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[FrancisMom]

Hi all. I have recently become the owner/mama of a 26-yr-old umbrella cockatoo named Fancy. I've never owned a bird before. My history has always been with cats. So I'm really not in my element here and will gladly listen to all advice!


Fortunately Fancy is a very healthy girl with a great self-esteem, which makes me quite happy. I've done some training with her with fantastic results. I think she's probably quite happy here, as she gets to spend a lot more time out of her cage and has c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t attention from my husband and me.


So that's my story,
Linda

 

[noodles123]

Oh my...Did you adopt this bird of your own volition? I love my Too, but I just hope you are prepared for a much more complicated life...Not all bad, but definitely can get that way without the proper knowledge to deal with them.
It sounds like things are off to a good start. I am glad she appears to be adjusting well.


Non-negotiables for all bird-owners:

1. No more cooking with teflon/ptfe/pfoa or fluroplastics...it hides in places outside of the kitchen (curling irons, ironing board covers, irons, space heaters, heat lamps, straighteners, humidifiers, blowdryers)... You will need to call the company anytime you get something that heats up because many internal components contain Teflon (it can be a clear coat, mixed with other metals or a visible coating---you will not always be able to SEE it though, so you must check-- provide abbreviations (PTFE, PFOA), full chemical names (Polytetra...blah blah), and brand names -e.g., Teflon). Expect to be told that they will have to call you back. This is very important, as birds have died on separate floors when owners used Teflon. It off-gasses and kills them QUICKLY...no cure...In the kitchen, sources are often waffle irons, pots/pans, cookie sheets/cake pans, air poppers, air fryers, rice cookers, steamers, microwave popcorn bags, bake-in-a-bag meals, self- cleaning ovens, roasting pans, slow cookers, drip trays, toasters, toaster ovens etc..

2. You must also stop using traditional cleaners and scented products. No candles (scented or unscented), essential oils, nail polish, nail polish remover, perfumes, aerosols, paints, markers, stains, carpet cleaners, bleach, windex, lysol, scrubbing bubbles, fabreeze, smoke of any kind, vaping, air fresheners etc. Birds have EXTREMELY sensitive respiratory systems and their lungs can literally hemorrhage from exposure. I recommend f10 sc (the yellow kind)- this cleaner disinfects like bleach and is safe to use around birds at the appropriate dilutions (UNLIKE other cleaners). Your other options will be white vinegar + water (as long as you DON'T heat it up---that releases fumes), grapefruit seed extract+ water or other avain safe cleaners. Some of the natural cleaners are safe, but NOT THE SCENTED ONES. Research like crazy....Oh-- and no car air-freshener (tags or other! )

3. Get your bird to a CAV (certified Avian Vet) and get a cbc (blood-work) and a gram stain. This is an important baseline for any bird.


Now...you got a Cockatoo...

I am actually feeling a bit overwhelmed by your post because, sadly, Umbrella and Moloccun Cockatoos are the most re-homed bird species in the world? There is a reason for that. PLEASE DO NOT RE-HOME HER WHEN THINGS GET DIFFICULT- It is so very hard on these birds and it happens all the time (at 10, mine has had 3 previous owners).... They are VERY difficult to own (even for experienced bird owners), but since she is yours now, I am sure that you will be fully committed to doing whatever it takes to keep her happy, healthy and behaviorally well-adjusted. I love mine dearly, and she cracks me up but she is a massive pain in the butt all of the time.

There is a ton to know and since you have never owed a bird, I am concerned, but eager to help. It is VERY GOOD that you are reaching out. Without experience (even with experience) a lot can go wrong. That is why I need to think...

I am likely going to have to type you a novel and come back to this....BUT-
I need to understand what your current setup is and how the bird came to live with you.
If you can answer my 50 questions below (lol) I can provide you with more information (I know it's a lot..again, there is a lot to know):

Do you know about how birds hide illness/ signs to look out for?
What about safe/unsafe foods?
How long have you had him/her?
What is the cage situation?
How long is he/she out of her cage daily?
What is the bedtime routine (do you cover, where does she sleep, is it quiet and how many hours)?
What do you feed her?
How often do you change food/water/liners?
Do you own a non-ionizing/non-ozone producing air filter?
Are you noticing any screaming etc?
How often is she physically touching you/riding on you throughout the day?
What kinds of toys does she have?
What is your living situation and where is her cage positioned in relation to the rest of the household and daily bustle?
When you pet her, where do you touch her?
Do you allow her to climb around inside of boxes/under covers etc?
Do you own other pets (namely, cats)?
Do you own a humidity monitor?
What do you do well do if she bites?


Are you aware that birds can contract and/or carry/spread disease asymptomatically, and that feather dust, poop, dander etc can all transmit these diseases? They can be spread via air, on toys and clothes etc--This will be huge if you ever have to board your bird, want to set up play-dates with other birds, or even if buying toys from a shop that sells birds.


Do you know that liver issues are common and that rapid beak growth is a sign of liver issues? On a related note, do NOT let a vet use an electric file to grind her beak! Only hand-files..In terms of liver health, look out for giving anything super fatty and do not give too much protein.
Peanuts also carry a fungus that is dangerous for birds to inhale, so they should be avoided...as should sunflower seeds (due to fat content and addictive nature).

 

[FrancisMom]

Whew, thanks for the response, Noodles123!

I know what everyone is thinking - new 'too owner, never knew birds before -- YIKES! But I am not your average knows-nothing-about-birds owner. I do know what I'm getting into. My U2 Fancy is the fulfillment of a promise made 15 years ago to my friend Peg.

I've known Peg since way back in the '90s. She's always had TONS of birds, Fancy being the first of them. She suffered a bout of birder's lung (I think) in the early 2000s, and I was helping her clean up her bird rooms and got to know her birds very well. Of course, I came to know how loud they can be and how persistent. While the other birds, like macaws and Amazons, didn't seem to notice me, the cockatoo all just loved me. I promised Peg I would take Fancy if something should happen to Peg.

Well, the years have gone by, and Peg and her hubby are getting "up there", so they're looking for homes for the birds they have left. She wanted me to take Fancy last spring but I had promised my sister I would spend the entire summer with her in Finland, so we had to wait 'til after I came home to get her. In the meantime I've been learning as much as I can about cockatoos.

Here's a little history about my pet ownership. I spent MANY years rescuing and managing feral cats. As you can imagine I came to have a good number of them. I got heavily into training them, clicker training, and eventually had a little circus act with them (just in my house). We also did a little agility. What you can take from this experience is that I'm no stranger to problem pets and training, and I have gumption out the wazoo. I am not easily defeated. The cats have gotten old and died out, all but the last two. Fancy will NOT, and I will repeat that, N-O-T be rehomed! (at least not any time soon) We are only her second home and there are no plans for her to go anywhere else until I get to be too old to care for her. I know that 'toos are widely rehomed and I understand why -- but that will NOT be the case here!!!!

I came into it with an understanding of how loud they are and the whys and whens. I've been delighted with how little training I need to do with her before she learns. She screams on occasion very loudly but my husband and I are very patient people, and we're shaping the behavior. I think it's cool that she's calling out to us when we're in other rooms. Calling back really seems to calm her down.

We've had her for just about a month now and I'm totally in love with her. She's totally in love with my husband. The only downside is she's getting spoiled r-o-t-t-e-n. I'm sure she'll outlive us so her next home is going to know how spoiled she is. She spends a good portion of the day out of her cage. She's either on me or my husband (arm, shoulder, leg, feet...), or she's playing with/chewing up wood or cardboard. We seem to have a lot of boxes around so I let her play in one until she tears it up, and then get her another one. I have a few toys for her as well, made of mostly wood. I am aware of the problem with buying toys from a place that sells birds. That's something I've forgotten though, so thanks for the reminder!! After dealing with cats for so many years I'm used to dealing with the herpes virus. The most widely used "drug" in this house is lysine. So I'm aware of dangers along those fronts but need to be reminded from a bird perspective.



I have come to realize that she might be mated to me. Not knowing anything about birds 15 years ago, I just petted her like I would a cat or a dog. I only realized that was wrong last spring when I started educating myself on these guys. I try to keep the petting on the head now. Also when she shows mating signs, and I've gotten to know some of them, we distract her and direct her elsewhere. Oh yeah, and you should also know that this house is a very NON-corporal punishment house. I might tell her "NO" sternly, but nothing more harsh than that. No hitting, no spraying, nothing. When she first got here she was biting, which I'd never seen from her before. I don't know if it was just her getting used to a new home or the training I did but I did a little training with her - "no biting" - and she stopped. That's not to say she never bites but she's much better. She was attacking shoes and feet but I did a training session with her, and now she no longer attacks feet and is less vehement about attacking shoes.


As far as dangers in the home, we're aware of those. We're particularly worried about kitchen stuff since her cage is in the breakfast nook area of the kitchen/den. I think we've got everything covered well. I was worried about her catching a draft from the windows as she's in a bay window bump-out, so we just got finished installing blinds there. As for the cats, one is scared to death of her and stays upstairs mostly. The other one has a personality more like hers: very high in self-esteem. They've gotten used to each other but the cats will give warnings if she is too close. And they are strictly supervised when they're in the same area together. Fancy is never out of the cage unsupervised (after this post I'm going to let her out). I think we have a humidity monitor for the house attached to the furnace. Other than that, there's nothing else. Do I need one?

She was on a heavy seed-based diet which we've switched to Zupreem pellets, and she's adapting very well to that. She also gets fresh fruit, crackers and nuts, filtered water. Her cage is the one she's lived in all her life. It's plenty big but I have no idea what mfr it is. It's at least 6' high



I got her to a board certified avian vet, and he agrees she's in excellent condition, so I'm happy about that. Cage, etc. gets cleaned every day



We just got a Coway air purifier for the dander. I read somebody's post about putting a Filtrete air filter on a box fan and tried it. That worked really well actually. We don't use the ionizing function.

Hope that answers all your questions. I'm still learning. I've been watching the podcasts posted by the Chloe Sanctuary, and they've been pretty helpful and educational. I'm so used to knowing about my pets. Cat people come to me for advice, and now I feel like I'm right back at the beginning!


Whew! :41:

 

[Jen5200]

Welcome to you and Fancy and family! Sounds like she’s a lovely too, and you’re in it for the long haul. Nice job on updating her diet, and she sounds like a dream to train. Looking forward to hearing more about the adventure

 

[noodles123]

Oh thank God! You sound like you will be a good "parront"...I was VERY worried.

Okay, so cats--- be very very careful. Cat saliva via bites is very dangerous to birds. Should your "too" spook and fly off of her cage (whether or not she has a history of doing this), I would be very concerned. Do not trust them together...period. I know that everyone wants to trust pets, but one too many times, owners have posted on this very forum about their pets killing or severly injuring their birds (often after many years of harmony).

There is a honeymoon phase with Toos- do not spoil her and do not call back to her when she screams. If you want, call out to her before you go, but if you respond to her screaming (unless it is a fear scream...which this is not) then you are setting yourself up for misery. Pick a sound or word that you can tolerate and when she does that, attend to her. They do tend to be loudest in the morning and evening, so at night, I turn up music and let my bird get loud in context, but I never ever let her show that by screaming she can get me to do anything. When I got mine, if she screamed for attention and she could see me, I walked away and left the room. If she screamed when she couldn't see me, I didn't come back until she had been quiet for a solid 15 seconds (gradually increasing the required duration of silence over time).

Pet on the head---do not do any of the cuddling that is often shown on YouTube. It sends the wrong message and it can lead to a very unhappy, plucking, rejected, aggressive, egg-bound "Too". Cockatoos take petting elsewhere as a sexual advance, and so if you keep giving off sexy vibes without reciprocating, your bird will often become resentful and/or internalizing. Similarly, do not allow her to hang out in dark spaces (under covers, in boxes etc) as this also increases the likelihood of hormones....avoid anything nest-like.

In order to cut down on dust and help with feathers, you can mist her lightly with a clean spray bottle (fresh water), but avoid spraying in the face and make sure there is no draft. If you do bathe her in the shower ever, be very very cautious of soaps etc (no soap, add nothing to the water) and be careful with temperature with regards to the water and air. Do not over-bathe, as this can lead to itchy skin etc.


Salt can cause birds to pluck/itch (among other things), so make sure that your use of crackers is VERY limited. A bit of a low-sodium saltine won't kill your bird, but keep in mind that a whole cracker would be the equivalent of a human eating something the size of a watermelon. Something else to be aware of-- birds shouldn't take in large amounts of vitamin c or citrus--it can lead to "iron storage syndrome" and you do not want that...so I wouldn't give it daily...maybe once a week if you must.


Work on building independence and encourage your bird to play with toys etc. These should be in the bird's environment for a while (prior to introducing them) if you notice any fear/apprehension. Also, while you were likely typing your response, I added to my original post because I remembered the information about bird diseases and peanuts. Avoid buying toys from stores with other birds if you can help it (diseases are spread super easily and they are also quite difficult to test for).

Chloe sanctuary is a good resource--- especially for ABA (applied behavior analysis). I am a big believer, and as a special education teacher, that was my background--even prior to getting my bird.


Make sure your air filter is not one of the purifiers that produces byproducts (Germ Guardians are an example of a dangerous filter for that very reason).

 

[FrancisMom]

Whew, thanks for the response, Noodles123!



I know what everyone is thinking - new 'too owner, never knew birds before -- YIKES! But I am not your average knows-nothing-about-birds owner. I do know what I'm getting into. My U2 Fancy is the fulfillment of a promise made 15 years ago to my friend Peg.



I've known Peg since way back in the '90s. She's always had TONS of birds, Fancy being the first of them. She suffered a bout of birder's lung (I think) in the early 2000s, and I was helping her clean up her bird rooms and got to know her birds very well. Of course, I came to know how loud they can be and how persistent. While the other birds, like macaws and Amazons, didn't seem to notice me, the cockatoo all just loved me. I promised Peg I would take Fancy if something should happen to Peg.


Well, the years have gone by, and Peg and her hubby are getting "up there", so they're looking for homes for the birds they have left. She wanted me to take Fancy last spring but I had promised my sister I would spend the entire summer with her in Finland, so we had to wait 'til after I came home to get her. In the meantime I've been learning as much as I can about cockatoos.


Here's a little history about my pet ownership. I spent MANY years rescuing and managing feral cats. As you can imagine I came to have a good number of them. I got heavily into training them, clicker training, and eventually had a little circus act with them (just in my house). We also did a little agility. What you can take from this experience is that I'm no stranger to problem pets and training, and I have gumption out the wazoo. I am not easily defeated. The cats have gotten old and died out, all but the last two.


Fancy will NOT, and I will repeat that, N-O-T be rehomed! (at least not any time soon) We are only her second home and there are no plans for her to go anywhere else until I get to be too old to care for her. I know that 'toos are widely rehomed and I understand why -- but that will NOT be the case here!!!!


I came into it with an understanding of how loud they are and the whys and whens. I've been delighted with how little training I need to do with her before she learns. She screams on occasion very loudly but my husband and I are very patient people, and we're shaping the behavior. I think it's cool that she's calling out to us when we're in other rooms. Calling back really seems to calm her down.


We've had her for just about a month now and I'm totally in love with her. She's totally in love with my husband. The only downside is she's getting spoiled r-o-t-t-e-n. I'm sure she'll outlive us so her next home is going to know how spoiled she is.



As far as dangers in the home, we're aware of those. We're particularly worried about kitchen stuff since her cage is in the breakfast nook area of the kitchen/den. I think we've got everything covered well. I was worried about her catching a draft from the windows as she's in a bay window bump-out, so we just got finished installing blinds there.


She was on a heavy seed-based diet which we've switched to Zupreem pellets, and she's adapting very well to that. She also gets fresh fruit, crackers and nuts, filtered water. Her cage is the one she's lived in all her life. It's plenty big but I have no idea what mfr it is.



We just got a Coway air purifier for the dander. I read somebody's post about putting a Filtrete air filter on a box fan and tried it. That worked really well actually.


Anyway, I'm still learning. I've been watching the podcasts posted by the Choe Sanctuary, and they've been pretty helpful and educational.


Whew! :41:

 

[noodles123]

Did you mean to re-post that? I replied above---this is a copy of your original reply. Also- work on associating words with actions in order to help build anticipation and routine. If I am leaving, I tell her where I am going, and she anticipates different times depending on the location. If I am standing up and she is on me, I say, "I'm going to stand up" and she has learned.



Make sure she gets at least 12-14 hours of quiet sleep. A sleep deprived too is not a healthy too.


In terms of reacting to behaviors, it helps if you know the function of the behavior. If a bird screams for attention and you don't want it to scream, then ignore the screaming and teach them to meet that behavior's function in a new way.
In terms of biting, mine tends to get a kick out of any vocal reaction. Consequently, if she bites to avoid something (not out of true fear, but out of rudeness) I do not respond and I follow through.

I tend to ignore it completely in order to avoid becoming a human squeaky toy.
A bird who loves attention may bite, so if this happens, you can move them to a time-out location and walk away. However, a fear-biting bird should not be placed on a time-out perch away from people, as that would just be rewarding the bite via granting escape from the adverse situation. See what I mean about the importance of the behavioral function?

 

[Laurasea]

Welcome,! Noodles had a lit of experience, helped me out with probiotics recommendation! I second that the first couple of months can be a honeymoon, after they get us hooked they let their feathers down and some unwanted behavior can appear and some testing of your bondries lol

 

[FrancisMom]

Thanks, guys. I did not mean to repost - I was trying to edit my original post. I'm already getting such good info from you. I didn't know about the citrus/vit. C. I'll make sure to remember that.
About the crackers - that's not something we usually have in the house. I went to a retreat last weekend and they somehow managed to foist the few remaining crackers on me. So yes, she's getting crackers right now but only temporarily. They're the small crackers too, and she only gets half of one of those once or twice in a day.
I'll be posting more as it happens. Also I'll post pictures and videos when I get around to transferring them from my phone to my computer.


See you in the 'too!
Linda

 

[Scott]

Welcome Linda and Fancy!

You seem a very intuitive parront, I foresee a great continued relationship. You may see some regression, but have the skills to push forward.

 

[ChristaNL]

Welcome and a great start!


I just wish al rehoming would be this smooth and well prepared,

 

[Flboy]

Welcome to you! Such adventures!

 

[SassiBird]

In addition to the Chloe sanctuary you may also enjoy the Animal Behavior Center. I am a member of the Parrot Project (paid membership) and I'm learning a lot about ABA and training.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Welcome!

As you can see, you've found a place full of dedicated, friendly, like-minded people.

You're already a hero, and now you're a Forums Member. I'm glad you found us.

 

[wrench13]

Welcome and be welcomed.

 

[dhraiden]

Welcome Fancy, and Fancy's Mom! This is definitely the start of a long and happy journey together!