Sulpher crested cocky

[cassowary]

Hey guys
Just joined the forum!!'
Hoping I can get some help from experienced cocky owners. My partner and I recently bought a sulpher crested cocky from a woman who had no time to tame or train him. Beautiful male named major he is 18 months from what she told us and he always hisses when I go near him and ruffles his head feathers. We have only had him a few days but I guess my real question is at his age how hard is it to tame him to be able to touch him and even teach to talk?

Any help or tips on this would be great. I'll upload a photo of him later so you can see a photo he really is gorgeous!!!

Thankyou
Cass

[Robyn]

Hi Cass, do you have any back ground on Major. Example was he hand reared, aviary bred or wild caught. Having some history on him would be easier.

From what your saying he wasn't H/R at all. So you just need to take one day at a time, talk to him & once he gets used to you being around & he starts to trust you, then you can start to work with him.

www.goodbirdinc.com/parrot-behavior-problems.html

Have a look at the link it may give you some ideas.

[cassowary]

Yeah I'm not sure she had only got him 6 months previous to our taking him. So you think he is still trainable?? I've been told that he is to old but I don't want to lose hope on him, I figure with a bird that will probably outlive me there's a lifetime of training left.
Also what do you think the benefit of having another bird in the cage with him ad a companion? I've been told it's a good idea and a baby one to hand rear would be a good option, any suggestions?

[twr]

Sept 9, 2011 23:10:59 GMT 10 cassowary said:

Yeah I'm not sure she had only got him 6 months previous to our taking him. So you think he is still trainable?? I've been told that he is to old but I don't want to lose hope on him, I figure with a bird that will probably outlive me there's a lifetime of training left.
Also what do you think the benefit of having another bird in the cage with him ad a companion? I've been told it's a good idea and a baby one to hand rear would be a good option, any suggestions?

Welcome to the forum. Glad you found us. I don't have a cockatoo, but IMO, I would work towards having a relationship with Major BEFORE considering another addition and pls don't get a new cockie and house them in the same cage. Until two birds know each other well, over a long period of time, you shouldn't trust them alone unsupervised. If aggression happens the victim bird has no way to escape it's attacker and if you are not in the room to intervene quickly, well, it may not be pretty.

I don't think it's too late at all, but it does take longer so time and patience will be the key. Just take everything slow, everything goes at the bird's pace (not the human's pace).

Have a good look at the info in the link Robyn gave you. Barbara Heidenreich knows her stuff. I have Her books "Good Bird" and "Parrot Problem Solver". Really helpful books, which you can buy via link Robyn provided.

Some more good sites that may help:

Jim McKendry's website
www.pbec.com.au/

Dr Susan Friedman
www.behaviorworks.org/
I'm on the wait list to do her caregivers course.
URL]

Her Facebook page
www.facebook.com/pages/Good-Bird-Inc-Barbara-Heidenreich/301503446973

Her website
www.goodbirdinc.com/index.html

Nice article on clicker training is at:-
www.parrot.ir/en/clicker-training-as-a-tool-to-help-manage-aggressive-parrots/

Clicker Training Fun Kit - Birds
www.parrotrescuecentre.com/ubg/shop_prod.php?cat=20

HTH

[Robyn]

Sept 9, 2011 23:10:59 GMT 10 cassowary said:

Yeah I'm not sure she had only got him 6 months previous to our taking him. So you think he is still trainable?? I've been told that he is to old but I don't want to lose hope on him, I figure with a bird that will probably outlive me there's a lifetime of training left.
Also what do you think the benefit of having another bird in the cage with him ad a companion? I've been told it's a good idea and a baby one to hand rear would be a good option, any suggestions?

Yes he would be trainable. When i adopted my SC Too he had been hand reared & his carer of 6 years was a young guy. So Cocky took a good 6 months for him to be comfortable with me. 5 years on we are still working on that complete trust. I am almost there with him & to be honest it's been very easy. I just have to take things slow.

I see Robyn has posted a heap of links. These can be of great help but are usually only helpful if you already have a problem or they are a good guide to help you NOT get in the position of having a bird behave badly. Training a aviary or wild bird takes a lot of trust building but as you have said you have a lot of time.

The benefits of having another bird (Not the same species) will help IMO but never in the same cage. No i don't agree that you get a baby to hand rear yourself, I suggest you get a young bird weaned. If you are considering another parrot you must have another cage for it. My reason for this is that another tame bird will show Major that it can be fun to hang out with a human & see it's not to get hurt. It really does work. I do know this from experience. But you must use commonsense at all times especially when you have both birds out at the same time.

I would for starters take every opportunity to sit by Majors cage, talk to him, offer him treats. You may have to do this everyday for months for him to even take a treat from you. The most important is to never rush him. Watch his body language & back off if he looks uncomfortable. Trust me you don't want to get bitten by one of these birds.

[cassowary]

Yeah I read up on some body language sites and one of them wAs the tail fanning means he is aggressive and angry and may bite which is sad cause I'm the only one he does it to. He already seems unphased by my partner but he seems to really dislike me which I think may come from the woman owner who had him last. Is there any different things I will need to do to get him to like me or is it simply just time? It makes me sad that he already seems to have a better bond with my partner before me I tried doing the things he'd been doing like cleaning the cage out but nothing has changed. I always feed him and talk to him but all attempts are followed by a hiss and peck in my direction even wing expansion at me haha. Am I maybe trying to hard and he can sense it

[twr]

I didn't really have any specific problem. Just a nearly 6 year old sun conure that loved playing with his toys, didn't mind taking treats from my hand through the cage bars, but otherwise did not want to interact with me or the other birds. He knew how to step up, but wouldn't do it. He showed his dislike of my other birds and kept to himself. I was sitting near him daily, talking or singing (badly), giving him treats through the bars, leaving his cage door open, letting him watch me interact with my other bird, but we were making no progress whatsoever in just over 4 months. He appeared to be happy and I figured I just had a bird who did not care for company and I almost left it at that.

Those links were really very helpful to me and I really believe that in my case, they made the difference. In slow steps, using clicker training and now reserving his fav treat only for positive reinforcement with the clicker, I got him to come out of his cage and onto his play stand. Then I got him to ever so slowly take steps towards my hand for the treat, slowly increasing the distance he had to come. Eventually we did step ups, but I put him straight back down each time, to show him that stepping up didn't result in the mean human taking him away from his comfort zone. Then at the 6 month point, after we'd finished our daily step up training, I was sitting opposite him on the lounge, when he chose to fly to me.

I now have a sun conure who is my Velcro bird, who sadly still dislikes other birds. Same species may have worked out differently. I am cautious about bringing in another bird, because of how adopting Tinga impacted on the dynamics in my bird room. Even same species doesn't guarantee a positive result, as I found out when I babysat a friend's lorikeet. My usually very sweet lorikeet would have killed me, if that meant he got to kill the intruder. But 3-4 months ago, he immediately accepted the friendship of my son's lorikeet when I adopted Cheeky. Why did he hate one and love another. I don't know, but thank goodness it worked out with Cheeky. Because Tinga still hates the lorikeets, it has made out of cage time difficult. To interact with them, he must be caged. I'd like to adopt a same species friend for Tinga, but don't want to be stuck with a bad situation if it proves true that Tinga does not like other birds. I have an arrangement with the NSW co-ordinator of The Parrot Rescue Centre to foster the next sun conure she gets and, if it works out, I adopt it. If not, I foster it until an alternative home is found.

So that's my story and I hope it explains why I'm a fan of reading up on techniques from the bird behaviorists, reading their books, using the clicker and being cautious about bringing in new birds.

[Robyn]

Cass read through this link it will give you more understanding & why you Too is acting the way he is. You will have to Google this site but well worth the read.

companionparrotonline.com/Cockatoo_12.html

Cass i do think your trying to hard & another thing you may not feel to comfortable with him at the moment. Because you don't know to much about Majors history you more or less have to start from scratch.

When i first got Cocky i was terrified of him & he of me. He would just flap around the cage every time i fed him. Finally i realized his previous owner didn't wear glasses & once i removed my glasses he was OK with me feeding him. I would let him see me putting them on again & that really was what all his stress was about. Once we gained each others trust it was so much easier. Like i have already said I have had him for 5 years now & we are still moving forward. I would never underestimate him although he has never bitten me he has nipped my hubby a couple of times.