Help! Adopted Male Cockatoo and seems it might have been a huge mistake

[NeverBroken]

Years ago a family member had a wonderful female Cockatoo- I interacted with this bird quite a bit over a few years time and fell in love. So, I got it in my mind to get one as well. I found someone locally giving one away (4 year old Sulfer Crested) that was incredibly sweet when I went to meet it ( I stayed with him an hour getting to know him and asking a ton of questions, supposedly no behavior issues). I wound up adopting it today and was very excited, but now I am practically having an anxiety attack about having made a huge mistake!

We got him home and all set up and he was fine. We left him alone for several hours to acclimate, he is in an adjoining room so he can hear us and see us when he walks by but not be overwhelmed by us. I went to his cage to cover him for the night, speaking calmly to him, and as I put the cover on he started freaking out, jumping all over the place in there and biting the cover. Now they told me they covered him every night, so idk why he would do this. I took the cover off and tried to assess his behavior based on what I'd experienced before with my cousin's Cockatoo (Babygirl).

At first I thought he was lunging at me, lunging at the bars, grabbing them, and climbing all over the front of the cage. Then I recalled that Babygirl used to do this when she wanted out. I thought well maybe we left him alone *too* much. So I opened the top of the cage to see if he wanted to come out. He came out after a minute or so (on his own) and proceeded to flap his wings like crazy while holding on to a top bar. Then he started dancing around and I thought all was well, we did like a head from side to side with each other as I spoke with him (good bird, pretty bird, etc).

But then he was like manic, doing all sorts of things at a frantic pace. (different displays, head bobbing, side to side, crown up and down but never flat down- preening, pulled out a little down feather, etc) I thought he was just showing off but when I went to get him to step up, he gave me a hard and fast beak bonk. This made me unsure if I was reading his behavior correctly. The manic display now seemed to me as if it might be aggressive. After a few minutes of me trying to be sweet to him and trying to determine what he was after, he went back into the cage. I gently closed it over him and he immediately was trying to bite me through the bars. I couldn't even get one side closed, tried to use his food cup which I had removed and he attacked that too.

So I came on here to read up on these behaviors and y'all have scared me to death with how many issues male cockatoos can have :/ I had no idea, I didn't ignore anyone's recommendation or even think I needed to research since I had known one previously and it was amazing. My fault- I realize that. But... what now??

This is just the first night. Does that mean he may just be adjusting, or does it mean- things will only get worse? I would be willing to work with him if I thought there was a chance, but from what I am reading here and across the web, I am worried that in fact this is just how they are and I made a huge mistake of adopting this guy.

Help?? :/

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I'm glad you read some on cockatoos and realize they are a lot of work. Cockatoos are the most emotionally challenging parrot to have, because of this there are thousands in need of homes all over the country. It's heart breaking what these sensitive birds go through when people think they are pets rather than intelligent wild animals.

As for how he's acting, he's probably scared. Most birds take at least a few days, if not a few weeks to really settle in. Imagine if you're a little kid who was suddenly taken away from your home and you don't understand why, you're in a new place with new people. It's very scary and overwhelming! Just let him settle in his own time and imagine yourself in your place.

here is a fantastic web site about cockatoos
All About Cockatoos - MyToos.com

 

[MonicaMc]

You may want to read about Lara Joseph and her M2 Rocky.... Rocky has come a long way from the bird she got to what he is today!

Rocky | Search Results | Lara Joseph



Or about another M2, Sam, that also had problems!

Use your words: Conditioning Sam to a new environment | Learning Parrots



Although I *DO NOT* recommend free-flight, Sam and Rocky have at least two things in common that's going for them.... exercise and positive reinforcement!!!! Both are also encouraged to forage independently!


A lot of people will say to "ignore" bad behavior, but this may result in worse behavior, not better.... rather, if at all possible, try to prevent the bad behavior from occurring and redirecting them to perform good behavior so that the bad behavior doesn't get a chance to occur!



And this blog goes into more depth about why it may not be good to "just ignore it"!!!

Living With Parrots Cage Free: Does Ignoring Really Work?

 

[NeverBroken]

Thank you so much for your quick and informative responses. Perhaps it is just him being so scared that he's sending me mixed signals- that answer and possibility is very reassuring. I have to admit, I think the research scared me into a tizzy so *hopefully* I am just over reacting.

Thank you also for the links, I will read everything provided.

In all the reading I've done in the last few hours I've yet to find any real good info on how to let a re-homed Too adjust- any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated.

And... dare I ask... are there any happy friendly male Too's? Seems every post I read is another aggressive or unpredictable one :/ Would a female be much different?

Off to read some more!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I have met several wonderful, safe, and happy male toos. But I once read that with white cockatoos you should never completely trust a male and I agree. I would never want a male white cockatoo unless it was past puberty and had a good demeaner. you need to learn their body language and be highly aware of it. Try to avoid getting them too riled up, a excited cockatoo is a cockatoo about to bite and sometimes they seem as confused as we are. Cockatoos are known for being extremely cuddly, but avoid petting anywhere other than the head & neck. Anywhere else is telling your bird you want to be their mate and they may become sexually frustrated and lash out.

Understand that if you ever get bit it was your own fault. Many birds bite because they feel it's the only way to get people to do something, when a bird is warning you respect that do as they ask as long as they are safe. Pushing will only teach them that they need to use more force to tell you no.

 

[NeverBroken]

Thank you Copperarabian! I definitely want to try to avoid the biting, lol. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about their body language, to that end.

 

[Luke252]

As an owner of three Cockatoos I can say, they are the best birds in the whole world. At times they may be so challenging, and quite dangerous, but at the end of the day, they are just so emotive and compassionate.

 

[Captsteve]

Give it a week or three before you even begin to draw a conclusion. He needs to settle in, give him a routine and stick with it. Take things slow and let him set the pace.

 

[Pinkbirdy]

More like months [half mine are rehomes] . Theirs a huge difference between day one and months later. Is this hard ?YES [but worth it ] . You have to set up structure ,put no pressure and build your relationship and be ok with what hes willing to give . Love him to death It will get better . With Toos you have to be willing to think outside the box [I have 3] . It will get better.

 

[brianlinkles]

I can only repeat what others have said however maybe I can share a story about my lilac crown amazon (I know not a too) I visited her several times before bringing this poor rescue home. She was in terrible shape from an even more terrible place. Every time I visited her she was very sweet. Once I had her home, I gave her a shower and let her sit in the sun while I bleached out her cage. Still very sweet. I then set up her cage in the house and brought her inside (still sweet) I placed her on top of her cage while I prepared her food. Now for about three days I had been visiting her all the while trying to see if she was a talker, but she said nothing to me. Well, then I went to get her off the top of the cage and suddenly she lunged at me. She attacked me, drawing blood, all the while screaming "what are you doing?, I love you!" over and over again. My kids didn't know whether to cry (because I was standing there bleeding) or to laugh. I didn't know either??! Well, after this I got her back into the cage (not easy) took a break and then wondered what the heck I had gotten myself into. I then took many, many steps back and just sat with her cage door open day after day reading to her. I would feed her from my hand in her cage and read, talk, sing etc. This went on for months, until she trusted me enough to take her out of the cage.
I guess what I am saying, is generally speaking there are reasons why most (not all) birds are in rescues. Usually it is a behavior issue. Cockatoos (white ones) are the most rehomed of all birds, this is because they can be extremely difficult to handle. They can be very dangerous, always keep away from your face. Your bird sounds like a terrified bird. The problem is that when they are frantic and scared they are impossible to reason with. I would step back and allow the bird to lead the way. Try sitting in front of the cage, eyes focused to the side of your bird never directly into the birds eyes. I would feed snacks through the bars at first. Food does wonders in building trust. I totally understand your feelings that you may have made a mistake. Only you will know that. I had a lot of help from henpecked (he is amazing with amazon behavior) there are others on here that can help you with toos. I think this will take a lot of patience and time. You just never know what kind of baggage rescued/rehomed birds come with and what might set them off. Remember there is always a reason why birds are given up. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[cockatiel2]

my birds when i first got them did that too , for playtime put him on the cover with bird treats thats what i did

 

[Pajarita]

I don't agree at all with Brianlinkles. Stating that all rehomed birds bring baggage is not accurate. Not all of them do. Only the ones that were owned by people who bought them as babies and did not do what they were supposed to do which tells us that buying a baby is not a guarantee of anything. People mess up birds and people unmess them up.

Your bird doesn't sound like a messed up bird to me, it sounds like a very scared bird which saw his familiar world disappear. All my birds came from somewhere or somebody else, a few were treated right but most were not but I treat them all the same at the beginning. One thing I do is never take them out of their cage or put them back in it. For one thing, I don't even open the cage door for the first few days and, when I do I let them come out and back in on their own until the bird has gotten used to me and begins to trust me. Parrots live their entire lives with their family (their flock) and are very leery of strangers so, when you adopt a bird, you are a stranger to him and he will feel extremely threatened by your interaction (and no, all the time you spent with the bird prior bringing him to your home doesn't really count -you were just a visitor to his territory and now he is in yours, a big difference!).

The other thing I do is keep everything as near to what they are used to as possible so I don't move anything in their cage, I feed them the same stuff they were eating and follow the same schedules (this I tweak a bit because I never allow a bird to be exposed to artificial light before sunrise or after sunset as most behavioral problems are usually hormone-related and you can't solve them unless their endocrine system goes back to been in tune with the seasons).

Now, I adopted a 20 or 21 year old Lesser Sulfur male on 8/5 and he is already feeling like he belongs to the point that I started bringing him into the birdroom with me in the mornings so he can start getting used to living there in the future. He steps up, eats his new diet like a champion, kisses me and dances for me like if he had always been here BUT I took it very slowly with him and only took things a small step further only when I saw that he was willing and able to do it. Unfortunately, this is something that you learn with experience so you are going to have to go very slowly and observe/study him a lot as well as do a lot of research on body language so you can learn when to hold them, when to fold them, when to walk away and when to run, as the song goes.

 

[NeverBroken]

Thanks so much everyone! Today has been going a lot better. I have made sure not to force anything with him. When I first got up he screamed a few times- I'm reading mixed things on this, depending on why he is screaming- but I don't know why yet lol, so hard to tell how to react. I ignored it through a few screams then walked through the room gently asking if everything was ok. He settled down and seemed very interested in me so I walked over to the cage. He climbed up and down the front of the cage, and as Babygirl always did that when she wanted out I figured maybe that's what he wanted, so I opened the top of the cage and let him make the decision- he came right out.

I stepped back and let him play on the top of the cage, he climbed down onto some nearby furniture and seemed to be checking everything out. His reactions every time he saw something new were quite cute. He climbed back on his cage after a bit and was being playful, but I stayed back, aside from feeding him a treat at one point which he took with no problems. After a time I wanted to get him to his play tower in the main room where I work but he wasn't keen on coming to me so I backed off. However it wasn't safe to leave him where he was without supervision and I needed to begin working. SO I brought the play tower to him, lol- he gladly stepped up on that and I carefully walked him back to a sturdy place to put it on.

He's been playing up there very well with some cute low volumne squawks every now and then. However as I'm typing this he just flew down to explore the house from the ground... I better go keep watch

Thank you for all your valuable advice! It has really helped calm me and I now know just to give him the time and patience he needs. Time is not a problem

 

[NeverBroken]

He hopped up onto one of my dog's crates and seemed to be foraging in the blanked on top of it that had covered his cage overnight. He is making some ribbet- like squawks that have gotten a bit more forceful, but I don't know what they mean. Back to google I go...

but I had a question- Babygirl had her wings clipped and couldn't fly for more then a few feet, I wasn't really prepared for a giant *flying* bird- lol. This makes it hard to keep him in a safe supervised area without constantly bringing him back once he flies to the other room (open area, no door). Any thoughts on how to keep him contained? About possibly clipping him at some point (I assume not now as it would be an unwelcome change for him)?

 

[MonicaMc]

Sounds like you may need to read up on stationing! Teaching him to 'stay put' in one area for a while, and perhaps try to keep activities in that one spot to keep him busy!

Clipping him may help, but it wont necessarily stop him from exploring... it just makes it harder for him to get from point A to point B!

 

[NeverBroken]

Thanks Monica, I'll look that up

 

[MonicaMc]

I forgot to mention that Lara Joseph has a blog entry about stationing... and the other website, Learning Parrots talked about Sam being inside his aviary and being kept busy with foraging items!

 

[SandyBee]

He hopped up onto one of my dog's crates and seemed to be foraging in the blanked on top of it that had covered his cage overnight. He is making some ribbet- like squawks that have gotten a bit more forceful, but I don't know what they mean. Back to google I go...

but I had a question- Babygirl had her wings clipped and couldn't fly for more then a few feet, I wasn't really prepared for a giant *flying* bird- lol. This makes it hard to keep him in a safe supervised area without constantly bringing him back once he flies to the other room (open area, no door). Any thoughts on how to keep him contained? About possibly clipping him at some point (I assume not now as it would be an unwelcome change for him)?

Just a thought on this! Parrots do feel more secure with their wings and the ability to flee. Could you possibly bird proof the other area in the house so he could fly back and forth? Good exercise, or possibly even put up a temporary curtain as he learned stationing?

 

[NeverBroken]

Thank you Monica, I'll look at those

And Thank you Sandy- I'd rather he have a way to flee then leave his only option to be biting me. So we will just learn to work with the flying. Unfortunately the room he is in is not suitable for closing off, and any other room would be a closed room away from us where he'd be all alone- but I will talk to my husband when he comes home and see what he thinks- he is better at picturing that kind of stuff and may come up with an idea along the same lines that could work.

He's been calmly and quietly sitting on top of his cage for awhile now

 

[SandyBee]

Keeping them flighted is not for everyone but it is a choice I made for my amazon.
I do believe it keeps him happier, healthier and helps with training and trust. The goal is for the bird to want to do things for you and with you.