New Cockatoo

[gabbie923]

Hello,
I have taken in a Malaccan cockatoo just a little over a week ago now. I got her from someone I know who had taken her in with very little animal experience and only had her for about 3 days before contacting me with the desperation of getting rid of her. Now usually I would never take in an animal that I have little experience with but my worry was that the bird would suffer if she stayed with them or that she would be given to someone else that would also neglect her because they don't know how to care for them. Since I have taken her in I have spent a lot of time trying to build up trust with her. 2 days in she was the one that was trying to step up and wanting me to hold her. At first I was hesitant but one of my friends who has owned a large parrot for quite sometime now suggested that try to let her step up and so I did. To my surprise she was perfectly fine she actually cuddled into me and wanted me to give her scratches and love.

During this past week we have come along way and she has been perfectly fine she loves to step up and be cuddled. My problem today is she wanted to step up like she normally does there was no force on my part or anything and she was fine. I was petting her like I normally do and all of a sudden she turned and bit me without any warning so I stopped petting her and she got even more irritated so I put her back on the cage and walked away to let her calm down. I went back later and she wanted to step up again so I let her and everything again was normal and without any warning she bit down again only this time I wasn't petting her I was letting her sit calmly.

My question is, is there anything that I should be doing or anything that I might be doing wrong with her? She has plenty of toys, and I make sure she is fed and has snacks. She lets me pet her and when she walks away I leave her alone. I never push her to do anything she doesn't want to do. Thank you!

 

[Dutchie1984]

I don't have any experience with cockatoos, so I hope others jump in with more knowledge.

When I read your post you wrote that she is the one that requests to step up, not you requesting her to step up. I can imagine this maybe contributes to dominant behaviour?

 

[gabbie923]

That's a good point. I have read that it is never good to force them up if they don't want to be held so I have just been letting her let me know when she wants to be held but I could see this creating a negative behavior. Although like you said I don't have much experience with cockatoos but I have been trying to read up and do my research. Thank you for your reply!

 

[Jayyj]

My guess would be you're approaching the end to the honeymoon period where the bird is on best behaviour whilst figuring out where they are and what threats might be lurking around the corner and entering the boundary pushing period. 'Ok, what happens if I bite this person? Are they afraid of me? Can I use this to get my own way? And I wonder what will happen if I scream at the top of my lungs - I think I'll give that a try next! '

To be honest, this species has a fearsome reputation for being difficult to get right and I'd be out of my depth trying to help so I'll leave the advice to those who have proper experience of them. Fortunately we have a few members who will be able to help you in this respect. Good luck with it and good on you for being willing to give it a go!

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Get her away from her cage when you interact with her , like have her step up on a stick. Put her on a playstand or on the couch [not the floor]. Toos can be very aggressive when on the floor . Interact with her ,keep things short . Your going to have to "Learn " her . Dont worry you will just takes time

 

[sonja]

Good points made above. Good luck! Moluccans are awesome!
One of my favorites, but oh so challenging.

 

[ToMang07]

You have a lot or reading to do. Spend a lot of time on here reading.

Biggest thing to start with is bite pressure training. My U2 would bite pretty hard at first, and seemed very unpredictable. With time, patience, and training, I have a very well behaved Too.

Learning your birds boundaries (and you setting firm ones) is important. When she does bite, loudly and firmly say NO! and try not to over react. Be consistent.

If she does it again (or tries to) it's time out, locked in the cage and pretty much ignored. (Usually 10-20 minutes does it.) Then it's time to re-interact. Step up. Play, pet, be nice, receive affection/play time. Biting means cage and being ignored. Toos LOVE attention and cuddling. Use that.

What kind of cage (hopefully a large one) do you have? And pics of the bugger?

Welcome, and good luck. Channel your inner patience, you're gonna need it. But in the end, it's worth it.

 

[gabbie923]

Yeah she has bitten me again this morning when I went in to say good morning and let her out of the cage. she came right up to me and was letting me pet her showing signs of calm and content behavior and then wanted to step up which we were doing fine with and then I tried to put her back on top of her cage not inside so that I could go get her breakfast and that's when she bit me. The time out idea is perfect but I run into the issue now of her possibly biting me because she doesn't want to go back to the cage. She bit my boyfriends dad in the face yesterday luckily not bad and didn't leave a mark but I don't want her to make a habit of this because her beak is quite scary. Any other suggestions is much appreciated. I will try the time out method the next time she does it.

 

[gabbie923]

Oh and the cage she is in is large BUT I am currently working on saving up to get her a bigger cage. The cage was given to me when I went and got her and its big but I know she could use more space. So I'm in the process of working on that.

 

[gabbie923]

She is out of the cage for most of the day. Usually the only time she goes in the cage is when its bed time. I'm not sure if that's good or bad? But I leave the door open so she can go in freely if she needs water or anything.

 

[Pinkbirdy]

Do the in and out of her cage with stepping up on a stick . Ive had 5 Toos 3 came screaming . What was a must with them is a consistent schedule. I would be afraid of problems if they were out most of the day . They would be running the show