone together, though.
Itās just my dad and I home today, so I know no one is opening/closing doors unexpectedly, so I took a little walk with Mischief around the house. She was on my shoulder. I put earplugs in because she was crying in my ear, but she would stop and chirp if she saw something interesting. I might put a perch in my room, because of how seemingly unafraid she is of new environments.
Also! Sheās been āconversingā with my mom! Like Grim, she gets very chatty/worked up when itās close to her bedtime, but in a different way. The last few nights sheāll do this kind of chirp/squawk that strongly mimics human cadence, specifically like sheās ranting to my mom. Iām not sure if she heard that on the TV or something but it has the tone of a human conversation that might go like ā..and then she did THIS, and then she did THAT, and I was SO surprisedā¦ā but itās all squawks and chirps. She moves a lot during her little rant, too, like sticking her head or wings out. Iāve heard cockatoos are much better with tone than with words, and itās very cool to see/hear that play out.
One of my slight concerns is she doesnāt have great dexterity in her feet, and while I wouldnāt expect high dexterity from a baby, the vet said to watch out for some muscle atrophy disease that I canāt quite recall the name of. She didnāt think that Mischief had it, but she said that would be her only concern if there was more reason to be concerned. As it is now she just sometimes chews on her feet and canāt grab things very well. Hopefully itās just because sheās so little. Her feet are still soft and donāt have the hard āscaleā like quality that older birds have.
Also, sheās been pecking at her kibble and eating it in small amounts. We were going to start some ātouch this/pointā training soon but I donāt want to overload her on treats at this young of an age especially. Iāve seen people use natural non-salted peanut butter but Iām not sure if thatās safe for her. Do any of you have experience with that?
On the note of training, have you guys seen the Parrot Kingergarten documentary? Or clips from their instagram? Very fascinating stuff.
Overall, Mischief is doing well!
Iāll post some pictures here, too.Side note: this isnāt strictly related to parrot advice, so Iām not sure if I should include this in a separate thread, but this past Saturday, a week after Grimās passing, I got the fading scratch marks he left on my arm tattooed in thin black ink. Theyāre small and not noticeable, but I know theyāre there. Both my parentsā have a few smaller/medium tattoos so they were supportive. I might make a post soon of all the crafts/planting-of-flowers weāve done to memorialize him (hair wrap with one of his feathers attached, a necklace made from his wooden-bead ladder, white/yellow flowers our neighbors gave us as condolences, etc). I promise the tattoo wasnāt a spur-of-the-moment grief-fueled decision; Iāve always wanted one or two *small* tattoos, and this felt like the right one to start with. I wanted to share that with you guys because youāve all been so helpful which weāre beyond grateful for and this feels like an important part of the journey and a way to remember Grim.
