Life change for 'too

[Lori]

So much has been happening in my life. But I want to share some fun news
My too of 30 years has spent her whole life at home, out of the cage or in the back yard or a few neighbor houses , the vets, but mostly home.Not like the dog who never stayed at home.
Well we are getting ready to travel so Scooter has to get ready hence I just got her leashed trained....i'm soooooo proud of her. Found a car carrier that she like to be in.....not the one I wanted her to like of course, but oh well.
We have been 'practicing' I take her every time I leave the house all errands any trip in the car . I can honestly say having her 30 years that I had no idea she would Love it! This has only been 2 weeks an now when I yell 'lets go' she yells and sticks out her foot! LOL

[Wolf]

Goes to show that you just never know !

[liz]

Rambo is also a go go bird. All I have to say is go bye bye and he gets excited. Myrtle gets excited too but in the opposite way.

[Lori]

They are such funny creatures. I'm just so surprised. She has been chewing her feathers for quite awhile now. We had a vet visit the other day and the vet thought she might just be bored? other than her chewing her feathers he thought she was in good shape. Soooo i'm kinda hoping with all this maybe....she will lighten up on her feathers.. that would be cool.

[liz]

Distraction from chewing feathers can be done by giving him something to destroy. A tree branch is good but a cardboard box works too.

[Pajarita]

They also barber and pluck when they are overly hormonal and, to take care of that, you need to keep her at a strict solar schedule and feed her less protein during the winter.

[Lori]

Scooter has more toys wood trees boxes in all sizes! ropes ribbons chains keys balls paper wicker she had every texture and variety that I could possible come up with. one of my friends came over once and said Scooter had more toys then her first born son! We make them we buy them....Scooter gets very hormonal and has laid eggs over the years..We also have dealt with a very sick dog for a few years and he was pretty much the only thing we thought about, Scooter wasn't forgotten but she was watching everything how we had to hand feed him how we had to clean him up and care for him......all the attention, just everything, he died a month ago, and I really wonder how she felt about all that.

[Wolf]

It is also very possible that she started chewing on her feathers in response to all of the attention being given to the dog instead of to her. Cockatoos love being the center of attention and are known to be jealous of that attention. Of course all of these things could have a role in the barbering of her feathers.
I have three birds that came to me plucking their feathers and one of them also self mutilated. Although it seems to me that the most common thread in their behavior appeared to be a lack of attention, I doubt that it was the only cause for it. Feather plucking appears to be a complex behavior performed by a complex being and so I am of the opinion that it takes more than one type of stress to initiate this behavior.

[Pajarita]

Yes, cockatoos tend to be very hormonal because they have two breeding seasons a year so keeping them to a strict solar schedule (something that should be done with all birds because of the way their endocrine system works and which most people don't seem to realize) is very necessary with them. I've had four cockatoos, three of them came to me plucking and one of the pluckers also self-mutilated and they all got better on the solar schedule. In my personal experience, toys and drugs don't do the trick but a good fresh food diet, low protein during the resting season, a strict solar schedule and hours of company do.

[Wolf]

Funny thing about that is that has been the exact same things that has made the difference with my birds that were plucking when they came here. This is what helped my birds when nothing else made any difference at all.