Toying with an idea of owning a pet but don’t know which one?

You must be keen to get some specialist advice in selecting a life-long companion.
Have you considered cockatoos?

“Why should my pet be my lifelong companion?” you may wonder. Pet owners know how strongly they get attached to their new-found pets, within a short time. If their pet dies within a few years, they get into serious mental depression, for a long time. In fact, the lives of many people undergo a drastic change when they lose their dear pet. So, if you want to have a pet, you should think of it as a permanent part of your family.

Cockatoos have the longest life span of any pet and you can reasonably expect them to be with you for the rest of your life. The average lifespan of a cockatoo is between 40 and 60 years. However, there have been reports of some of them living over 100 years!

Any companion you are going to share the next 30 or 40 years of your life had better be the right choice. And if this companion is to be a cockatoo, there are several factors to consider.

As a prospective owner-to-be, you must be curious to find out all the important ‘must know’ information on cockatoos.

All About Selection

Unlike other pets, in cockatoos you can find a pet who can talk a little. Some species are less talkative than others. And if you’re looking for a talkative companion, then you should prefer male cockatoos to females.

As intelligent as they are, cockatoos are generally good at performing tricks. But not all are equally skillful. Though, if you train them, they can master the tricks quite well.

Some cockatoo species are noisier than others. For example Roseate or Galah Cockatoos are quiet, whereas White Cockatoos are not. So, if you’re looking for a quiet companion, you should choose the smaller cousins as the larger birds can be very noisy and destructive.

The other important parameters that would help you to make the right choice are color, emotional and physical health.

Most cockatoos are white in color. But you also have the grays, pinks, blacks, and even deep blues among them.

A background check is critical. It is important that you get your bird from a reliable source. The bird should be young and should have been hand-raised. Young hand-raised birds are totally in sync with human company and more amenable to training. Such birds are healthy emotionally.

Next check the bird’s physical health. You can spot the bird from its eyes to tell if it’s an active specimen or not. See if the eyes are clear and bright and there should be no lumps on the eye ring. The nasal vents should be clear and open. Some of the cockatoos have spectacular crests. Their bills are large, curved and pointed and are used to crack nuts.

Scrutinize the bird’s legs and feet. The legs should be smooth scaled and of equal girth. Its feet should have two toes projecting to the front and two to the rear and both feet should have the same temperature.

Don’t miss the wings. Make sure they are held close to the body and the feathers are smooth and clean. Look out for any signs of drooping of the feathers.

Test the bird’s breathing. It should be smooth and even.

Inquire whether the bird has regular feeding and litter habits. And its droppings should not be runny. Generally, the color of the droppings of a healthy bird is dark green mixed with white matter.

Finally, make sure that the bird is of the correct size and weight for its age.

All these information should give you a clear picture as what you have to look out for while choosing your new pal.

The above is an excerpt from the free newsletter on “All About Cockatoos” published by Geostar Publishing & Services LLC.

To subscribe to the newsletter, click on the link below:

http://www.all-about-cockatoos.com

Here’s to a happier pet-owing experience!

Jessica Harrison
Geostar Publishing & Services LLC
6423, Woodbine Court,
St. Louis, Missouri,
63109, USA

http://www.all-about-cockatoos.com
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Jessica Harrison is the author of the best selling eBook “All About Cockatoos” published by Geostar Publishing & Services LLC.

Let’s say you have a cockatoo. You bought him after months of careful planning and research, already weaned, and from a reputable source. You did everything you thought you needed to do to raise him properly. He’s a pretty good bird. A bit noisy, a bit needy, but not too bad considering all the horror stories you’ve heard. But when he does act up, you get worried. You’re afraid you’re going to end up one of those people you swore you would never be: Someone with a difficult cockatoo. Should you really worry? Should you start looking for a new home for your cockatoo because he’s going to become a monster?

Cockatoos tend to be more intense than some other parrots, and people who can’t handle that aren’t likely to keep a cockatoo for long. There are lots of perfectly normal cockatoos out there just doing cockatoo things, and it’s the people who have the problem. These families give up because they had no chance to begin with. For other families, everything is fine for quite some time, years maybe, but one day it seems like the dam breaks and all the naughtiness the bird had pent up inside comes pouring out. The owners figure there’s no hope. They’ve been told it may happen, and it did. But it’s possible what really happened is that the cockatoo is the victim of a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you fear the worst, that’s often what you see.

Since good information about parrots is relatively accessible these days, most of us realize that cockatoos are one of the more difficult parrots to have. These birds can be extremely demanding, requiring a commitment to proper socialization and training that goes far beyond the baby parrot stage. But are cockatoos doomed to be naughtier than other birds? I don’t think so. Cockatoos are very smart, and their “smartness” may be what gets them labeled as bad, when what they really are is just trying to adapt to a world that’s confusing to them. The bird does what he thinks he needs to do–bites, screams, pluck his feathers, chases everyone’s feet–and we decide he’s bad. His behavior may be bad, but is he actually bad? Probably not. Out-of-control, maybe. But the situation certainly isn’t hopeless.

It’s easy to have an out-of-control cockatoo. Here’s how: Hold and cuddle the bird as much as possible when he’s young, preferably hand feeding and weaning him yourself even though you don’t know what you’re doing, allow your cockatoo to come and go from his cage whenever he wants, let him play on the floor and climb onto whatever furniture he wants, keep him up until the wee hours of the night, and just to be on the safe side, yell at him or shut him away when he’s the least bit noisy. Do all or even just some of these things, and you’re well on your way to creating a monster.

Sarcasm aside, cockatoo monsters are mostly made, not born. If you have, in fact, raised your cockatoo correctly by doing pretty much the opposite of what I just described, then if and when you have trouble, you’re probably not really dealing with a monster. Your bird might be having a rough day, or a rough couple of weeks. What you think is a mountain is just a molehill. But you get tense about it, your bird reacts accordingly, and soon everyone’s pants are in a bunch. Most likely, with a little extra structure and training, this temporary bump in the road will smooth out and everyone will feel a lot better. Pants will no longer be bunched.

Your relationship with your cockatoo is just like any other relationship. There are ups and downs, but you don’t have to toss it just because it gets difficult once in a while. You’ve done all the right things–struck a balance between providing attention and encouraging independence, set rules and limits, structured the environment to include proper exercise and sleep, and focused on reinforcing good behavior rather than reacting to bad behavior–so cut yourself, and your cockatoo, some slack. Don’t fear the worst because it probably isn’t. Check out our Cockatoo site for more info.

This article was co-authored by Chet Womach and Kim Bear. Kim Bear is a parrot behavioral specialist who has been providing help to Cockatoo owners for many years!

There are 21 known species of Cockatoos. Cockatoos belong the Cacatuidae bird family and are not considered a parrot. The geographic range of the Cockatoo species, as a whole, stretches north and south from Australia (their native habitat) to the Philippines and east and west from Singapore to Papua New Guinea.

Overall the Cockatoos are larger, on average, then a parrot. At 22-24 inches long the Palm Cockatoo is the largest bird in the entire Cockatoo family. The smallest of all Cockatoos is the Cockatiel at only 8-12 inches long.

A Cockatiel needs only a small cage while a palm Cockatoo needs a medium to large cage. However, the size of a cage is not just based on the bird size but also on the amount of birds in a single cage. Cockatoos drink lots of water and need light to find there food because they are diurnal.

Cockatoos are one of the longest living non-primate or reptilian species know to man, with a life span averaging 60-80 years for larger birds. Smaller birds like Cockatiels have much shorter life spans at only about 20 years, however 36 years is the recorded maximum.

Like Macaws, Cockatoos are better at squawking then talking and require a lot of attention. If you like the peaceful sound of chirping birds then a Cockatoo it not the right pet for you; you might want to try a Finch. Cockatoos like music of all kinds and some have the capability of beat indication.

Hand raised Cockatoos cost about $600-$2000 USD. A hand raised Cockatoo is better versus one at a pet store and is usually cheaper. Buying a Cockatoo from a breeder that has hand raised their birds helps to destroy the black market for the Cockatoo trade. Just like any other pet you should always take all their needs into consideration before buying. ~Anthony Benjamin~

Anthony Benjamin, an avid writer, world traveler and a great lover of nature. He shares his adventures with his readers via his writings and via his hobby of building websites such as this one: http://www.appalachian-treasures.com

For more information on this featured article topic Anthony Benjamin would like to invite you to visit this website: http://lovingparrots.com/