After one year, I was finally able to get my sister to give me her Umbrella Cockatoo. Now, this bird was kept covered in his cage all the time, as she told us "he's to needy, and screams all the time." The reason for his screaming was simple - he was hungry! This bird weighs 538 grams, when he should weigh over 1,000 grams. I had to spoon feed him oatmeal the first week (per his vet)twice a day. Now he is re-learning to eat regular foods. His schedule is: breakfast 8:30 am, toast w/ butter, cherry preserves and a fried egg; lunch 11:30 -12:30 pm; Grilled Cheese sandwich - just started adding ham. Dinner is whatever we are having. Slow going but he does eat, and no longer screams (unless he is hungry or he sees us cooking). When he does scream for food, we say "you want a cracker?" we want him to associate that with food. So far it seems to be working. He's doing good and starting to put on weight - yes he does get fruits, vegetables and seeds. Although he gives most of it to the dogs. I realize that it will take a lot of time and effort to get him healthy again -I knew that beforehand.

This bird is handfed. My sister got him as soon as he was available, once home she stopped all food but seeds (she said that when birds eat people food, their dropping stink and she wasn't having it). He is no longer kept locked in his cage, the door is opened in the morning and remains that way until bedtime. I replaced the perches with tree limbs,(he goes through 2-3 per week)took over an hour of putting him on the limb, before he figured out that it wasn't going to hurt him. He has tons of different toys and even has a stuffed animal that he likes to play with. It belonged to my dogs and while in my bedroom; he found it and started playing with it. He is only allowed to play with that while supervised. It doesn't have any removable parts, but I don't want to have to pick up stuffing.

Now for the problem - He thinks that he is supposed to bite. I had him tonight; giving him steak to eat, he bobbed his head up and down, his crest went up, head came back down and he bit me. He can be on your lap, and you don't need to be touching him and next thing you know, he is biting you. Every time he does this, he says "I love you" after the fact. I have tried telling him "no bite" "No-No", pushed my finger into his mouth, grabbed his top beak and told him "no bite." Tonight he got on my mother's lap,(he climbs off his cage)he wasn't there for 5 minutes and he bit her leg. She told him no bite, and immediately put him in his cage. We figured we would try the reward system: bad- cage, good- out. Well that back fired, he screamed for almost an hour- I couldn't take him out of the cage, for I don't want him to associate screaming with being let out. So he had to stay there and scream until my mother told him nite- nite. Once he stopped screaming I took him out of the cage for about 10 minutes. Just long enough for him to know that nobody was holding any grudges. I don't think that by the time I got him out of the cage, that he knew why he had been locked up - it had been to long. I'm trying to set boundaries - trying to make him realize that we are the head of the flock - not him. But with all that my sister put him through; I'm baffled at what to try next. Water bottle, will not work - my sister shot him with water so many times - that it's a form of abuse to him. The only way we can get him to bathe is by taking him into the shower, and putting him under the water -and he really doesn't like that. He was biting at first, but has calmed down a lot and tolerates it.
Oh yes - I used to work with a vet and I have owned birds for over 30 years. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.