Jaws The Remake, with Birds!

Trouble has been living up to her name the last few days. She is determined to rid "Her" house of Scarlet and it has gotten worse since she "got her" yesterday.

First, I should explain the main differences between the mindset of the two dogs. Gunnar has only known two worlds. The world of his mother, milk, and his siblings. At about 12 weeks, he started to learn the world of "me". He's my buddy and is glued to my hip all day, every day. He looks to me for his direction in life and is content and happy.

Scarlet, on the other hand, was about a year old when we got her from the Humane Society. She is constantly savaging for food. It doesn't matter how much she eats. She is always looking for more. She shakes violently at loud noises. Noises that would give most dogs a moment of pause before they  go on with what they were doing will cause her to shake and zip to the closest thing she can crawl under. This is usually my desk. Or, if I just happen to be walking by, my feet . In a toy dog this is not that big of a deal, safety-wise. But, when a 50 lbs animal dashes under your feet or through your legs, it tends to be more like a bowling ball versus pins. Not so good when you have some balance issues already.

Ever since we brought Trouble home, 5 years ago, I have been trying to teach Scarlet that, if Trouble was out on the stand, scavenging around it was a really bad idea. Trouble got ahold of the tip of her tail the first week she was here. That "cured" Scarlet for a good 3 months, but after that she was right back at it and Trouble has been stalking her ever since.

At first, there was some amusement that I was very good at not showing. (No smiles/giggles/laughs etc) I corrected behaviors as I caught them. I always told Trouble no and shooed Scarlet to a safe distance. It was like watching "Jaws" upside down. The "shark" stalked it's prey from above, while the unwitting "swimmer/boater/water skier" just wandered about willy-nilly doing their thing until some random cellist begins playing ominous music.

I swear the music was blaring yesterday as Trouble flipped herself upside down faster then a blink and laid one right in the center of Scarlet's back. Scarlet could not have been any more oblivious in that moment. It's not like she doesn't know this bird is out to get her. Every time she gets close Trouble barks at her. It's also not like this is the first time she's been bitten. Trouble lures her close just to bite her! The bird purposely tosses food to the floor at varying distances to bring the dog in close. Gunnar, the resident bone head caught on to this trick with out getting bit once. How does the "smarter" of the two fall for it ever darn time?

I am starting to think the only one with half a brain is Gunnar. Don't get me wrong. Trouble is one smart Cockatoo, but I don't know if I should categorize this thing with the dog as bravery or stupidity. The dog can kill her with out trying, but she is as brazen as can be and seems to get some sort of perverse thrill at chasing Scarlet around the house.

This is the main reason you can never, under any circumstances leave a loose bird alone in a room with other animals. While, I think that Scarlet will always choose to flee when Trouble confronts her, if she were ever to become cornered I have no doubt that she would fight her way to freedom, and that would not end well for either of them.

Calm...for now.

These past few weeks have been a nightmare. I will spare you all the details of the boring home stuff and instead tell you the catalyst that started it all.

First I must say, I picked an appropriate name for my Cockatoo. Trouble is just that, and like all Tooies if she sees an escape she takes it, and fast.

Trouble's cage is on the back porch. I hate this, but I have little choice in the matter. If she spends more then a few hours indoors she starts to pluck, and she will pluck substantial a bald spot on her chest in about 15 mins. So she stays outside in the Florida heat most of the time and loves it.

The problem comes with the fact that as much as she loves the outside weather, she also loves me and I can't be in the heat for long. So I make micro trips out to talk to her and give her some head scratching through out the day.

Now, unless I move into her cage with her on a permanent basis, no scratching, touching, or talking is enough. Trouble being a typical Too is a Velcro bird. So, when John, in a rush, forgot to close one of her food dish doors, Trouble took advantage and had herself an adventure that lasted from Saturday morning to Monday evening.

Her first thought was to try and get to me. This was evident by the feathers at my back door. She more then likely tried to wait me out when something spooked her and she jumped flapped her wings and got just enough lift to make her work for it.

And work for it she did. When I went out to talk to her and found her cage empty I freaked. I hunted everywhere. Calling her, trying to keep my voice steady so I didn't start to cry. (it didn't work) I was still hunting when John came home. He joined in and a few hours later we heard her calling us...from a tree...in our front yard.

It couldn't be an easy tree either. It was the tallest and bushiest. So much so that though we could hear her, we could not see her at all. There was nothing we could do. John Sat on the roof until dusk set in trying to get her to come down to him, nothing worked.

We barely slept. In the morning I still could not see up into the tree and all day I never heard her call. I resigned myself for the inevitable, she was gone and I would never find her. John didn't give up though, and because he has always been the "finder" of the house he of course found Trouble. In a tree. Four houses away.

Over the next 2 days I sat on the side of the road where she could see me, with a bowl of food and a book. I called up to her and she'd get all happy and dance. I'd shake her food dish and she'd flip upside down and look at me. I could tell what she was thinking. "Come on Momma, climb up here and feed me!" That of course would defeat the purpose.

Monday evening she lost her balance for a moment and fell of her branch. She flew out and back into the same tree but this time was significantly lower. My loving and awesome husband, who is afraid of heights, Borrowed a ladder and climbed up the tree to a lower branch. She still would not come, until I was able to pass him the food dish. He shook it once and she ran to him like her tail was on fire.

John was able to grab her and while she tried to separate his fingers from his hands he managed, with some trepidation, to get down the ladder and put her in her travel cage.

I have the most awesome husband in the world. =D

I checked Trouble out after we got home. She lost a lot of weight so I kept her inside for 6 days to watch her food intake. She gained quickly and ate well so now she is happy back in her cage with freshly clipped wings. (I really hate doing that)



Trouble stuck in an inside cage where she was being spoiled rotten. She barely spent anytime in there at all.

"Drat! Foiled again!"

Fab Friday Videos

Cockatoos are known in the bird world as "Velcro Birds", this is mainly because they are so highly social in the wild. So when you Take a highly social bird out of the wild and lock them up in your house with only you for company, they become a bit obsessed with you.

Trouble is no exception. In fact unlike most birds who live their lives through their beaks, tasting and chewing everything in sight, Trouble lives life through the top of her head. All she wants is for someone to scratch her head. It is a social preening behavior that enforces a tighter bond threw birds, and she just wants it all-the-time.

In fact, if she could be scratched 24/7 she would be in Too heaven.



As you can see in the video, Trouble approaches everything with her head down asking for scratches. I was actually surprised that she came to the camera like that since she is usually weary of new things, but not this week. This week all she cared about was getting me to touch her. :D

Movie Night

Last night was movie night. We try to have at least one a week where we just settle down in the living room together and throw one DVD after another in until we're done. Trouble is an excellent addition to movie night. For one, she doesn't really talk, she mumbles and whispers very softly.

"Are you sure you want to watch this Momma?"

Also she is a snuggle butt so she is perfect for watching scary movies with.

"No! No! NO! Don't go in THERE!"

And to top it all off, she -LOVES- popcorn. So she is the perfect companion for movie night, and just about any other night too. ;)

Cockatoo Quality Control

Here it is, as promised. ;) Trouble "testing" the blocks I dyed for Mondays DIY project. If you watch her, you will notice she is leery of the paper towel and doesn't want to step on it. She is like that most of the time, she has trust issues with paper like objects at foot level. I have no clue why, but she does.





Have a great weekend everyone, I'll see you on Monday!

It gets Loud in here.

I have talked before about how Cockatoos can be loud before, but they are not the only ones.

”Whose loud? Not me.”

There are quite a few species in my flock, and all of them have their moments. It can get loud here, especially at dawn and dusk when everyone has to say hello/goodbye to the sun. There is really no sure fire way of combating the noise, but there are some things that can be done to tame it down a bit.

Since my Too had the capability of being the biggest problem in the flock I'll talk about her. When she was a baby she hardly made any noise. I showered her with affection, letting her roam around as long as I could keep an eye on her. She was a serious cuddle muffin so she was always close to or on me.

When Trouble screamed for the first time she scared me out of my skin. She was so loud that it actually echoed through my house. It was at that moment that I knew I was going to have to do something to train her to be quiet before this became a regular occurrence.

Trouble was actually relatively easy to train because all she wanted in the world was to be with me. If she got loud, I would put her in her cage and walk away. Sometimes I had to go to my bedroom and close the door because she would scream continuously, trying to get me to come back.

This went on for about a month or two. She would scream, get put in the cage where she would scream some more. When she calmed down she would come back out again. Slowly over time, the time she was in the cage due to being loud was shortening. Her vocal tantrums became shorter and shorter, to the point that now she only lets out a protest scream if she feels ignored. These don't happen often, but when they do I do not react to it. I ignore the outburst and only give her attention when she is being quiet. So far this has worked beautifully and my eardrums are thankful.

I have found this technique works better for younger birds. I am still trying to make this work with Duke, but he has this alarm clock noise down to a science and does not seem put off when I ignore him. He is rather indifferent to my presence and that is putting a cramp in his training. So I may have to find something else to try and see if that works.

Have any of you had to train your parrot from doing something? What have you tried? What worked and what didn't? Let me know in the comments.

Bird Inspector

As I was prepping for this weeks DIY post, I had some unexpected "help" from Trouble.

Block inspector #12 arrives to approve the latest DIY project.

Trouble loves to get into things, hence her name. She loves to chip blocks into kindling and rip apart just about anything so we really have to watch her when she is loose.

"I'll just keep this one here, you may use the rest."

When I got her I was told that owning a Too would be like having a two year old child for the rest of my life. They were wrong, Two year olds are not as smart as she is. I have yet to have a two year old figure out how to unlock their cage door and liberate their friends.

I took some video of the DIY cuteness and will post it on Friday for all to see.

Velcro Bird

Cockatoos, also referred to as Toos or Tooies, are what many bird owners refer to as Velcro birds. This is because a Too, once bonded lives for its human. It will want to be on you to snuggle, preen, play with, eat with. You get the point. These birds are lovers to the Nth degree. Because of this they don't like to be left alone and have no understanding to why you don't want to be with them 24/7.

I don't work much outside the house normally. In 2008 I had a part time job in a friends bird store, less then 12 hrs a week so I was still at home 90% of my day. So I thought a Too would be an awesome addition to my flock. And well, when she was just a baby, I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her. I really didn't think much past.. “Ohhhhhh! I wuv her, must have..Must HAVE!” These are the pitfalls of working in a bird store.

Toos are not known for their talking ability. Though, as my searches via YouTube can confirm, some actually talk quite well. Trouble, my aptly named Too, is a mumbler. She is 3 years old now, and has been with me for all but 2 months of her life. She barks at the dogs when they go out side, running along the bottom of her cage woofing at them like she is part of the pack. She makes kissy noises to get me to scratch her. She mumbles, “I love you” and “Hello, Echo.” The latter she picked up because Echo loves to talk to her and that is one of his favorite phrases.

Scratch me!

Trouble is a beautiful Lesser Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo. She requires A LOT of attention, because, she is a typical Too and loves me and needs me and gets very upset if she doesn't see me at all times during the day. This can be a bone of contention sometimes, because she screams really, really loudly. I mentioned before that a Cockatoo's call carries for at least two miles, well I know this from experience. It also reverberates through a house like a train whistle, if that train was parked in your living room and the conductor laid on that whistle like his life depended on it. It's a joy, I tell you.

A note to any future Too owners out there. Baby Toos don't scream. They coo and cuddle and tickle that part of your brain that goes “Awwww” when you see cute kittens on the internet. They trigger that mothering instinct. They cuddle and love and devote their little feathery lives to you faster then you can blink. They are awesome birds, beautiful and graceful. And then between 6 months to a year, when they have you wrapped around their little toe, you walk out of the room and this shriek pierces your brain like a dagger. You are left holding your now bleeding ears wondering who put the bomb siren in your head, and wondering how that sweet little bird made a noise that gosh darn loud.