Kagro3 wrote:Hello, and thank you for your reply and advice and information:) I saw some videos on YouTube of ppl showering And blowing them dry,( cool air only), and showered with cool water, no soap only water. I read too that they needing bathing to help with all the powder? So they don't need showers once a week? By saying all the time I had to give to a bird, I Was just showing that I have a lot of time. Also, I didn't know that you couldn't spend time with them during the evening? I did read that they require 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. So, I figured I had at least until 5pm? But didn't know that was just during winter. If I got a bulb it would be bird specific and not just any pet light bulb but thank you for clearing it up by saying a full spectrum bulb over UV. When they are hormonal you can't spend time with them? Or can't spend the normal amount of time you normally do with them? I completely agreee that all this research won't help me to know exactly what it's like until I actually have it and live with a bird. Well, I had really only wanted a Congo African Grey. I was doing research only on that bird and was on YouTube one day watching videos and I saw a video of a Moluccan Cockatoo. His name is Gotcha and I just fell in love with him and I watched pretty much all his videos lol So, I started doing research on M2's as well as CAG's after that. While I think there are many different breeds that are gorgeous and intelligent and have great talking ability, the two breeds I chose are the ones that caught my eye the most. Even with all the issues that can come along with them.I am open to recommendations as to which bird would be best for my family and I. It is kind of discouraging and sad to hear that the birds I want most wouldn't be best for me or my family as I really had my heart set on them. I googled avian rescues by me and the closest is in NJ. So I wouldn't be able to volunteer there as it's too far for a daily thing. Thank you so much again
Let me clarify. The 12L/12D (12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness) schedule is obsolete (unfortunately, some people have not 'caught on' to the fact). When we first got parrots, we used to keep them at a human light schedule (get up in the morning, turn on the lights, spend all day with lights until night when we went to sleep) and we realized this was no good because the parrots were hormonal all the time. So then, somebody came up with the idea that, if in the tropics, the days and nights are always 12 hours long, we should be able to keep birds at this same schedule. Problem was, the birds were still hormonal all the time because we did not realize that tropical birds use food availability and weather as their primary breeding triggers. Now we know that all birds, even tropical ones, are photoperiodic and that they will revert to using light as their primary trigger and that, in order for the birds to have the same seasons they have in the wild (breeding and resting), we need to make them 'follow' the sun, thus, the solar schedule. When you keep a cockatoo at 12L/12D, you end up with a bird that is overly hormonal and that has consequences which vary from plucking and self-mutilating to constant screaming and aggression (see this: https://www.parrots.org/pdfs/our_public ... 54-2-2.pdf
and this: http://www.mytoos.com/
Cockatoos kept at a strict solar schedule do get hormonal but they don't become overly hormonal (sexually frustrated and in chronic pain from overgrown gonads) because right before this begins to happen, they stop making sexual hormones and their organs go back to tiny and dormant.
You seem to have your heart set on an M2 and although I commend you for your research, I don't think you realize what you will be getting into -M2's are, without a doubt, the most difficult parrots there are to keep happy. I readily admit I wouldn't be able to do it and I have 24 years of experience and have had hundreds of parrots under my care (I used to ran a rescue). You need huge infrastructure (it will require a large outdoor aviary as well as an entire room devote to it) and highly experienced handling because one single bite can take half a cheek, a lip, a finger, etc. and you have little girls. Sheesh, I have two LSC sweethearts which never, ever bite me and I still always end up with a black and blue from them just from them hanging on to me.