I totally agree with John -- and I don't own a cockatoo! I am, however, fostering one, and there are two others in the fostering program with my bird club; there is another that is waiting for a foster home to open up.
This is George, a Goffin's cockatoo. He has had many homes, including one that we adopted him out to recently. Unfortunately, even though we took care in preparing the new owners, and were thorough in our questions, he wasn't there for a full three weeks before they brought him back.
George is adorable. He is funny and playful and silly and can say a few phrases. He loves toys and adores head scratches. His favorite song is "Tequila" and loves to play his birdie maracas. He will play "catch" with me whenever I am available to do so.
He is also hormonal. He begs to be cuddled, and tries to sit on my shoulder whenever he has the chance. He raises his wings and wants me to pet him there, but I am certain that this was part of the problem at his last home: the female in the home allowed him to do all of these things, and consequently, George went after her spouse and child whenever they were nearby. He has not, fortunately, gone after anyone in my household (including my 18 year old daughter and 13 year old son), but he is terribly afraid of my husband. We are working to get him over that, as when he was here prior to the adoption, they were thick as thieves.
It is going to be difficult to find a good home for him, I suspect. He can be loud, and he definitely does better when there are people around the house most of the day (my husband works from home, as do I). When left alone, he often sleeps, but if I have to be away for a longer period of time, I fill up the foraging and puzzle toys in his cage, and am sure to replace whatever toys he has chewed up from the day before. (His last owners gave him thickly painted children's blocks from amazon because they couldn't afford to keep buying bird safe toys. Even my husband asked if we could "epoxy" his toys so that they would "last longer". Um, no.) I can't keep him, unfortunately, because I have terrible allergies and I definitely feel it, even when I mist him (I haven't found a bathing routine he will accept willingly yet) and mop the floors daily.
And yet, he really deserves so much more than what human beings have given him so far in life, so I will do everything I can to make sure he gets that happily ever after.
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