Home - NSI            02/2008

Life with Ivory

A Primer for anyone looking to acquire a large Parrot

Ivory is an Umbrella Cockatoo, she is about 14 years of age. She came to live with us early in November of 2007.  Ivory had been in a bad situation for a few years. Before Ivory arrived, she had self mutilated her body and damaged a lot of her feathers.  Some of her body will never grow feathers again.  The feathers that were just damaged will grow back over the next two or three years.  She is in molt at the moment and a lot of new feathers are growing. (Feb 2008)

I do have to say that Ivory is a sweet and lovable female Umbrella Cockatoo.  We enjoy having her with us. She loves to run around the floor, cuddle and be petted. When some music is playing she will Dance!  She is good around the other birds and with the cats. When we are home in the morning, afternoon and/or evening, she likes to sit on my lap under a blanket to take a nap for 1 to 2 hours.  She loves to be with people all day every day.

But when she is in breeding season…..

We have to lock her in her cage when a female friends comes into the house. She will attack and bite any woman she sees as invading her space or as competition for a mate.   She will get upset out of breeding season when a strange woman comes into the house also.  However when we are out of the house, she is very friendly with all people.  Ivory does prefer men.

We have experience with 2 and 3 year old children and Ivory does fit into that age group.  You can not take your eyes off of her for a second. Ivory moves fast and can cross the room in 1 or 2 seconds.  We keep toys for her on the floor of the living room. She can take a 2x4x8” block of wood and turn it into tooth picks in 3 to 5 minutes when she wants to. Ivory has chewed pillows, wires, sofa cushions, and blankets so far.  All Parrots Chew and it is natural for them to do this.  If she gets on the desk un-supervised, she will pick up everything to taste it, play with it then throw it on the floor.  Some things may get chewed as well. She will pull the keys off of computer keyboards.  Remote controls are fun too, the TV gets loud, changes channels and all sorts of thing happen.  Oh and she likes to chew the buttons on the remote controls to.

Any chair, sofa, table, desk or book case is fair game if it looks interesting to Ivory and anything on it can end up on the floor (or chewed).  Remember its all about HER!

Now I am not picking on Ivory just stating the facts.  We have Sarge (Yellow napped Amazon parrot) and Lucky (Red tailed African Gray).  They will sit on their Perch in the living room and will be well behaved.  Ivory, on the other hand will climb down from her perch and run around the room or the house at will if she gets the chance.  Ivory is the exceptional child who is into everything.

When you have Parrots, each parrot has its own personality.  But all parrots have many of the same common traits. Chewing, Loud Voice and they can make a mess in any room. When Ivory is upset, she will shred paper or any other item she can get her beak and claws on. We will give her paper to shred when there are people in the house who she does not know or when we are traveling in the car.  She will grab food out of her dish and throw it out of her cage.  Ivory has learned a lot of ways to get our attention when she is upset or wants to be taken out of her cage.

Ivory will be quiet most of the day but after we are both home (morning or evening), she will scream when she can not see one of us. This screaming can go on for 1 to 30 minutes depending on her mood or until she can see both of us.  Ivory needs LOTS of ATTENTION EVERY DAY!  We are talking about 3 to 6 hours a day. She is getting better.  When we are out of the house, she will settle down after a few minutes.  But we keep the TV on or play music until we return home.  Keep in mind, we have other Large Birds in the house and she does call out to them and they do return the calls.  At feeding time…. All the birds are Loud !!!!

So, if you can not handle a child who is 2 to 3 years of age and can live for 50 or more years; do not get a large parrot.  Let me say that 99.9% of the People who want Cockatoos, Macaws and other large parrots should not buy them or keep them.  So many are not taken care of properly and end up in parrot shelters or worse.  Some end up very sick, with behavioral issues and/or damage to their bodies (Ivory).  I would guess a lot of large parrots die from neglect, abuse and by people who do not know how to care for them.

To give you an idea of Ivory’s needs, she has a cage in our living room that is 30x30x60” inside dimensions (38x38x70” outside). It may be a bit small, but she can flap her wings in her cage and climb.  When we are home Ivory does spend a lot of time out of her cage (house) with us. 

If you do not like loud noises, do not get large parrot or most of the medium sized parrots.  In the wild (jungle/forest) most large parrots can be heard at a 5 mile distance.  In your home it can be painful to your ears.  It can be heard thru walls and windows.  Most parrots get loud in the morning and evening each and every day.  Think about the people who live near you if you live in a condo, town house or apartment.

Ivory has moments when we are not sure if we should keep her but in a few minutes she is her normal loveable self and we know we can not live without her.  She belongs here with us.  We are 100% certain of that.  I can say that some people will not visit us now that we have a few parrots, we understand, we do not like it but we understand. 

Mark & Dennis Ivory's men.

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