Bare-eyed cockatoos, pretty bright

[zarafia]

After watching Reds video of the Skipper suffering the indignity of being exposed outside I got thinking about something I was talking about not long ago.
About bare-eyeds. I think they are exceptionally bright.
The few Ive known were very smart. The hand raised male I knew had the most wonderful personality. Too smart for his own good, but fortunately his owner spent everything necessary to give Casper a good environment, diet and stimulation he needed.
One thing I noticed about bare-eyeds is their very long, slender toes. I think digital dexterety goes hand in hand (no pun intended) with intelligence.
Any comments?

 

[Redballoon]

The words I would use for Skippah on a good day are, aloof, dignified and quiet.
On a bad day I would call her a snobby lazy up herself cow.
She is above "performing" for you in any way. If she wants something, she has only one scream, and you must work out what she wants from that.
She will be pleasant to you if she wants a smooch, but wont do anything, learn anything, say anything, or go ANYWHERE off her perch. If you move her outside, she will howl the house down. If she knows where the dog is, she will walk inside of her own accord. (see youtube video called "Hight traffic area").
She has no intention of becoming a "performing seal" like the Professor.
She offers us nothing but quiet prettiness.

 

[Redballoon]

And I know why.
Professor was hand reared from when he had no feathers.
Skippah was raised by parent birds in an aviary setting till Debbie went and paid money for them to net her and shove her in a box and bring her to live at my house. I had only seen birds in books and I had no idea what to do next. The breeder offered no advice and I found myself on xmas eve with a big white scarey bird in a box that wanted to bite and kill anything it saw.
I spent 2 weeks talking to it through the the grill, then put on some welding gloves and shoved my hands in there, grabbed her and dragged out to be handled. After a lot of negative attention we worked out a plan and worked forward from there. I never again forced Skippah to do anything. We work on her timetable and it seems her timetable for learning is slow.
SO now she sits on a perch and does absolutely nothing, and likes it that way.
She will chew, but wont play. She is a picky eater but is improving her food habits.

 

[zarafia]

Ah, Red, you confirm my belief.
Skippah has you quite well trained. Humans can be hard to train. Some of us arent very bright and therefore can be restant to training.
All jokes aside, I think you are very correct about the childhood of your cockatoos.
Skippah has figured you out and knows what she needs to do to keep her life satasfactory and to her liking.

 

[Redballoon]

Its very strange.
The personality of your 1st bird will dictate the next.
If had only owned Skippah and never knew the Professor, Life would be very different for all of us.
Skippah was quiet and aloof and boring as bat ****.
The Professor was a dry sponge, that is soaking up stuff every second he is awake.
I love them both, but I have 29 people fighting to take The Professor after I die, yet no one has yet asked if Skippah can to live them next year.

Says a lot about the birds, but more about the way people perceive them.

 

[Corelliz]

Interesting to read about the personalities of your corellas (b-e toos). I guess they are affected by the same nature-nuture situation as we are.

My corella Milo started off very timid and took months (nay years) of patience and routine to get him confident. Now you can touch him anywhere, cuddle him, swing him around. He adores new people (will ignore me if someone new is in the room). He needs a lot of playtime and is always doing something (usually destructive). Gets a bit TOO rough in play sometimes but I think that's the 'nature' of corellas. Yes they are quite intelligent although I don't think mine is an A student!