Tool Use in Parrots

[CheekyandMalolo]

Ohhhhh I so went over that already.

a) I was talking about a flock of Cockatoos, not Cockatiels

b) I was talking about the people who feed the Cockatoos


Why has this been so difficult, altho to be honest, deep down I feel as tho the flock of cockies are a little evil. What do you say to that?!

[Mum2rory]

Cheekyand Malolo, We live in Australia and have seen, heard and read about the devastation caused by our native cockatoos. I understand where the other countries are coming from in saying they are cute, dream wish bird etc and some of them have them as pets. But in saying that, from what I have read on this site and some links they have to parrot rescue centres, stories etc (in the US), the cockatoos are the bird most likely to given up for re-homing cos of the amount of time, care, size, issues etc required to care for them. I personally would NOT have a cockatoo but do have a cockatiel, two very different birds. In some of our local "for sale" ads there are cockatoos, and in many cases they are cheaper than a cockatiel, I wonder why? I think I can guess, cant you?
I think we have gone off topic again, sorry all.

[Saerphe]

I was lucky enough the other the day to witness a parrot using tools.

I was admiring the green cheeks at the PetSmart the other day and saw one of them using one of the substrate pellets to scratch its head with. I'd really only heard of the larger birds using tools for that purpose, so it was really neat to see a tiny GCC had figured that out too. Just goes to show there's no accounting for size.