Our new child...Tilly

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dissident

New member
Aug 2, 2011
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We the newest member of our family tonight, Tilly.

Tilly is a Goffin Cockatoo and is approximately 5 months old. He was in a loving home, but his owners needed to make some room as they had 3 other birds, and numerous other animals.

Thanks to everyone who helped with advice from my thread in the macaw section.

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Congrats on the new baby!!!!! Tilly is beautiful! :)
 
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He has been on Zupreem Fruit Blend...

Is this the correct thing to feed him/buy?
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Fruitblend-Medium-Parrot-Conure-Colored/dp/B001F6TUL8/ref=sr_1_23?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1312607189&sr=1-23"]Amazon.com: Fruitblend Medium - Large Parrot Conure Food, 12 Lbs Multi Colored: Home & Garden[/ame]

Also do you guys recommend covering his cage at night with a sheet? I had always heard to do that, but wanted to be sure.

Lastly, for now, do they need the calcium things hanging in their cage? Any other must have items?
 
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That food would be perfect, that's what I feed mine. Covering the cage is up to you, mine hates to be covered so I don't cover mine. You mean hanging a mineral block on their cage? Mine won't even touch that stuff, she should get most of her calcium needs from the pellet, veggies and fruits that you feed her.
 
My friend as a dog named Tilly. :) She looks like a sweetheart!
 
Nawwww...that's adorable! My Alex's have a sheet over their bedroom at night. If i'm late pulling it down (it just gets folded back during the day while they are in their aviary or on there playarea) gretchen will grab it and try to pull it down herself and squark and carry on. She get's very grumpy at bedtime and goes into her box saying "urghhhhh". I guess it's what they get used to. Mine have a regular "bedtime" and then call out when they want to get up in the morning.
I have a cuttlefish shell for my girl to chew up as a bit extra at the moment due to her egg laying but i've gotten those mineral blocks and it was a total waste of money! They didn't touch it!
 
Congrats! Very cute, I love Goffins. I cover Romeo's sleep cage at night, then she takes it a step further and pulls part of the sheet inside her cage and completely covers herself with it. Romeo is on zupreem as well, our vet told us not to give the block, he was worried about her getting too much sodium from it.
 
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Yea we went with a sheet last night. Seemed to work great. He really likes my wife. Whenever she walks in the room he gets excited and starts saying 'hi tilly' over and over.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Awww, I'm glad your new little one is settling in well. Congrats!!!! She is so cute.
 
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Anyone have suggestions on a play stand for him and where to buy one?
 
My vet told me not to even put the mineral blocks in the cage, as they are porous, and can hold bacteria and viruses.
 
i would go with that one! even i kinda want to play on that thing lol, i can see it full of toys and tilly having a blast! it looks like a whole play ground with swings, latters, food, toys, something my little cousins would probably live on! oh and congradulations on your new bird he looks like such a clown! good luck :D!
 
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This is our first attempt at raising a too, and want to make sure we do the best we can. His routine thus far, is to be in the same room as the family in some way or another. His cage is in our room, however we leave the door open so he can come in and out as he please....there is a playpen on top of his cage. My wife has made him a bunch of new toys since he has come to our home, so he stays pretty busy even when we are not directly interacting with him.

I would say that he is actually being held for about 15 mins at a time every hour or so. My wife is stay at home mom during the week, and then I am home on the weekends, plus we have 3 kids, so he has plenty of interaction, but we do try to give him his own space. We are doing our best to figure out the best balance of both?

My question is , our we doing this right? What is the correct amount of time to hold him/interact with him and what is the correct amount of independent time? I want to be sure that we do not create a monster through our negligence/ignorance.

Again, this is brand new to us, so any suggestions would be wonderful.
 
i think interation time should be what you can provide constantly for the rest of tillys life :) so if your wife returns to work in the future that should be taken into account, also when you have days out etc, so cage time even when you are in is not a bad idea, but you must have a few hours of interaction with tilly, i dont mean out of cage time, time when tilly is played with etc

whats working for nut is a good 2/3 hours interaction time perday, the rest of the day she is in her cage, till about 3 to 4 pm. she did have complete freedom from the cage for days on end as there was one of us at home during the day, this for some unknown reason caused her to be very aggressive, probably because she was out of her cage, she was left to her own devices and basically ignored, but now when she is out she takes a nap with me! short play time, prep tea, take a shower an head rubs in between

but this is whats working with the nut so far and your bird might thrive on being able to do her own thing etc

but i have read that stroking all over a too's body is sexual?? maybe some1 with a too can confirm or dismiss this, but avoid all sexual behavior, as when tilly becomes hormonal it can cause problems!

beautifull bird an soo cute!
 
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Thanks for the advice. At this point we are just doing what feels natural. The wife is at work today and since I had to take my 2 year old out to play I brought Tilly with me. he seemed to enjoy the outside time and the sunlight.

By the way, I keep saying he because the people we got him from told us that the breeder advised he was in fact a he. I have no idea what they did to determine this though.

Tilly is pretty much perfect so far with me and the wife. He is a little nippy with my 10 year old son, but that is more because of my son not respecting his space and moving too fast...at least that is what I think.

When I approach Tilly, I talk to him for a second and then say "step up", at which time he usually raises his leg and steps right up to me.

My other question pertains to bathing/showers. How often and what is the best way to introduce this activity? I was thinking of starting the shower and setting him on the edge and just allowing him to decide what to do?
 
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