Cockatoos

One of the most often surrendered parrot species, cockatoos are frequently given to sanctuaries and rescue groups because they are thought to be simply too challenging. Over half of my clients in consulting have cockatoos.

What is happening? Are these parrots unsuited to live as human companions? Are they simply too challenging to care for as pets? As some say, does it simply take too long to suit their needs?

None of this seems accurate to me. No parrot species is more unsuited for life as a human companion than cockatoos. Rather, they lose their homes because we never stop misinterpreting them for what they really are—parrots.

The Cultivation of Urban Legend

One often-used website, for instance, says:

“When hand-fed as babies and properly tamed, cockatoos often develop lifelong, incredibly strong relationships with their owners. Known occasionally as “velcro” birds, they are also among the most loving parrot species.

These birds want to be on or close by their owners always and want to be peered at. You really must be able to commit to the time this pet requires. That covers handling and socializing with them for at least two hours per day, if not more.

If cockatoos believe they are not receiving enough attention, some can develop depression. Side effects, including disruptive behavior and feather plucking, can follow from this.

Other than stating that I exactly copied this passage word for word from what I would consider to be an “authoritative” website—one that comes up rather regularly when looking for anything related to parrots—I am not going to cite this source. Given its frequency, people assume the material presented is accurate.

Sadly, like many other similar websites, this merely replays the misleading information that has been disseminated elsewhere. If everyone declares it’s so, that must be accurate. right? Nos.

Online, more urban mythology regarding cockatoos than reliable facts exists. Actually, if you try a Google search, you will have to skip to page five before you come across anything even faintly scientific. Go to page 8 and still not discover any scholarly publications on their wild breeding behavior. Page after page instead will show cockatoos as noisy, demanding, hungry, and cuddly.

Anaïs Nin once remarked, “We see things as we are; we do not see things as they are.” I call the italics my own. With any subject, this has never been more true than it is with cockatoos.

Falsehoods and Fabrication

Perhaps most often used to characterize cockatoos is cuddly. Second in close proximity is needy.

The inconvenient (from our perspective) truth? Cockatoos are not friendly. We’re cozy. We are nearly compulsive in our cuddliness. Our impressions of the cockatoo behavior we witness and misinterpret lead to the problems they sometimes find themselves in.

Examining two facets of natural cockatoo behaviour—the method in which infant cockatoers, particularly the bigger species, are nurtured by their parents and the ways in which adult cockatoos preserve their pair connections with each other—helps us to grasp how this misperception developed.

Cockatoo Parenting Styles

Every parrot couple looks after their young in a way unique to their species. This kind of rearing differs among parrots of different kinds. Not every parrot pays the same degree of care for their offspring. Amazons, for instance, are well-known for their nearly negligent wild behavior.

Breeders who let their pairings rear their own offspring through fledging and weaning provide most of the information on how different cockatoo species care for their young. Nest box cameras have helped us compile this information.

Published back in July of 2000 in the Pet Bird Report, now-retired companion cockatoo breeder Katy McElroy discussed the observations she had made of normal weaning time frames for cockatower fledglings as well as the way the parents interact with their chicks in her article “Weaning Sadie: An Observation.”

Every parrot species has a natural timetable for learning to be food independent. This cannot happen quite plainly until the baby learns to fly and can follow his parents on foraging trips. The following cavity does not contain food. Parent birds bring unconsumed food into the nest cavity for their offspring. Rather, the newborn depends on regurgitated food for his survival for the first several months of his existence until he fledges.

Breeding wild cockatoos

Breeding wild cockatoos in captivity does not modify the natural time clock to which they adhere for weaning. McElroy made two important observations when she let her Moluccan Cockatoo pairs raise their own offspring.

The parents were regularly in the nest box tending to their bodily needs, preening them, caressing their beaks, and feeding them. Every hour, one Moluccan parent visited his chick. According to the author, parent birds lavishly feed and pay attention to their young almost constantly. Their chick did not “wean” until she was quite one year of age. Even if Sadie was eating healthily on her own, her parents would offer “comfort” feeds should comfort following a stressful occasion be needed.

Large cockatoos

Compare this reality, therefore, with the way cockatoos are housed in captivity for the pet trade. Long before they should be food independent, large cockatoos like Sadie are often delivered to their new homes between four and five months of age. This indicates not only that their weaning was hurried but also that they did not have the close physical touch they naturally require when young.

These newborns then enter their first families, ravenous for the care they lacked in their unusual mating circumstances. Furthermore, many who choose these birds are unaware that their demand for close physical contact results from inadequate raising conditions rather than from cockatoos’ natural inclination. Turning to the internet for knowledge simply confirms this belief that caressing and snuggling are the right behaviors.

McElroy’s conclusion is that we create a “needier” parrot by neglecting standard time frames for weaning. And when we react to this needy behavior by supporting it, we produce a dependent parrot lacking living abilities. All that bird wants before long is to be on a shoulder, lap, or chest. She gets less and less likely to interact with enrichment. If we dare ask her to perch anywhere by herself, she screams for attention. She criticizes the new lover. She hunts the kids on the floor.

The Reality

Actually, all around us is proof that cockatoos are not any more “cuddly” or “needy” by nature than any other parrot species.

View Chris Shank’s most recent blog on Star’s growth. She is not looking for any more close physical contact with her parents than any other fledgling parrot now that she has flown off. Her parents took care of all her emotional support requirements while she was still in the nest box.

Alternatively, peruse my most recent Georgie Pink blog entry. Wendy most certainly could have made Georgie a “velcro” bird. Rather, she gave him all the stimulation and instruction required to grow into the independent bird he was meant to be.

Those of us who have housed wild-caught cockatoos, such as my Moluccan Cyrano, can also confirm that these birds—who were raised by their parents before being captured—are not especially friendly. Rather, they are strong, clever, and self-reliable birds.

Actually, we bred and reared cockatoos to become cuddly, needy birds in such a way that their early requirements are not satisfied and, subsequently, by encouraging neediness their whole lifetime.

Pair Bonding behaviors in Cockatoos

Different animals show a range of behaviours that generate and preserve their pair bonds, much as with their various parenting approaches. A pair bond is a tight relationship resulting from courting and sexual engagement between one another animal or person.

Maintaining a pair relationship, cockatoos make a lot of close physical contact; regular mutual preening and perching occur in rather close proximity to one another. One could consider them to be cuddlers.

This implies that we are telling our adult cockatoo that we are their mate when we cuddle and pet them a lot of times. This is then the way a pair bond develops between the person and the parrot.

The Cockatoo Disaster Pattern

Not recognizing that all of this information is nothing more than fanciful garbage, well-meaning parrot enthusiasts adopt cockatoos and then resort to the copious online literature on how cuddly and needy they are. Then we make a lot of close physical contact since we want to do the correct thing, maybe because we originally deliberately selected a cuddly parrot.

This most clearly fits the young cockatoo, but more than anything else, it fits us. Most of us get animals to satisfy our own emotional needs. Particularly, cockatoos attract a lot of underprivileged individuals. After all, the internet lets us pet those birds as much as we wish.

We proceed without noticing that this young parrot is not only growing up with a great degree of dependency but will also develop pair-bonding behavior as he ages. Once you have a cockatoo that has developed a pair relationship with you, your personal quality of life usually suffers very substantially.

Screaming moment

This is about the moment the screaming, hostility, floor-chasing, feather destruction, and self-mutilation start. There may also be physical issues, such as cloacal prolapse. Avian veterinarians and parrot behavior specialists know this trend and its causes rather well.

Usually, too, there is crying; ours is parrot-loving people finding it hard to accept that things have gone so wrong.

And I’m here to tell you that this very typical scenario, in which the cockatoo has a pair connection with one member of the family, engages in cavity seeking (which comes with the territory), and eats a high-fat, high-carb diet, is a very tough problem to tackle. Getting hormone production under control and persuading the parrot that she truly isn’t his sexual partner—that he should be nice to her genuine partner—that he needs to live reasonably independently—all require continual effort on the part of the owner. Turning this around might take years of constant, nonstop work.

It is made extra challenging because we do not want to do it. I cannot count the times I have told a customer she absolutely needed to stop touching her cockatoo and snuggling her, only to have her react as though crushed. Usually, this news comes as an emotional blow, so depending on our conduct with our birds, we are dependent.

Clients with cockatoos

Furthermore, it is true that clients with cockatoo issues often feel victimised by the bird by the time they come to me or are on the verge of presenting their beloved parrot. Are we to hold them responsible? NO.

They have, after all, followed all the guidance they came across on the first five Google search pages. They have nestled the bird close by. They have given one-on-one focused hours of attention. They had done everything they could imagine to bring the birds delight. Still, the way the parrot behaves makes their life impossible.

Who’s the victim?

Actually, it is us who have mistreated the cockatoos.

We mistreat cockatoos every time we raise them without knowing their natural developmental demands.

We torture a cockatoo every time we raise one for profit and wean it too soon.

We victimize every time we clip wings and stop fledging.

We victimize them when we bring them into our houses and let them spend hours on our laps and shoulders.

We victimize them when we curl up with them under the covers and stroke their backs.

To lead an independent life, we victimize them when we keep them in our homes and base decisions just on what they seem to want instead of what they need.

Solutions

One can avoid this sequence of disasters.

First, unless you can locate one who either lets the parents nurse their own kids or promotes a full-fledged experience and food independence that follows wild, natural patterns, avoid adopting a baby cockatoo from a breeder. And that is practically unheard of in the United States.

Please adopt a cockatoo from a rescue group if you really wish to. Let me tell you, elder birds abound.

Then understand that the previous owner most likely behaved with the parrot in a way that created a pair bond. There is a 99% possibility. The first time the bird rests his head on your chest and requests affection, you will have verification. Changing homes usually means that birds do their utmost to create the same kind of social link with their new owner as they did with their former owner. Thus, get ready.

This will let you realize that instead of reacting in this manner, you have to start reinforcing this parrot for each autonomous activity he shows. Right now is his opportunity for a more autonomous, joyful life. His spirit will answer in time. Should you be working on teaching him new, more functional habits, he will start to seek direction from you instead of physical affection. You two will then have a considerably better quality of life.