A very sweet article. : )
And Elvis did grab Howie's finger once but didn't actually bite down. So I think he is testing Howie. But for the most part, Elvis did really well. Although whenever I had to leave the room, I did put Elvis back in is cage and he only came back out when I came back in. Hopefully, Howie gets to the point where he is comfortable dealing with Elvis without me again. So, we'll see how the weekend goes......
Lol. You're exactly right. I will pass your words of wisdom on to Howie.That is the secret sauce for Howie. When Elvis is out Howie needs to stay focused and keep that third eye open all the time.
You can’t babysit a delinquent 3 year old by taking a nap. You’ve got to be on top of that little bugger constantly.
Elvis is a 3 year old delinquent.
That's what we do around here. We have consistent dedicated bird time twice a day. At the beginning and at the end. They get our undivided attention (mostly mine) during that time. The rest of the day they are expected to entertain themselves and they do. They "know" no one is going to interact with them during that time. This is normal and actually expected.
I think that's a good idea and I'll talk to Howie about it. Ideally, I would love to give Elvis a bird room. It's just not really an option at the moment. Up until now though, he had his cage door open whenever one of us was home. He really does still play in/on his cage a lot. But with the cage door open, he could come and see us when he wanted. Do a bit of flying, etc. After we blocked off the things he liked to chew, just having the cage door open worked well. Until the biting started. When I'm home alone, I still leave his cage open, and Elvis and I do just fine. I actually made Howie go to bed early last night so I could let Elvis hang out like normal before bed. I'm really hoping that we can get back to that with Howie in the mix. But maybe we can't. Or maybe if Elvis does have an hour a day of Howie's undivided attention he'll be content with that and continue to play independently the rest of the time. We'll see. I guess we just need to get the biting under control and go from there.
LOL. I'm sure you're right. When I say cage door open, I am also in the vicinity. His cage is in the living room and then I move it into the dining room for bedtime. So, other than running to the basement to throw some laundry in etc., I'm in pretty close proximity to him. And if I leave the room, he usually flies after me anyway. But a bird proof room just for him is something to work towards. I definitely don't leave him unsupervised like little Sunny, who lived cage free during the day.The more and more Elvis becomes comfortable and familiar with his surroundings, the less and less time he's going to spend in that cage if the door is open. In time you will end up with an environment because you have to (for everyone's sanity). Mark my words.
Start planning.
That's really interesting. Thank you. We started doing a watered down version of something similar to that the past couple days. It seems like we may need to make the back in the cage time longer though and time with Howie more structured. And very interesting point about Howie needing to reinforce. I never even though that by me being the one to intervene that I may be teaching him to be naughty to Howie to get to me. But I can see him figuring that out. They're so smart. I'm glad to know someone else has gone through this. I was beating myself up on somehow turning Elvis into a biter. But he's been with us for about 10 months now. So maybe he's testing things- plus maybe hormones on top of that. Thank you for you advice. How much time to do you think you spend with your goffin a day?
Aggression and screaming with rehomed cockatoos seems to just be the way it is. Especially if you have a male. I was surprised it took almost a year for it to show up with mine. Actually, it may have been closer to a year and a half. I can't remember if it was the first or second March after I got him. I know it was literally about 3 years before he started acting like this was really home even though the real behavior issues were short lived.
Does your goffin have his own cage? Is he interested in your other birds? Thank you for your help.
He does have his own cage. I think its about 23X30" deep and wide. He is interested in other birds but I wouldn't house him with one. My only other cockatoo is definitely not interested in him. He has also shown some interest in one of my female yellow napes, but yellow napes can be plenty feisty and I won't risk his safety. Although, he is pretty good about knowing when to get out of the way and the fact that he's flighted means he's able to do so at will when uncaged. He's not trustworthy with little birds. He will try to open their cage doors, steal their food and then get aggressive when they protest. He plucks a little bit and its been my observation that sometimes pluckers transfer their plucking to their mate and may or may not continue plucking themselves. He actually plucks less when I keep him in the bird room rather than in my living room. Usually its the reverse, but whatever keeps him happy...
Thanks. I am still trying to figure out what makes Elvis happy. I thought we were doing well but have definitely taken some steps back this past month.
Well, just keep at it. That is cockatoo ownership for you. If you can make it through the first couple years or so, you get it figured out and its mostly smooth sailing after that. Just be observant. Both of my cockatoos pluck but they are generally in nearly perfect feather only because I stuck it out and trial and errored long enough that I started to accumulate a list of small things that when combined lead to a most happy, healthy and well feathered cockatoo. Sometimes its one step forward today, three steps backward tomorrow and you might have to hold out for another three weeks until something clicks and you can take a step forward again. Most things work their way out in the end.
Thanks. I hope things work their way out with Elvis- and I hope Howie has the patience to hang in there. He's getting really frustrated by it all.
