# Advice with my cockatoo? Pictures included.



## Laurab1271 (Oct 6, 2013)

I'll try keep this short as possible, I recently had a cockatoo brought for me, and his previous owners never had him out of the cage. 

He has plucked at his feathers, the pic does not show the extent to which he has done so. He has shown a real dislike to my brother and has pecked at myself and other family members. His other feathers are not in the best condition either, I think this is due to a bad diet before..

he is a really loving bird and loves a fuss, but due to the lack of handling he does need some work, can you clicker train parrots as you can with dogs? Are there any techniques I can use to divert his attention from plucking? 

So far I have changed his diet, so more fresh fruit and veg, bird seeds and no junk food which he was previously living on. I have the cage open pretty much all day and I handle him a lot. I have ordered lots of toys and additional perches to put in his cage, along with food games. 

Any tips will be greatly appreciated!

http://s934.photobucket.com/user/La...le Uploads/image_zpsf07cd1d1.jpg.html?filters[user]=137952264&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

http://s934.photobucket.com/user/La...le Uploads/image_zps9f4916d9.jpg.html?filters[user]=137952264&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

http://s934.photobucket.com/user/La...le Uploads/image_zps3ae2fec6.jpg.html?filters[user]=137952264&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0


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## Gazza1587 (Sep 29, 2013)

Hi Links to the pictures are not working.


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## cobe (Nov 24, 2010)

as said photos are not working. not a problem though. It sounds like you a doing a lot to improve the health of this bird. What species is it? first bit of advice would be to take a trip to the vets to make sure there are no underlying heath issues for the feather loss e.g. fungus, mites or the likes. also a good deal of research is a good idea. Diet is very important but it sounds like you have that covered. my best advice would be to treat this cockatoo as part of the family, find out what makes it happy for instance music, tv, puzzles toy etc. mental stimulation is important. something to remember is don't do too much too quickly because over stimulation can be detrimental too. get to know the bird, gain its trust and in time it will be in top condition. i wish you the best and it would be good if you could get some photos


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## Bamboozoo (Oct 2, 2009)

I have a plucker. He is an Eclectus male. I use a product called Feather Up by the BirdCare Company. A product I can't use with him is Spirulina ~ dried crushed kelp used in the fish world a lot. Screaming has been noted in Eclectus Parrots but I have seen it work wonders on a pair of virtually bald birds. 4 months later they were looking great. I know of a couple of parrots that when mop heads were dangled from the top of the cage the bird diverted his plucking to the mops. Or tearing up paper can also divert their attention.

Good luck ~ Pat


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## gurnster75 (Jun 8, 2010)

I'll ask my sister in law, she's had a cockatoo!


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## georgii (May 30, 2014)

We have a feather chewing male eclectus, we have tried everything to stop him for 3 years nothing worked with him really. But, now he has less seeds, changed every other day. Wide variety of fruit and veg, also we put palm oil on his favourite foods Parrot Palm Fruit Extract Parrot Delicatessen African Grey Treat Food Palm Oil | eBay (this can be used on all species of bird not just African greys) and they love the stuff
this really helped him, also we have a foraging toy for him and fill it with monkey nuts and food, and then stuff shredded paper in it everywhere so he has to get the paper out before he can get the food, he does this for hours which helps. We shower once a week and allow to dry naturally, showering to much can take away any natural oils in there feathers. Also a UVB light bulb above the cage helps as it gives them natural light which helps feather growth,
Ours become to attached to one person and didn't want anyone else as he was out his cage to much, so would get stressed when he couldn't see them and plucked, basically he felt lonely. But now we don't allow him to be with that person all the time, and when he's in the cage leave the radio or tv on when your not around him. He has improved a lot since we've done all this, he also had some medication from the vets that induces a moult, this is the main thing that helped his feathers grow back


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