I wanted to share my Coco’s story….toos are such special parrots, but please do not get one if you are not in it for the long run..…cockatoos can be the most frustrating and rewarding parrots (both at the same time) you will ever know and you either get them or you don’t….
…that’s what I think anyway
When I first saw Coco, a Goffin’s Cockatoo, she just looked so sad….sitting all alone on her cage with no toys and nothing to do. I just knew I had to adopt her. I was going to be her fourth or fifth home; history is a bit sketchy….but from what I was told:
Coco was originally taken from her second or third home where she was kept in a small budgie cage (too small for a budgie in my opinion) for at least two years. She had gotten bigger and her owner was afraid of her. One of the other birds there bit off her one of her toes. She had plucked herself bare and was shearing her wings. Her rescuer at that time, while well meaning, (she loved this bird), was a heavy chain smoker, as was the whole household. After four years or so there, her care giver realized Coco was not happy and another member of the household had become very sick with lung cancer, so they decided to give her up.
When I picked her up, she smelled like a dirty ash tray. The scent of her feathers was so bad, I could hardly stand it on the way home in the car as I am not a smoker. She had that cigarette film over her entire body and her feathers (the few she had) were a brownish yellow. When we got home, I began to wonder what I had done…lol. Coco was clearly not healthy and she screamed for days. We realized fairly quickly that she was malnourished and addicted to nicotine and it took over a year for her to really begin to get better.
I am very happy to say that after three years of love, healthy air and food, her last vet check up was amazing! She is happy, healthy and does not scream anymore unless she really needs to…danger might be lurking on occasion you know….lol. All her tests came back excellent and except for a slightly compromised air sac on one side she now shows no indications that she was so unhealthy just three years ago.
She will likely never fly, as she still shears her wings regularly and the follicles on her back will never get feathers again from plucking, but her chest is now fully feathered and she is beautiful. She loves music and dances every time I sing to her or we put on music. She is quite a character and such a sweetheart that you would never realize how sick she was just a few years ago. She is my “different kind of perfect” girl.
I love her dearly and I cannot imagine our home without her.
…that’s what I think anyway
When I first saw Coco, a Goffin’s Cockatoo, she just looked so sad….sitting all alone on her cage with no toys and nothing to do. I just knew I had to adopt her. I was going to be her fourth or fifth home; history is a bit sketchy….but from what I was told:
Coco was originally taken from her second or third home where she was kept in a small budgie cage (too small for a budgie in my opinion) for at least two years. She had gotten bigger and her owner was afraid of her. One of the other birds there bit off her one of her toes. She had plucked herself bare and was shearing her wings. Her rescuer at that time, while well meaning, (she loved this bird), was a heavy chain smoker, as was the whole household. After four years or so there, her care giver realized Coco was not happy and another member of the household had become very sick with lung cancer, so they decided to give her up.
When I picked her up, she smelled like a dirty ash tray. The scent of her feathers was so bad, I could hardly stand it on the way home in the car as I am not a smoker. She had that cigarette film over her entire body and her feathers (the few she had) were a brownish yellow. When we got home, I began to wonder what I had done…lol. Coco was clearly not healthy and she screamed for days. We realized fairly quickly that she was malnourished and addicted to nicotine and it took over a year for her to really begin to get better.
I am very happy to say that after three years of love, healthy air and food, her last vet check up was amazing! She is happy, healthy and does not scream anymore unless she really needs to…danger might be lurking on occasion you know….lol. All her tests came back excellent and except for a slightly compromised air sac on one side she now shows no indications that she was so unhealthy just three years ago.
She will likely never fly, as she still shears her wings regularly and the follicles on her back will never get feathers again from plucking, but her chest is now fully feathered and she is beautiful. She loves music and dances every time I sing to her or we put on music. She is quite a character and such a sweetheart that you would never realize how sick she was just a few years ago. She is my “different kind of perfect” girl.
I love her dearly and I cannot imagine our home without her.
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