Galah Cockatoo

[ginger]

JAIMMORR, I really do hope that you leave this forum and take your hypocrisy and pettiness with you. Don't just keep coming back here to stir up trouble. You belong on a forum where people only agree with you. Hmmm, it looks to me when I read your last post that you are doing exactly that same thing by calling anyone who doesn't agree with you "condescending" and "rude." Maybe you could find a forum for children since you have such a juvenile attitude. I'm sure there you will find lots of people who will agree with you and be "nice." Looks like that is what you want and not real advice from anyone with knowledge and experience.

[cmaygar]

Why would you clip your parrot? I am not going to rant, but its like removing a dog's legs, something that would be seen as very cruel indeed.

And as penny wrote, I dont think michael will throw you off just for having a different opinion .

I clip mine for their safety. I have a house with floor to ceiling glass throughout the entire living area that looks out over the pool and it would be so easy for a bird to try to fly through that 16' high fixed glass that takes up about 60' of length in my living room and family room that it would be cruel not to clip them. I also have ceiling fans that could be deadly to a flighted bird; understanding that someone could easily forget to turn off the fan if a bird were flying about. On top of that, I have 3 dogs and a cat that would be driven to absolute distraction by a flighted bird and their nature would be to chase a flighted bird.

So to mitigate the distinct possibility of having a 120 lb. German Shepherd, a 75 lb Vizsla (hungarian pointer),a 6 lb Miniature Pinscher and my indoor/outdoor barn cat bouncing off of the walls to chase a flying bird and destroying my house and potentially killing my birds, it's in everyone's best interest here to clip their wings. My birds get lots of "out" time. The dogs and cat don't bother the birds when they're on their stands and play gym. They're also very skillful acrobats and get a lot of exercise!

I had a Quaker parakeet for 24 years who had her wings clipped and she had a very happy, healthy and long life.

I respect folks that support flighted birds but also think that the "flighted" folks should acknowledge that there are some circumstances where a clipped bird is in a much safer environment when he/she cannot fly entirely for the bird's safety which is totally dependent on the home environment where the bird lives.

[Elizebird]

If you go look up BirdTricks on youtube, I believe they have 3 galahs. They love them and they look adorable! One of the three trainers, Jamieleigh, says they're like Australian pigeons as they're ground feeders and foragers. I recommend the videos if you want to see more!

[jge1]

I have an old rescued Galah, he is obese when he tries to fly he usually does not go far, then crash lands, If he lands on me, aiming for my shoulder he tries to drag himself up with his beak, excruciatingly painful and he gets agitated if you try to gently intervene, he is on a good diet now pellets and fresh veg.I wondered about clipping temporarily, to prevent injury to myself and him.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Jg and Galah - welcome to the forum!

Please do not clip him - it will not solve anything and will only delay his getting better -and he really, really needs to get better because obesity kills parrots more than anything else as it implies a host of fatal conditions: hepatic lipidosis, cardiovascular disease, kidney malfunction, high cholesterol, etc. If you clip him, you will be taking away the ONLY exercise he has to lose weight and regain flight. What you need to do is put him on a good diet (and, mind you, pellets ain't it AT ALL!) and exercise his wings so he regains strength in them and the self-confidence he now lacks (and why he squeezes so hard with his toes when he hangs on).

To exercise his wings you need to make him flap them as much and as hard as possible. You do this by making him perch on your hand or arm (blunt his claws so they don't make holes in your flesh and wear something long sleeved and thick but no gloves), raise it above your head and suddenly and fast bring it down. This will make him flap his wings and by doing it over and over and over every day, his muscles will become stronger and his tendons more flexible. As he will also continue to try to fly, you will start noticing that his flights cover a longer horizontal distance before he 'falls' to the floor and that he will have more control over his landings. Once you see noticeable improvement, start using what I call the 'softball throw': grab his body with both hands with him facing forward (his tail will be against your chest) and 'throw' him very gently (the same way a softball pitcher throws the ball - kind of upward a bit so it makes like an arch: up and then down) toward a soft landing (a bed, a sofa, a folded quilt on the floor).

I got a 10 year old caique two years ago at the end of October which could not fly even though his wings were not clipped and, although he will never be a good flier (they need to learn to fly when babies), he now flies about 15 ft without starting the downward curve, flies to perch on shoulders on its own and lands without a problem wherever he wants and not just where he happens to fall. And this was achieved with these two exercises so I know for a fact they work.

[evonmispets]

A Galah/Rose Breasted Cockatoo is on my short list of birds I am considering adding to my flock one day. Yes, I like to start my research waaay in advance.

I'm looking for information and experiences from people who have either owned Galahs or who have had significant experience with them. It's so hard to get a good idea of the actual picture about a bird species unless one has been elbows-deep with them for a good amount of time.

I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. Granted, all individuals are, well, individual, there are often traits shared across members. How loud, and what pitch, are their calls/screams? How do they act, in general, with their owners from when they are young to when they are old? As in: what sort of changes take place once they reach and then pass those "terrible twos?" How hard can their bites be (what is the potential range of damage)? Do they break the skin easily? Crush nerves? Leave a finger hanging by a thread? https://www.smular.com/

Are they, by and large, very mercurial in their temperament? How do they differ between males and females (especially during the hormonal breeding season)? Do they generally make a habit of trying to make meals out of other birds? Are there any behaviors markedly different between sexes? What types of toys are best for them? Soft or hard woods? Plastic/Acrylic?

And whatever else you Galah owners can think of. Please, throw it all at me!

[Pajarita]

I have had no galahs but I have a close friend that has had one for years, a female called Rosabella. They are beautiful animals, no doubt about it! But they are cockatoos and that means EXTREMELY needy (you need to be home during the day and spend many, many hours with them) and very loud (although galahs are not the worst, the moluccans are). Even when they are happy with their life, they will still make flock calls at feeding time (mostly in the evening) and they will chew and chew and chew and chew EVERYTHING they can find so they either require a dedicated birdroom where they can chew everything they feel like (and that means walls, doors, windows, baseboards, moldings, etc - so everything needs to be protected by something they can chew). My Linus Too (LSC2) just pulled about 3 ft off the baseboard off the wall and chewed a hole in the wall. All the wood (baseboard, moldings, etc) in the birdroom where he lives are covered with boards of untreated pine which my husband replaces once he chews through them so he did not only pulled the 'protective' board and 'put it aside', he went back and pulled the actual baseboard off the wall so he could get behind it and chew a hole in the wall itself. They are VERY destructive animals and keeping them in a cage is no solution because they pluck and scream like maniacs if you do. You simply need to learn to live with it and prevent, as best you can, the complete demolition of your home

The other thing is that they are intensely jealous of their chosen human. My friend had -and still has- a lot of trouble with this because even though her children are all grown now, she flies out to attack them as soon as she sees them (she knows they are competition for my friend's love) and males are worse than females.

Can they sever a finger? Yes, they can. They can also bite half a lip off as well as half an eyebrow or half an ear. They have big and VERY powerful beaks! Now, the toos I've had (umbrellas, citron, lesser sulfur) never really bit me that hard but I have ended up with holes in my arms and bruises from them just hanging on to me (they are large and heavy and have strong claws) and, of course, wounds from bites (because even a little bite is a big bite when it comes from a large bird).

Cockatoos don't have 'terrible twos', they have terrible fours and fives - which is when they become sexually mature but I've never found that a bird going through puberty is that much more difficult than any other bird. And yes, they do change as they get older. All animals do. As to their temperament.... well, I don't think that any species is 'mercurial' to tell you the truth. They do have breeding behaviors that make things a bit more difficult for their keepers during the season but as long as they get the right kind of diet, a strict solar schedule, good quality full spectrum lights and good care (flight, many hours of out-of-cage, company all the time, several hours of one-on-one, etc) they do not become overly-hormonal so their breeding seasons are not that very long and the behaviors are not acute. It's bad care that makes birds mercurial, as you call it.