Multiple Birds! Multiple Questions!

[HaydenThePirate]

I'm still fairly new here and to owning birds in general. I'll recap:

Chicken (female ~30?) is my Sulfur Crested
Doge (male ~35) is my Moluccan
Blueberry (unknown ~9.5) is my Budgie

Chicken is my first, I lived where she did off and on for several years and took her home May '18 because she bonded to me, I handle her with complete trust. Blueberry is her friend since purchased by old owners about 9 years ago, he lives in her cage by choice (fits between the bars). Doge is where things get complicated and I need advice. A friend convinced the previous owner to let me rescue him about a month after I took Chicken home. He lived at a different house for almost 2 weeks where I worked everyday before he moved home to the same room as Chicken. Their cages face one another. Chicken lives with the door open, she spends all her time on top of the cage or on the door, except at lights out when I put her in and shut the door (she lets herself out in the morning) OR when Doge gets supervised out of cage time. Which I do almost daily and he plays excessively. He is super playful and loving. He was letting me pet him for short durations before we had a scary mishap, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to play with me. Chicken and Doge have yet to really see each other without bars between them, but they don't seem to mind each other. Chicken seems uninterested mostly, while Doge gets very excited when I hold Chicken close to his cage. Chicken mostly observes and would rather return to my shoulder. Blueberry likes to fly to Doge's cage and watch him from above, or from the sides. Sometimes he goes in to poke around. He keeps his distance from that big bird because sometimes Doge will approach, and Blueberry flies for cover. I have not seen any aggression from anyone. Chicken puffs up to yell at Doge when Doge makes too much noise, but that's about it. They all groom themselves and nap at the same time and sometimes eat at the same time.. I should also note that I watch them often on security cam, so a lot of this behavior is both with and without me around.

The simple:
Right now Doge mostly grooms his head and neck with the bottom of a metal bell. There's got to be something meant for this kind of thing that I can make or buy him. Does anyone know?

I want more interactive toys to occupy Doge. he LOVES! jingle bells. His big thing is shaking a large dog rope toy hanging from the ceiling of his cage with a 1.5 inch Jingle Ball tangled in the other end. We also use that toy for tug of war kind of playing during his out of cage time, but he loves to play on his own. he likes to balance on a metal dome saucer thing too.

The more difficult:
Should I be scared about pacing type tendencies both these birds seem to have? They have some weird, what seem to be habitual movement routines mixing in between playing with different things. Doesn't seem to hurt anything, but what do I know? They could be normal cockatoo behaviors.

I want to gain Doge's trust back. We were already working on scary hands as it was. He got excited during out of cage time because I was hanging one of the jingle balls from the end his giant rope spring hanging from the ceiling. He flew from the door of his cage and landed on my arm, short of the rope. It scared me and I tried to let him fly to the floor, but he had a nail hooked on my bracelet. He was panicked and scared. Later when he was being affectionate, he nipped my cheek and I shooed him with my hand in reaction. That scared both of us. I don't let him nuzzle my face anymore (I still let him play with the hair from the top of my head though, it's our greeting thing) and he doesn't trust my hands for pets. I figure over time we will slowly trust each other again, but any tips would be helpful.

I would love to have it where Chicken and Doge can interact more and even have time together. I'm afraid and I don't know how to do it safely. There was one time where I failed to lock Doge's door before work and when I came home, both Doge and Chicken were on top of Chicken's cage, just looking at me. They were 2 feet apart. I don't know if they spent all day together or if it happened right before I walked in. But besides the mess Doge made, everything seemed okay. Hopefully in the next few months, I will be moving them to their own room in the basement, which I can divide if i need to. I want Blueberry to be able to visit both big birds freely and I want Chicken and Doge to be able to talk, but is a cage wall a bad idea? I need all advice on introducing them and all that goes with it.

Blueberry is old, and although he seems perfectly healthy, he won't live as long as the other birds, is getting another Budgie at any time a bad idea? He has been a good companion for Chicken.

As I write this, I just watched on the monitor, Doge after a quick head puff hiss, climbed up to Blueberry who flew on top of his cage. Blueberry did not fly away and they spent a few minutes looking at each other through the bars quietly. Doge slowly grabbed for a few toys in reach to encourage Blueberry i guess. So there's that haha. And again but inside the cage, was good for a while and doge nipped Blueberry's feathers as he flew away, but Blueberry is already back for more. hahah

Please ask questions, i'll elaborate if needed. I want this to work well long term for all the birds.

 

[Laurasea]

I wouldn't get a second budgie, they seem to have more chances at having diseases ... And I'm not sure you would get the same friendship..but that friendship sounds super cool ! My Quaker would snip off a budgie foot if it was on his cage! Tho he is getting better.. I've seen those clanking measure cup toys,Doge might like those. I think group feeds are a good way to do introductions, you can put some towels on the kitchen table so it isn't slippery and is a neutral space, place out some sturdy dishes with veggies and snacks spread out and then put them at different spots and monitor...

 

[Scott]

Welcome to you and your flock!

Certainly possible for Doge and Chicken to co-exist despite a significant size difference. I had a Moluccan and Citron live together uncaged for many years. The physicality you describe seems normal cockatoo behavior. You'd know if it devolved into hostility. Blueberry may be more problematic because of size. While the others may accept him and enjoy his presence, the opportunity for mayhem exists. Best you continue to supervise and keep close watch!

Bells are popular toys, but be careful of the "striker." Cockatoos are extremely nimble and may remove that metal piece that might be leaded. Many parronts remove the striker unless it is inaccessible.

Sounds as if the trust issue with Doge is minimal. Some great tips to enhance bonding and trust: http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/49144-tips-bonding-building-trust.html

I'm a firm believer cockatoos are happiest when living in a flock situation. Great idea to let them closely bond; it is possible for toos to have very close relationships with one another and their people.

 

[Betrisher]

Yes, I agree with Scott about bells! We've had a few close calls with the strikers being removed or with bits being worked off the bells themselves by strong beaks. Heavy metal poisoning is awful and often birds don't survive it.

I've got a pipe bell, which is just a short length of pipe with a bolt hanging from a bit of chain as a striker. My Beaks don't bother with it, but I'm pretty sure our new corella (Rosetta) will love it to bits. She likes making noise!

If you look on ebay (or, indeed, in thrift shops), you can often find various baby rattles that will suit bird play. I've just ordered about a dozen different kinds from ebay for 'setta and I know she'll love banging them around her cage. Of course, large cockies are going to smash most plastic toys, but it's possible to find interesting wood-based rattles and teething rings that should suit your birds.

LOL! My Beaks' favourite toy was one of those little plastic telephones with big buttons to press. Each button played a different sound: ding-dong, bzzzt or a voice saying 'tickle me Elmo'. The Beaks just loved hearing 'tickle me Elmo' and would press that button exclusively. Hubby wound up removing the battery in the end. He's not as patient as me...

Oh. Another toy my birds enjoy is six stainless steel teaspoons with holes drilled in the ends of their handles and dangling from a carabiner. That's every bit as good as a bell and they spend lots of time jangling and beaking their spoons.

 

[HaydenThePirate]

Thanks! The bell works great as a bell, that's not the issue. That bell is made for birds, it's a thick metal cylinder with a striker than cant be reached by their beaks. I dont want Doge to groom with it, it isn't nice to his feathers. So I'm asking about alternatives that a bird would enjoy scratching on. Doge is very destructive. I hang logs in his cage to shred, plastic is not an option.

 

[ChristaNL]

How about just raise the existing bell a bit?

My greys love to get something swinging so it brushes through their feathers- once I made the mistake of hanging that particulair toy too low - so it almost bumped Japie of his perch when he gave it a good whack.

So hanging the toy/bell a bit higher-> less feather damage.

 

[EllenD]

First of all, don't assume that your Budgie is "old" at 9.5 years, as they should live in captivity to between 15-20 years old, with the record being 29. My first Budgie live to be just shy of 19, so as long as he is well cared for and eats well, he'll be around for quite awhile. And the fact that he is bonded to your Sulfur is good for both of them, so I would not ever even think of getting another Budgie, because the new Budgie certainly would not be a welcomed part of the group, and would end-up having to be locked in it's cage and alone all the time. The only reason that Sulfur and the Budgie have this weird dynamic is because they were put together early on and have lived that way for so many years. It's not at all "normal" and will not happen again if you bring another Budgie home, and tragedy will likely strike one way or another.

As far as your Moluccan goes, a big part of any issues he's having, whether behavioral, psychological, etc. are due to him spending a lot of time in his cage or by himself, as you mentioned that you "get him out of cage time almost every day"...This isn't a criticism of you at all, it's simply what needs to be said about a Moluccan Cockatoo, which is without a doubt the most challenging and difficult species of parrot to keep as a "pet" in captivity, and is the reason that most of them have dozens of homes during their long lifetimes, and the reason most of them are pluckers/mutilators.

Even though your Sulfur is highly intelligent and very needy of attention and stimulation, their personalities are very different from a Moluccan. Muluccan's are just so very intelligent and "child-like", and I mean "human" child-like. I have seen the very best and experienced parrot owners that I know not be able to provide what a Moluccan needs. It's something that I would only take-on myself if I had no other pets at all, none, not a dog or a bird or a Bearded Dragon. Since I am not able to have children of my own (human children that is, lol), once I got divorced and was living alone in my 3-bedroom, 3-level house with a huge fenced-in backyard and large property, I really gave some thought to either adopting a Moluccan from the Avian Rescue I work at, or just finding a breeder and buying a weaned baby. I am only 38 and was 32 when I moved out, so I had plenty of life left to give to a Moluccan, and the most successful Moluccan stories I know of are both single people who live alone in a house that they own, have no human children or other pets (one had a cat at the start that actually bonded with the Moluccan, go figure), and are able to dedicate themselves fully to the Moluccan...and in exactly the same way that a single-parent raising their child alone does. In fact, both of those people and their Moluccans have exactly that dynamic, routine, household, life. Not that there aren't exceptions to this, but I've seen so many Moluccans surrendered, adopted, returned, re-homed, etc. just over and over again, and these two people who I know are the only two who have Moluccans that are totally healthy, happy, have no Feather-Destructive Behaviors or self-mutilating, no neurotic behaviors, and are just the happiest birds in the world. But they are literally treated like you would treat your own human toddler of around 5-6 years old. They have their own rooms with their own "stuff", just like a child's room, they have more toys and activities, books, and puzzles than a lot of young children do, and these people literally have no lives at all, just like the single-parent of a young child has no life. They don't go out much at all, and when they do take a rare night out for a few hours they both have their parents come over to their houses to stay with their Moluccans (and their Moluccans know their parents very, very well, otherwise that wouldn't work)...and this is a rare occasion. Neither has taken a vacation in years. They both have friends over to their houses, but they have to always spend a good amount of time introducing a friend to the bird, and getting them to the point where certain friends are "okay" being around. They both work full-time jobs, but they get up very early each morning to spend a couple of hours with the Moluccans, making them breakfast and eating it with them, and then sitting with them in their rooms while they play for a bit. Then they put them in their enormously large "cages", which are not really cages but more aviaries. And they are both lucky enough to be able to come home every work day for an hour at lunchtime, so they can let them out and spend the hour feeding them some lunch and playing a bit, or just holding them and talking to them. Then they come home at 5 each day and spend the rest of each night making them dinner, playing with them, watching TV with them, doing puzzles with them, and reading them books before putting them to bed...And during the only time they have to themselves after the Moluccans go to bed, so they can watch TV, read, etc. for a couple of hours before bed, they typically spend that time making them their "chop" and other foods for the next day, cleaning-up their rooms and all over the house where they've left toys, pieces of toys, etc. It's a full-time job and neither of them minds it one bit because they love their Moluccans every bit as much as you love a human child. The problem is that Moluccans are perpetual 5 year-olds for decades and decades. They never grow-up, and they will demand this type of care and attention long after these two are gone (they are both in their late 30's-early 40's and their Moluccan's are both in their early teens)...And I know that they both worry all the time about what is going to happen to them after they die, because neither of them have human children or any younger siblings to take them. I've spoken to both of them at length about this topic and they both get so upset that they start tearing-up. I have promised both of them that if anything happens to them suddenly, like they die in a car accident or of a heart attack or whatever, that I will take their Moluccans, and one of them has actually had a "Living-Will" notarized with me signing it saying that I will be the legal guardian of their bird...I actually worry about this actually happening, not because I wouldn't be willing to care for their Moluccan's properly, but because I worry about my own fids. I have 4 young parrots myself, the oldest is only 4, and then also 8 hand-raised, tame Budgies. So I have no idea how that would work out, hopefully I'll never have to find out.

My point to all of this is that the Moluccan is a whole other situation than any other parrot, and it's a situation where you definitely have to provide him with time out of his cage every single day, and we're talking hours every day. Over time he may or may not be able to interact with the Sulfur, but that wouldn't be the norm for a Moluccan, as they are extremely needy and jealous. It sounds like he hasn't bonded with you closely yet (I'm not sure how long you've had him), and it may take you quite a long time to earn his trust, but once you do it's going to become an entirely different situation than you have now, and it's once he bonds closely with you and chooses you as "his person" that problems can and probably will start due to his jealousy and ownership of you, as well as him wanting to "protect" you from the other birds. So while it's a wonderful thing when a Moluccan chooses you and you finally earn their trust, it also can be very scary if you have other pets. So keep that in-mind, because chances are that he will start to take ownership of you at some point.

 

[EllenD]

Something else you need to focus on for your Moluccan is mental stimulation, and trying to make it pretty constant, even if you're not directly spending time with him. I don't know your Moluccan's past-history or how many owners he's had, but again you have to remember that his intelligence is on the level of being able to actually understand concepts and logic, and having a very long and detailed memory. So if he's been passed from owner to owner or if he's been neglected and/or abused by any of them, then he remembers it all, and he has been given absolutely no reason to trust people, nor to want to trust people or have anything to do with them. That being said, even when Moluccans have had a horrible history due to their owners neglect and/or abuse, they still have a very innate need and want to bond closely with someone, so as long as you're spending one-on-one time with him every single day, he will eventually start to trust you, just at HIS PACE. This may take months and months to years with a Moluccan, you just never know. So spending as much time just being around him and talking to him/reading books to him is very important in the bonding process. Children's books are great for reading to all parrots, including your Sulphur and your Budgie. Dr. Seuss books are great, they love it when you do voices and make sounds, and my Green Cheek and my Quaker now mimic the sounds and some of the words in the stories. And my Cockatiel loves nothing better than to sit on my shoulder at night before bedtime while I read her a story. She's ends-up every time snuggled right into my neck behind my ear, sound asleep. It seems to put them at-ease. And it's a great bonding practice, even if you're doing it from a chair outside of your bird's cage. Usually when you start reading to them every night, even to a bird who does not yet trust you or is not "tame", you'll quickly find them inching closer and closer to the cage bars closest to you.

Even if your one-on-one time with him consists of simply sitting in a room with him alone and talking to him, or reading a book to him, that's what you have to do and it will all start to add-up and you'll start to see him trusting you more and more and giving a little more and more as time goes on (they LOVE being red children's books, especially if you do the "voices" in the books, lol)...But you must be extremely careful about your other two birds being out with the Moluccan, even if you're supervising them, because you don't have any idea what any of them are going to do, and when it comes to a Budgie you shouldn't even let him out in the same room with the Moluccan out of his cage, not even with you supervising, because one little "nip" will literally kill a little Budgie. Again, that relationship/dynamic that the Budgie and the Sulphur Cockatoo have with each other is not typical and is a very unique product of them being put together by their prior owner at the right time that allowed them to become close and bond to one another. It doesn't happen often, but I've seen it before...In fact, not but a few months ago I went to a pet shop about 30 minutes from me where my Ringneck Dove came from (we were inspecting the care of their birds as it was not at all up to par, and we do random-inspections on a regular basis), and it's a huge pet shop that supplies everything for all animals, from ducks and chickens to rabbits and ferrets to reptiles to bird to livestock to aquarium and pond fish, it's just huge. And they take-in animals "On-Consignment" for people all the time, and have had a lot of large parrots for sale on-consignment because their owners either couldn't keep them any longer or just didn't want to wait to find them an owner themselves...And they had a huge Amazon, I'm not sure of the species but he was a very, very large Amazon that was pretty old, in his mid-30's, and I had to do a double-take because as I was looking at him inside of his cage, a Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure came crawling up the inside of the cage bars to me!!! I was like "Wait a minute, is he, yep, he's inside of the cage with the Amazon!" The Green Cheek was obviously older as well because the feathers on his head and face were starting to turn gray/white. So i asked an employee what the deal was, and she handed me the little sign they had written-up with a description of them and their past. They were put together by their first owner when they were both very young, she had gotten the Amazon as a young baby and had him for almost 10 years, and then she got the Green Cheek as a very young baby, and she just put them together. The Green Cheek Conure was 27 years old, so about 6 or 7 years younger than the Amazon, and they had been living together inside of that same cage for basically the last 27 years! It's was the oddest looking combination of birds, but it was obvious that they loved each other, and the Amazon was giving me the Stink-Eye when the Green Cheek crawled up the bars to me and I put my finger up to his beak through the cage bars, lol...he didn't like that at all! But it's just another example of how this odd companionship combination can happen...but it's rare, and you need to remember this at all times when it comes to the Budgie and the Moluccan...And not only could the Moluccan kill the Budgie with one little, tiny, quick "nip" and that's it, but I'm willing to bet that the Sulphur would be and will be very protective of and defensive about his Budgie companion, so that could result in a very aggressive, violent Cockatoo fight. So keep that in-mind as well. All parrots are very intelligent and have very strong emotions about the ones they love, just like we do...

It's sounds like everything is going well for you guys, and it also sounds like you haven't had the Moluccan for long, and you just need to give him time. But you also need to give him attention, stimulation, and keep him from ever becoming "bored", because not only will that cause Feather-Destructive Behaviors and/or Self-Mutilation, but it will also cause "bad" behavior in-general. The more bored your Moluccan becomes, the more destructive he will become, and the louder and more vocal he will become, and by "vocal" I mean screaming. The "pacing" that you mentioned could be a few different things, it may be frustration, it may be anxiety and nervous energy, OR it may just simply be boredom, and with the Moluccan I can bet that it's boredom.

It doesn't matter how many "toys" your Moluccan has in his cage, what's more important is that he has lots of different "types" of toys...But with Moluccans and Cockatoos in-general they don't just need toys to play with and occupy their time, they need "Activities" and "jobs" to do and to keep their brain's busy as well as their bodies. Puzzles are great for Cockatoos, and by "puzzles" I mean like the little wooden ones for toddlers where you have blocks that are different shapes and they have to put them into the holes that are the correct shape, these are great for Cockatoos (they actually sell these in the toy aisle at Dollar Tree believe it or not, for $1 each, and they have a few different ones that are all-wood and bird-safe). The toddler toy-aisle at any Walmart or other department store or toy store is your best friend when you have a Cockatoo, especially a Moluccan. Both of my friends who have Moluccan's have a spare bedroom that is the bird's room. In their rooms they each have a very large cage where the bird sleeps at night, which has no toys in it at all, just a large swing, a perch, and a water-bowl, and they get covered at night (their main cages are located in the living rooms of each of their houses, and are MASSIVE)...But if you walk into the bird's rooms and you didn't know that they each had a Moluccan cockatoo, you'd just think they each had a young toddler. They each have a bookshelf full of children's books that they read to them at night before bed, and they know that their books are not "toys" to be played with. They each have plastic "bins", like those plastic cubes, that are located on the floor in the bird's room and are filled with their most-played with toys so that the Moluccans can just pull the toys out as they please. One of them has a toddler's play "workbench" with plastic tools and nuts/bolts that are oversized and the bird has to put the nuts into the holes in the workbench, and then hammer the big "nails" into the holes with a hammer (which is both cute and hilarious to see him try to do). Wagons they pull around, a few stuffed animals that neither of them chew-up but rather carry around with them all over the place. And just a ton of toddler-toys that are meant to stimulate their brains and make them have to think and then work to put together/take apart. Lots of wooden-block type of toys, and then also another whole bunch of toys that are the ones that are meant to be "shredded and ripped to bits".

I don't think that either of my friends with Moluccans own a single real "bird toy", simply because they are so expensive, they just rip them to shreds and destroy them in minutes, and there aren't a lot that make the bird "think". Some foraging toys are good, like the big acrylic/plastic balls with different chambers in them that you put treats in and they have to figure out how to get the treats out of them. But for the most-part they only buy human toddler toys for them, mostly at Walmart, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, etc.

 

[noodles123]

The repetitive movements can become an OCD thing with cockatoos...boredom, anxiety, habit etc. They are "normal" in that a lot of PET cockatoos do them, but it isn't necessarily something they would do in the wild....and it can be a sign that anxiety/boredom etc is present....they tend to form habits easily, so something that starts can be hard to stop the longer it goes on.

 

[HaydenThePirate]

Thanks for all the information and concerns, but i'm not really getting many answers to my actual questions.

More birb backstory:

Supposedly, Chicken had a great first owner, who trained her very well and socialized her. She was early twenties when her owner died and she was taken by a family with kids (which makes me the third owner). They got a Budgie with it's own cage. That's where Blueberry comes in, and he probably came from Petco or a similar place. Chicken, being a mostly out of cage bird, climbed to Blueberry's cage and let him out. Blueberry moved in with Chicken, and the other cage was no longer used. They have lived like that ever since. Sharing sleeping perches initially (i got Blueberry his own) and a water bowl. They aren't bonded bonded, they are more like friends. Chicken bonded to me at some point during the last few years when I spent a lot of time where she lived. After I took her home and showed her what her new life was going to be like, she laid her first egg ever. I won't be expecting 29 years from Blueberry, he and Chicken spent those years with two chain smoker parents and 3 ill mannered children, all without their own room. They were exposed to cigarette smoke 24 hours a day, and were constantly yelled at for making any noise at all. They lived in the kitchen no less of a small raised ranch. Taking her was a plan of mine for a long time, even before it was clear she bonded to me. We have an incredible relationship. She wears an Aviator Harness to Trader Joe's and stuff with me on warm days. Blueberry is a free bird for the most part, I give him food and he steals water from Chicken. in his free time he observes the big birds from safety, and sometimes not from safety. He can go where the big birds can't, and that's how he keeps himself safe. Strong flier, likes to take tours of the house once in a while, but is confined to the "bird room" these days.

Doge, came to me in June. This is after I took Chicken and Blueberry home in May. I am his second owner. He lived with a family, and he had a mate. Somewhere along the line, he took his two Maloccans to his work, a machine shop. At first things were okay, but they chewed some things and were not let out much after. The female died from a bound egg that the owner failed to notice. Doge, being more bored than ever and probably upset about his loss, made too much noise for the office area, and was then moved to a back windowless room with a bunch of loud and startling machines and a motion sensor light. Nobody works on weekends or holidays. He was no longer let out to play and was often supplemented food from employees lunches because, well, the guy would forget to buy food. I took him the day I met him. He had nothing but a plastic ring on a chain hanging from the top of his cage and 2 aluminum bars as perches. We bonded very quickly, as if he knew I had saved him from that crappy situation. We play each day, a tug of war kind of shaking of a bell and rope game. So simple but he loves it. He also wants me to rub his head and neck with my chin or whatever, since my hands are a no go still. So we have a playful relationship. Both birds watch the other's time with me, and that has been fine.


I'm very much looking forward to building their new room. No comments yet on the divider question? I'm leaning away from a common space for them to share right now. Some comments are really discouraging to the possibility of them being let out together someday. I'm feeling like dividing the room with a cage wall down the middle so that they can both be out of their cages all day, and Blueberry can do his thing on either side. I think i'll make the cage double layered so nobody gets a bit toe, but they'll be able to get within a couple inches of each other safely without a sound barrier. Doge will get the window because he doesn't get to walk around with me like Chicken does.

I'm also going to be building an aviary. That's a different topic, but how do people transport less friendly birds around typically?

 

[HaydenThePirate]

Security cam screenshot of Doge and Blueberry

 

[Betrisher]

"Right now Doge mostly grooms his head and neck with the bottom of a metal bell. There's got to be something meant for this kind of thing that I can make or buy him. Does anyone know?"

D'you mean something he can rub his head on and scratch out pin-feathers? I wonder whether you could fix one of those wide-toothed perm-combs to his cage somehow? I bet he'd get a lot of pleasure rubbing his pinnies on that and the teeth are blunt so he'd be unlikely to hurt himself. Maybe you could drill a couple of holes in one and fit it to the cage with short bolts and wing-nuts somehow?

"I want more interactive toys to occupy Doge. he LOVES! jingle bells. His big thing is shaking a large dog rope toy hanging from the ceiling of his cage with a 1.5 inch Jingle Ball tangled in the other end. We also use that toy for tug of war kind of playing during his out of cage time, but he loves to play on his own. he likes to balance on a metal dome saucer thing too."

What about a big-mother boing? I made one for my Beaks out of an old (very old) skipping rope that belonged to my sister. I just untwisted it a bit and rewound it around some 8-gauge fencing wire. You could do that with some untreated sisal rope and fencing wire? The hardest part is fixing the ends so the rope doesn't unravel. I just wound a few turns of wire round very tightly with pliers. The Beaks haven't been able to unravel it, but Moluccan might. You could, maybe, cover the ends with some kind of pvc plumbing pipe?

My Rosetta just *loves* balls of all kinds. She has a few large plastic toddler balls with smaller rattles inside them. She's not strong enough to break them open, so they're safe enough (although I do only let her play with those under supervision).

Another favourite toy of the Beaks' is the 1" sisal rope swing I made for them. All I did was to splice the rope-ends onto the roof of the cage and loop it through the ceiling bars a couple of times to make two swings. They *love* it and spend lots of time swinging away contentedly on it. They also like to munch the sisal and it will need renewing soon. (Munched sisal is fun to preen as well).

Also, if you have the space, you can hang a hula hoop from the ceiling to make a different kind of swing. 'Setta has a small hoop-swing made from a stainless steel ring of about 12" diameter with cotton rope wound round it. She hangs from that like a bat and makes a LOT of noise while doing so. She also likes to hang from a knotted rope and 'fly on the spot', but that can only happen when she's out-of-cage (her present cage is far too small - new one coming).

Another idea is to get hold of some pvc pipe to make a tunnel. My Beaks love to play 'tunnel' and learned pretty quickly to come and go through a succession of smaller pipes. I was lucky and got a BIG white pipe of about 12" diameter from a building site. It's five foot long, so I drilled some largish holes in it to allow air to circulate and light into the scary space.

A fun puzzle-type toy can be made by drilling holes in chunks of the cardboards cylinders used to hold bolts of fabric (*very* thick cardboard). You insert stainless steel bolts and fix them with stainless steel wing nuts. Birdie's mission is to unscrew the wing nuts and pull out the bolts. It's very important to use wing-nuts large enough that your bird can't swallow them or get them lodged in his bill. Mine are about an inch wide for Alexandrine beaks.

Finally, the best toy I've ever made for my birds was their hanging playgym. It was six-foot by two-foot, made of three lengths of pvc pipe and wrapped in vet-wrap for purchase. To it were attached a hoop swing, a hanging rope, the large boing (three foot long with four turns in the spiral) various sticking-out perches, a hanging cargo net (I think my instructions for making that are still pinned in the DIY section) and a long wooden ladder made from dowelling by my hubby. The playgym was affixed above a large window and allowed the birds to be out-of-cage most of the day (our house was very small and had no real footprint where a floor stand could go).

"Should I be scared about pacing type tendencies both these birds seem to have?"

I would say 'yes and no'. I've seen lots of cockatoos pacing back and forth or beaking surfaces in a repetitive fashion (as mother of an autistic child, I'm attuned to these things). It could well be displacement activity due to captivity, but the reality is that the bird *is* in captivity and that's not about to change. So my best advice is to try and keep your birds so gainfully occupied that they don't want to do it. Of course, if a bird has been pacing as a kind of self-stimulating or self-comforting behaviour for many years, I'd let it go, especially if birdie appears to be happy and well-balanced in other ways.

"They have some weird, what seem to be habitual movement routines mixing in between playing with different things. Doesn't seem to hurt anything, but what do I know? They could be normal cockatoo behaviors."

LOL! 'Normal cockatoo behaviours' are absolutely hilarious to watch, especially in wild birds. SC2s are disgracefully destructive and can denude whole streets of foliage in half-a-day when they arrive in big numbers. There's a suburb of the town where I live that applied to be allowed to shoot the wild flocks because they (the SC2s) kept munching on TV antennas and coaxial cables. Thankfully, the application was disregarded and the people were encouraged to lay rubber snakes around their rooftops. It must've worked because I haven't heard anything more about it. The thing is that lots of animals engage in what appears to be ritualised behaviours, even in the wild. (As I type this, Rosetta is dragging her beak back and forth across her cage bars and making *the* most irritating noise - but she's happy and warbling to herself, so I'm not about to stop her).

(See next post for remainder)

 

[Betrisher]

"I want to gain Doge's trust back. We were already working on scary hands as it was. He got excited during out of cage time because I was hanging one of the jingle balls from the end his giant rope spring hanging from the ceiling. He flew from the door of his cage and landed on my arm, short of the rope. It scared me and I tried to let him fly to the floor, but he had a nail hooked on my bracelet. He was panicked and scared. Later when he was being affectionate, he nipped my cheek and I shooed him with my hand in reaction. That scared both of us. I don't let him nuzzle my face anymore (I still let him play with the hair from the top of my head though, it's our greeting thing) and he doesn't trust my hands for pets. I figure over time we will slowly trust each other again, but any tips would be helpful."

Oh dear, I know exactly how you feel! I did something similar with my Madge years ago and it took ages for her to trust my hands again. Y'know what I did? I taught her to enjoy peanut butter. Now, I know that peanut butter is a dreadful thing to give to a bird (far too fatty), but I was desperate at the time and I knew it had worked with my hand-shy mice (I bred mice at the time). So, I put a tiny smear on my fingertip and let Madgie lick it off. Then, I just put tiny smears on all my fingertips and the only way she got any more was to sit in my palm and eat it. I'm afraid to say that Madgie was so greedy (still is!) that this trick worked immediately and she stopped being afraid of my hands that day. Honey works too, but again - don't be feeding these things too often: it's like feeding sweets to a toddler.

"I would love to have it where Chicken and Doge can interact more and even have time together. I'm afraid and I don't know how to do it safely."

Again, I know how you feel! I was so scared to allow Dominic and the Beaks access to each other because I was quite sure the Beakies would *eat* Dommie as soon as they saw him. WRONG! Dominic was not stupid. When the young whippersnappers approached him, he just raised his hat, puffed out his face and spread his wings and began to bellow. That got rid of 'em! The Beaks were far too scared of Dom to go near him and they rarely ever did. The thing is, if you have a pair of birds where the size difference could mean one might injure the other, you have to be super-vigilant. Pushing cages together is a start. At first, don't allow them physical contact through the bars, but if all goes well, push them together so they can preen each other and beak a little bit. If that goes well, you could let one bird out onto the other's cage. IN the end, though, only you can gauge how friendly (or otherwise) the birds might be. My husband's uncle had a stunning collection of all the Australian cockatoos. They lived happily in a single huge aviary from the pair of little Cockatiels right up to the enormous Palm Cockatoos. To this day, I don't know how he made that work, but it did!

"There was one time where I failed to lock Doge's door before work and when I came home, both Doge and Chicken were on top of Chicken's cage, just looking at me."

Seems like they'd be OK together, but you'd need to be certain you could intervene if they got into an argument. It's a big ask to put your (tiny, naked, human) hand between two bills the size of those ones. D'you think you could do it?

"I want Blueberry to be able to visit both big birds freely"

I know that Blueberry and Chicken are already mates and have been for a long while. Of course you don't want to disrupt that. But if you allow Doge free access to Blueberry, you *must* understand that the first slip-up would be the only one. Doge has the capacity to murder Blueberry in one bite. Are you sure you want to risk his little life just so he can be cute with a bigger bird? I'm not having a go at you here, but just stating the facts. My sister allows her cat and corella to play freely together and it makes my teeth itch every time I see it. ONE sudden bite from the cat and that bird is history! I wouldn't/couldn't chance it.

"I want Chicken and Doge to be able to talk, but is a cage wall a bad idea? I need all advice on introducing them and all that goes with it."

I don't know many people who allow different species to interact. I know plenty of multiple-species owners, but they all keep their birds apart in separate cages. The thing is, you see birds living happily side-by-side in free range aviaries in zoos, so it is possible. I guess it all depends on how far you're willing to risk it. That's a very personal decision and only you can make it. I think you're doing everything you possibly can to make a good life for these birds of yours and congratulations on your efforts so far. In the end, though, the rest of us can only say what we'd do and give you reasons why. Your own reasons might be more pressing/important/relevant and that's OK. You can but try, knowing the risks.

I hope this has given you a few answers to your questions (or at least, opinions from someone with a different perspective)? I really admire what you're doing with your birds and hope I can do as well for my Rosetta. She sends her best regards to her new friends, Chicken, Doge and little Blueberry.