BirdEE
Walking the driveway
- Joined
- 4/7/18
- Messages
- 208
If you read the horror stories before owning one, most people never would. So what’s the story behind how YOU became a cockatoo owner and why you love them? Since they are almost never a first bird.
My personal story is most of my life I’ve had birds. I had budgies when I was a young child and my mom had finches. As I got older it grew to a bonded pair of cockatiels, and I have a plumb headed parakeet. I left for the military when I graduated high school and my mom gave the cockatiels to someone who could give them more time since I wasn’t there anymore. There was a period of time where I didn’t have any birds after I got back home. This is because I was in a rental. Once I finished college and bought a house though I was able to get another bird. I ended up with a young plumb headed parakeet that is absolutely beautiful. Our cockatoo kind of fell into our lap. Cockatoos have always been my favorite bird, but I’ve always known how much work they are and how demanding they can be, so I never really thought one would ever be in the cards for me, nor did I necessarily want one to be after what I thought I knew about them.
My wife started working at a pet store that had had a cockatoo dropped off 4 years prior from a couple that could no longer care for it. Over the course of a year I saw him all the time and played with him and visited him frequently as I saw my wife at work. Pretty soon they said “Why don’t you take that bird home with you”. I said, “Uhhhhh. Let me think about that one”. We thought it over long and hard and finally brought him home. I was terrified, having read probably every horror story online about adult mature male cockatoos (he’s 12).
I can safely say now I wouldn’t change him for the world. He’s fickle, he has fits, he screams, he’s moody. But he’s the most loving animal I’ve had besides a few dogs. He is a family member. He loves nothing more than to just be involved in daily life. If we are playing a board game he loves to just sit and watch and babble during it. He’s out 100% of the time we are home and he just loves every minute of it. They have such huge personalities. And that’s what I love about them. I can TOTALLY see why people warn you out of owning one though. I find myself doing the same now. I would never recommend one as a pet. There’s so few people they actually would make good pets for, but for those that they do, they’re amazing pets. Or should I say, amazing family members. Because if you think of them as a pet and not a member of the family, you probably won’t have a good time living with a cockatoo haha.
My personal story is most of my life I’ve had birds. I had budgies when I was a young child and my mom had finches. As I got older it grew to a bonded pair of cockatiels, and I have a plumb headed parakeet. I left for the military when I graduated high school and my mom gave the cockatiels to someone who could give them more time since I wasn’t there anymore. There was a period of time where I didn’t have any birds after I got back home. This is because I was in a rental. Once I finished college and bought a house though I was able to get another bird. I ended up with a young plumb headed parakeet that is absolutely beautiful. Our cockatoo kind of fell into our lap. Cockatoos have always been my favorite bird, but I’ve always known how much work they are and how demanding they can be, so I never really thought one would ever be in the cards for me, nor did I necessarily want one to be after what I thought I knew about them.
My wife started working at a pet store that had had a cockatoo dropped off 4 years prior from a couple that could no longer care for it. Over the course of a year I saw him all the time and played with him and visited him frequently as I saw my wife at work. Pretty soon they said “Why don’t you take that bird home with you”. I said, “Uhhhhh. Let me think about that one”. We thought it over long and hard and finally brought him home. I was terrified, having read probably every horror story online about adult mature male cockatoos (he’s 12).
I can safely say now I wouldn’t change him for the world. He’s fickle, he has fits, he screams, he’s moody. But he’s the most loving animal I’ve had besides a few dogs. He is a family member. He loves nothing more than to just be involved in daily life. If we are playing a board game he loves to just sit and watch and babble during it. He’s out 100% of the time we are home and he just loves every minute of it. They have such huge personalities. And that’s what I love about them. I can TOTALLY see why people warn you out of owning one though. I find myself doing the same now. I would never recommend one as a pet. There’s so few people they actually would make good pets for, but for those that they do, they’re amazing pets. Or should I say, amazing family members. Because if you think of them as a pet and not a member of the family, you probably won’t have a good time living with a cockatoo haha.
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