TheTameParrot.com – Let's Try To Solve Your Parrot Problems

If you are looking for a pet bird, check out Cockatoo rescue shelters. These organizations are dedicated to trying to find homes for unwanted birds.

These shelters accept birds from people for many reasons. Most often they just don’t understand how to handle these types of birds. They are quite intelligent and very demanding. Unless the owner understands their mentality, they can easily become spoiled or aggressive.

When we ran our aviary, we were asked many times to take in these birds. There are not a lot of Cockatoo rescue shelters in our state, but we never turn down a bird needing a home. Their background and stories are always interesting.

In one case, we took in an Umbrella Cockatoo named Abby. This bird started out being sold to an elderly women who never had a bird before. After two years, she simply could not handle the birds constant screeching and aggressiveness. She turned the bird over to one of the larger pet stores to find a new home.

Unfortunately, many pet stores are not in the business of doing Cockatoo rescues. They are in the business of making money. Therefore, they sold Abby to the first customer who showed interest in this bird…for $1100.

After this person got home, he realized the mistake he had made. Within hours the bird became quite aggressive. Then the man walked past the case, and Abby jumped on his back and bit him very hard. The man had a couple of children, and having an aggressive bird in the house certainly was not what he intended to do. The pet store would not refund his money (but would take the bird back for nothing so they could “adopt” him out again). He was about to just let the bird fly away, but his vet convinced him to turn him over to us.

What in interesting day that was. While my wife was in the kitchen, Abby jumped off the cage, stomped into the kitchen with a loud screech, wings spread out and beak wide open…and charged at her. He hit her shoe with her beak, looked up and waited for the predictable show of utter fear from my wife. Nothing! She just stood there!

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We had already figured out Abby’s game. He wanted to show who was the boss…but my wife wasn’t going to have anything to do with that game. As time went by, the bird calmed down and became very friendly. We adopted it out to another family and Abby has been a success story! He found a new home with people who understood him.

Lesson learned…if you are trying to locate a Cockatoo rescue shelter, look for someone who is actually going to work with the bird, and not looking for a quick profit. Many Cockatoo rescue shelters are nothing more then breeders looking for animals to mate up and earn a profit from the babies. They don’t “sell” the birds but may ask for a donation to help continue their work with animals. Look for groups that are listed as a 501c3 organization (and can prove it). If they are not listed as a non-profit group, take extra care to look at their credentials, check out references, and look at their bird housing.

If you would like a list of recommended Cockatoo Rescue Shelters, check out the NetPets organization, which keeps a list of national rescue groups at http://www.netpets.com/birds/birdresc/birdgrp.html.

[tags]cockatoo rescue shelters, cockatoo bird, parrot rescue, parrot rescue centres, parrot adoption[/tags]