by Wolf » Mon Oct 24, 2016 6:17 am
I was going to welcome you to the forum in your post in the introduction section, when I saw that you were going to post a question, so I waited until I could read it .
Welcome to the forum and thank you for getting an older bird instead of one from a breeder, with the glut of unwanted birds in rescues all over this country and indeed the world, it helps, wish more people would consider this option.
I understand that you are new to the world of parrots and do not have a lot of experience, but that does not mean that you have not done any research, which is something that most of us with parrots do all of the time. We are actually only just now really beginning to learn very much about our parrots because although parrots have been kept captive for hundreds of years there was no research done on them until beginning about 25 years ago and for any of the longer term studies the results are just beginning to come in. We all still have a lot to learn about these wonderous creatures.
You did not say how long you have had Archie, but I am thinking that it has probably only been between 4 to 6 weeks and if this is close then it is very possible that he is still in what we call the honeymoon phase, during which he is likely on his best behavior, and it will probably change to some degree as he gats more accustomed to his new home environment.
Going by this particular post, I am also assuming that you were the one that wanted to have a bird in your lives the most, which would explain your feelings of rejection by Archie. All I can say about that is welcome to the world of parrots. They are intelligent, frustrating, comical and wonderfully fascinating friends to have, but they are each and everyone of them unique individuals and no one can predict who they will choose to be their special human. We have not event the foggiest of clues as to what they look for or see in the person that they choose or even if they will remain bonded to that person or if they will suddenly switch favorite humans. So if he has not chosen you as his favorite person don't feel bad about it.
While you may not be able to overly influence his choice in who his special human is, you can still gain his trust well enough to be included in his idea of who his flock is and sometimes that is the best that you can hope for and sometimes that is the best place to be. The larger parrots such as cockatoos tend to bond very strongly to their special person and when they do they very often want to spend all of their time with that person and since the actual nature of this bond is a mate bond they may also become very jealous and protective not only of this person, but also of what they consider to be their mated rights to this person. This can cause some issues if the bird sees their bonded human being too cozy with anther person as they may try to attack the offending person or if they can not get to the intruder they may attack their own special person in the attempt to keep that person from further contact with the intruding party. This is something that you should be very much aware of.
Unfortunately this is about the extent of my personal knowledge of cockatoos behaviors and hopefully one of the other members with more knowledge and experience with this species of parrot will step up with more information to help you.