Umbrella cockatoo breeders2/17/2024 She could not persuade it to feed on its own. Several years ago a lady sought my advice regarding an Umbrella Cockatoo which she had bought as weaned. I am not pretending that wild-caught cockatoos never show these traits but the incidence is low. They go on to become screamers, seed-flingers, pluckers and, in the worst scenario, self-mutilators (they gauge out areas of flesh, usually from the breast). It makes them exceedingly anxious and clinging. There would be no profit in it.įorced weaning has profound psychological effects on white cockatoos, more so than any other species I have hand-reared (more than 100 species of parrots). Of course commercial breeders cannot do this because feeding cockatoos for so long would be too time-consuming. I was happy to feed them until they weaned naturally. In my experience, they are normally weaned between the ages of five and six months. The key to producing healthy and psychologically sound white cockatoos is in prolonged weaning. Many people commented on the Moluccans, for example, because they were so large. While working as curator at Loro Parque and Palmitos Park, I personally hand-reared many cockatoos: Moluccans, Umbrellas, Tritons, Goffin’s and Lesser Sulphur-crested. Their temperament is different, much more independent than the large species such as the Moluccan and the Umbrella that are usually sought as pets because they are so “cuddly”. The only exception to this weaning age is that of the Australian cockatoos such as the Bare-eyed or Little Corella, which weans much earlier (also the Galah, but I am only considering white cockatoos here). These cockatoos have been forced-weaned, that is, made to eat on their own before they are physically and emotionally ready. They sell them at 15 or 16 weeks or even before and tell the buyer that they are weaned, or that they might need one feed a day for a couple of weeks. Why do I blame breeders? Almost all of them sell white cockatoos before they are fully weaned. Yes, she had already encountered this most common of problems so she proposed to perpetuate it by producing even more hand-reared cockatoos! Was it a coincidence that all three young were returned? I think not! I think it was the breeder’s fault. The breeder told her that she had also taken back from the people who bought them as hand-reared youngsters, the other two she had reared. I believe that the majority of white cockatoos spend less than three years at their first location. So already this young bird had lost its first home. The problem was that she worked and when she returned home the cockatoo screamed so much that, very reluctantly, she had to part with it. She had even built an aviary in the garden so that when she was out her cockatoo could play and exercise there. She had wanted to do everything possible for her pet, who she loved dearly. She was not an unthinking lady who had carelessly embarked on buying a young hand-reared bird. Everything you said has come true…!” In the book I warn about the demands of tame cockatoos that cannot be met by those who go out to work. How I wish that I had read it before deciding to buy a cockatoo. One lady told me: “I have just bought a copy of your book The Loving care of Pet Parrots. On too many occasions I have received a telephone call from someone who has bought a white cockatoo – and is now paying the price. They develop serious psychological problems that manifest themselves in problem behaviours such as biting, screaming and feather plucking. Many, perhaps even the majority, of these highly intelligent and (when young) irresistibly appealing birds, end up as unwanted or abused. Can there be anyone who reads parrot magazines who is not aware of the fact that white cockatoos are too demanding to make suitable pets? That is putting it mildly.
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