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Cockatoo age “stages”

Xoetix

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What are the “life stages” for a large cockatoo?

What I mean is, what years are baby/toddler/child/teen etc? I tried googling it and found a few different things that seemed to contradict each other, so I’m curious what y’all think.

Isadora will be 16 in April, so I would assume that would make her a teenager, but then again I’m not 100% sure on that given their mental and emotional growth is obviously different from humans.
 

Emma&pico

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I never thought of it like that

run for the hills if it’s teenage years:rnfrt: rather have 10 screaming newborns than a teenager
 

Xoetix

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I never thought of it like that

run for the hills if it’s teenage years:rnfrt: rather have 10 screaming newborns than a teenager
Might be why she hit me :roflmao: She’s in her teenage time and is just a snot
 

Kiwi's Dad

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Good luck

Don't lose your fingers!:goodluck:
 

macawpower58

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My Goffin Cockatoo Sweden is 25. She had beautiful full plumage for years. Easily the first 10-15 years.
Then as hormones starting hitting hard, she slowly over the years lost her beautiful feathers.
She does not attack, nor show much aggression, but she will warn me to 'watch my step' if my daughters stop by.
They've always been her first love. When the kids aren't here she's a dream (one with ADHD), to have around.
I'd consider Sweden to be at a prime breeding age. With our fake indoor seasons, she's almost always 'in the mood'.
She does get bad though early spring into summer, at these times her feather destruction is at it's worst.
She'll let her wings grow back through-out the fall/winter months.
I'm not sure about stages/ages.
While definitely an adult, she's always eager to engage and play, and I have to keep the excitement level on an even keel.
Like a kid she easily goes into overdrive. I'd say I'd place her in a young adult stage.
 

Cockatoo-Dust

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as someone who has raised an umbrella since 3 months, he is 8 now, i can only tell you about the first 8 years. but hormones start at 2-5yrs old and peak for the first 3 years. he's still a lil snot sometimes but generally has manners at this point, however he gets rude in the spring and fall very consistently. i imagine as the yrs go on he might chill out a little lol
 

melissasparrots

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I'll respond with what I know about my 820g large sulfur crest. She will be 22 years old in April. I've had her since she was 8 months. This would be different for a goffin's or smaller bird. Birds mature at such a different rate mentally and physically that it's hard to make a comparison in human terms.

The baby and toddler stage are probably done with before the bird is weaned. By the time it is weaned, it would be somewhere between middle childhood and teenager. After weaning, they don't really coorelate to a human age group that well. Shortly after weaning, they are mostly coordinated but still a bit clumsey. They don't need their parents a lot of still hang out with them. But they aren't hormonal so they aren't teenagers in human terms. However, structurally, they are full grown even if not well muscled. At around one year old, they near true independence. They may still have some loose association with their parents, but don't really need them. They aren't hormonal, but they are indpendent. Not teenager, not child. A pet might be testing beak pressure and sometimes being a brat at this age, but rarely with real aggression. Then you have some nice years between about 1 and 5 or a little more where they aren't babies, they are well established but hormones haven't hit yet. They might show some pair bonding and practice behaviors, but most won't be ready to reproduce.

Somewhere around 5-8 the real push or hormones hits. This might be considered the teenage years. If given a mate, they might successfully reproduce, but they might have a few false starts and take a couple more years to actually lay and incubate fertile eggs. This is when a lot of male cockatoos loose there homes due to aggression. Depending on how you handle it, that aggression might be an issue forever, or it might just be seasonal. Females overall don't have as much problems with major aggression but they can be shameless hussies. Again, depending on how you handle it, the bird may get into a rut and start being in continuous hormone mode and compulsive egg laying for a very long time. Or, it might just proposition you occasionally and then move on to playing with a toy when it doesn't get a response and there aren't any dark nesty areas to obsess over and want to lay an egg in. They never really get past the hormonal stage until they are truly old. Think 30+ years old. Potentially 50+. People that say their bird gets through the hormonal stage and they settle down later, that just depends on the bird, the environment and the owner. They will be hormonal at some point as part of being a healthy adult until they are too old and ill for them to have hormones. The degree to which those hormones influence their daily life just depends on various factors. Many aggressive birds do become more predictably unpredictable as they mature. An observant owner learns the triggers and times of year to be careful. But, hormones are never truly done until the bird is very old and probably starting to need age related vet care.
 

JLcribber

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Most large cockatoos are juveniles until around 5-7 years old. That's when a brand new bird shows up (what happened to the old bird?)

Read the article linked in this thread. It will explain many things and give you valuable insight for the journey ahead.

Isadora will be 16 in April, so I would assume that would make her a teenager, but then again I’m not 100% sure on that given their mental and emotional growth is obviously different from humans.
She is a full blown adult. Where she is mentally and physically are a result of her previous 16 years. It can vary quite a bit. Were they 16 fabulous years or 16 years of horror?
 
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