Exasperating Cockatoos!

Why do these gorgeous, comical, crafty, cockatoo pets give their owners unexplainable feelings in the bottom of the stomach?

Some while ago a long-time parrot keeper acquaintance of mine wrote this suggestion on her “Birdkeeping Naturally” article series renewal form, “I would like to hear about your experiences with cockatoos, especially umbrellas. I have the ‘Umbrella from Hell,’ living at my house.”

Now it has been ages since I last wrote about white cockatoos. As I recall even that article was concerning the recurrent hobbyist stance not to breed any more of them into the captive parrot world, since so many large cockies seem to end up in adoption programs. Nevertheless, for those tried and bewildered owners who find themselves in the possession of a bird which occasionally shows traits like that of the knowledgeable lady above, I will take a stab toward some slight illumination of this enigmatic Cacatua genus as parrot pets. Here, we are basically talking about the white ‘toos. Though there are of course many similarities, the pink and black species behave somewhat different as pets.

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