Cockatoos and Pet Parrot Rescue
An Exotic Bird Santuary Sees Many Unhappy Damaged Pets
Buying a Molucaan cockatoo or umbrella cockatoo may be tempting, but large pet parrots have wild parrot instincts that land many pet cockatoos in bird rescue sanctuaries.
The umbrella cockatoo and the Molucaan cockatoo are popular pet parrot breeds. Despite their popularity, more cockatoos are surrendered to bird rescues than other pet parrots. There's a simple reason for this:
People don't know what they're getting when they buy a cockatoo.
The Molucaan and umbrella cockatoos for sale at pet stores are young birds. Baby cockatoos are affectionate, playful, and cuddly—three traits guaranteed to win customers' hearts. Impulse buying any pet is a bad idea. Impulse buying a cockatoo can be a disaster.
Pet Parrots are Wild Parrots at Heart
People charmed by young cockatoos forget these cute babies retain all the instincts of wild parrots. As Barbara Bailey notes at the Indonesian Parrot Project : "Our birds may be tame but they are still wild animals." Dogs and cats have been domesticated for thousands of years. It's likely a young umbrella cockatoo's grandparents (or even parents) were wild parrots. As a cockatoo matures, wild parrot instincts come into conflict with human behavior.
The Loudest Pet Parrots
Cockatoos "sound off" in the morning and evening. A Molucaan cockatoo has a scream only five decibels quieter than a jumbo jet engine. Imagine that in your living room. Better yet, go to MyToos.com and listen to the home page sound file. Can you live with a noisy Molucaan cockatoo? Can your neighbors?
Without constant attention cockatoos can develop a common pet parrot behavior: constant screaming. Sounding off is natural behavior: constant screaming indicates mental distress. A screaming cockatoo is crying out (literally) for attention.
Cockatoo Love Can Hurt
Even if you're home all day and can shower your pet parrot with affection, life with an umbrella or Molucaan cockatoo is often stormy. Cockatoos tend to be one person birds. Wild cockatoos form strong, lifelong commitments with their mates. In the absence of a mate a cockatoo often substitutes its owner or another family member as a "mate." In the wild, a cockatoo would defend its mate from rivals. In a domestic setting the cockatoo sees other people as prospective rivals.
Cockatoo bites have landed people in hospital, and can cause permanent facial scarring. Owners are not immune to bites: a cockatoo may bite its owner to get him or her away from a potential rival; just as a wild parrot would bite its mate to move her away from other males. In the wild, the cockatoo just gets a mouthful of feathers. In the family den, he or she gets a mouthful of flesh.
Feather Plucking and Self-Mutilation
An unhappy cockatoo can self-destruct. Many of the Molucaan and umbrella cockatoos surrendered to bird rescues are aggressive biters or chronic screamers, through no fault of their own.
Lonely, abused, or malnourished cockatoos can start feather plucking: grooming so obsessively that they pull all the feathers off their chests. Some pet parrots progress from feather plucking to self-mutilation, and actually chew holes in their own chests.
Molucaan Cockatoo "for Sale"
If you are considering a Molucaan or umbrella cockatoo be especially wary of classified ads offering a cockatoo for sale. Often the cockatoo for sale has serious behavioral problems—problems that may not become apparent until you bring the parrot home. A bird this troubled is better off in a parrot sanctuary.
Large Bird Cages and Cockatoo Care
Presuming you still want a cockatoo, what's needed to keep one happy? Large cockatoos need hours of personally interaction, preferably socializing with several people to prevent the parrot becoming a one person bird.
Umbrella and Molucaan cockatoos need large bird cages. Very large bird cages. In fact, a parrot aviary is your best choice if you can afford one. Cockatoo cages should be filled with a variety of parrot toys that are rotated with different toys regularly to prevent boredom. Sturdy parrot toys should be made of wood, and expect to replace destroyed toys on a regular basis. You can find well-made parrot toys at pet stores, or through online stores such as Amazon.
Cockatoo food should be a mixture of vegetables, fruit, nuts, and good quality parrot pellets. Each cockatoo has slightly different nutritional requirements. You will need an avian veterinarian to care for a cockatoo: umbrella and Molucaan cockatoos require specialized care a general veterinarian cannot provide.
Goffin Cockatoos: Small but Mighty
The large cockatoo breeds—the umbrella, Molucaan, and others—are out of many people's price range. Smaller cockatoos such as the Goffin cockatoo are more affordable.
Don't be fooled into thinking that the smaller Goffin cockatoo is easier to care for than, say, an umbrella cockatoo. Goffin cockatoos are just as demanding, and like all cockatoos, best left to experienced bird owners. If you lack parrot experience, a different type of pet parrot is a better choice than a cockatoo. Don't make a mistake you and the parrot will regret.
Resources
Birdsnways.com. (nd). Cockatoo Heaven.
MyToos.com. (nd). Quick Checklist for New Parrot Owners.
