Cockatoo Adventures

[April]

Oh my goodness that's so tragic I'm so very sorry

 

[Xoetix]

I'm so sorry! It's killer when something like that happens

 

[BrianB]

I took Kiwi to Sonic with me yesterday to get drinks for the store. He mumbled on the way over and when the person came out with our drinks he spread his wings and said Hi Kiwi ! He’s been a little more crazy than usual the last few weeks. It’s that time of the year and someone gave him a small rubber duck to play with. He goes crazy over it and if you get too close he will lunge at you. Yesterday afternoon he was holding the duck in his beak and kept leaning out towards one of the girls like he wanted her to take it. She grabbed it and pulled him right onto the floor where he immediately went after her feet. She didn’t get bit but she did go running. I just leaned down and picked him up.

 

[BrianB]

My little girl Daisy May came in today. She's still naked, but she's still sweet as can be. There is an amazing bond with her daddy and while I'm still a favorite, he is the love of her life. I was welcome to hold her and scratch her head while she made kissing sounds, but anything more than that was no longer allowed. Only her daddy can touch her back or her belly. I can live with that because she's a happy girl and they love her to death. We sat together for a while when one of the African Greys she lives with was being groomed. She tried her hardest to convince me that the chocolate cupcake I was eating was poison and that she would gladly eat it for me. I still call her my naked chicken girl, but she loves her daddy and I couldn't ask for more. Here she is on his arm, striking a pose right before she had her nails done.

 

[caspin22]

@BrianB I know your store very well!! My Red Bellied (also Daisy Mae, but not a cockatoo!) came from your store in November last year. As soon as I saw Sonic, and that you were in AZ, I knew where you were. We're up there almost every weekend....I will look for you next time we're in!

 

[BrianB]

That’s great! Stop by and say Hi. I won’t be here this weekend but starting next week I’ll be back in the store on Friday and Saturday.

 

[BrianB]

I think I've spoken about a cockatoo surrendered to us a few years ago. The bird had a VERY colorful vocabulary. I finally figured out who he went to and I spoke to her today because she's bringing him in for boarding. I asked her if he was still as rude as he was before and she said he no longer bites everyone, and he's not cage aggressive anymore. However, when he's really mad at her he will say something terrible. She works from home and has an office on the second floor. Both of her birds are in cages downstairs. The cockatoo will call out to her and usually, she ignores him during work hours. Eventually, he gives up and leaves her alone. One day, in particular, he kept saying "Come here" and finally she said no, I'm working..... I can't even type what he said in reply, but he yelled back at her to do something vulgar to herself and then called her a female dog. She said she had to go into the attached bathroom and close the door so he didn't hear her laughing. Her African Grey never says a bad word, and the cockatoo is like a sailor.

I'm constantly telling people not to teach their birds to swear but there are times I wish Chewy could say what I'm thinking so I can blame it on him and not get in trouble for it.

 

[SumitaSinh]

I don't know whether to laugh or not at this particular cockatoo story but yes it's a common practice to teach cussing words to pet birds. I have tried to convince people against it many times.

 

[BrianB]

It's a constant struggle with customers over this. They think it's the funniest thing ever but it just makes life hard for the bird and it's not the bird's fault. Sometimes birds come to us with a bad vocabulary, like this bird did. The new owners try their best to deal with it and some are better than others. I think she's done a great job with this bird considering his early life circumstance. There are times when you can't help but laugh about it, just don't do it where the bird can see or hear it.

 

[TikiMyn]

I never knew people taught it to their birds on purpose, I always thought the birds learned because they were frequently used around/at them. That’s also a possibility of course but teaching them on purpose is just horrible. I glad the sailor cockatoos owner could laugh about it though! It does sound funny but also very sad. It must be challenging if they use their bad words at the wrong time when other people are around etc.

 

[rocky'smom]

After volunteering at the clinic/ rescue and seeing birds come in with "potty" mouth. So many of them did not find new homes because of their learned behavior of swear words. It would break my heart into a million pieces knowing that they would never have home because of some fool teaching swear words.

 

[BrianB]

Today was rough. We had an old Muluccan cockatoo boarding with us. I don't know the details but her mom had to travel and had no choice but to board her while she was away. She had a wing amputated at some point in the past and had been suffering from cancer. Her owner knew that the end was coming and made us aware of it when she brought her in. She started to decline yesterday and we were able to get her mom on a video chat so she could see and talk to her. We moved her into another room that was a little quieter, but she passed early this morning. I noticed that the store owner had gotten to the store an hour before I'm usually there. I don't work on Sundays and wasn't aware that she had declined. The store owner didn't want me to be the one to find her. I appreciate that, but it was a hard way to start the day. The death of a boarder is rare and it's been years since it happened. These things throw everyone off. It's nothing against the owner. Life sometimes forces people to make choices they don't want to make. It's just sad that the old girl passed by herself and away from her people. All of the macaws were super loud today. It's like they were grieving too.