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The Red Cockatoo

Sent as a present from Annam - A Red Cockatoo -

Coloured like the peach-tree blossom,

Speaking with the speech of men

And they did to it what is always done -

To the learned and eloquent -

They took a cage with stout bars

And shut it up inside

by PO-CHU-I ©

Firstly, cockatoos which are Appendix 1* species should not be pets.

There is not any justifiable arguement against this.

The following article is the original article of this name, it has been noted that a copied version of this article is currently available on another web site. (Que Sera, Sera). This article was first published on our original web site in 1999, an updated version is printed in the UK Parrot Society Magazine July 2001, (and it is copyrighted). 

There is great interest in this subject at present. Much has been written by the experienced and even more written by the not so experienced. Some by individuals who have never kept cockatoos, other than maybe one or two 'rescued' pets.

Yet it is these same people who claim to be experts and/or behaviourists. For any article on this subject to have depth, you need to have experience of both pet and aviary cockatoos, large and small, tame and not so tame, male and female, young and old. It is impossible to generalise with only the limited experience of one or two 'problem' cockatoos.

Well - should they?

Firstly, cockatoos which are Appendix 1* species should not be pets,

We do not in general (UK) keep Hyacinthine Macaws, Vinaceous Amazons or any other Appendix 1 birds as pets, so why do we do it with the cockatoos?

Unfortunately the Moluccan seems to have fallen into the trap. This could** be the fault of the breeder. Hand reared cockatoos, particularly males do not generally make good breeding birds or parents. You need to go right back to the beginning of the problem

.

Most Moluccans are these days hand reared. Breeders invariably state that the adult birds will either not incubate the eggs properly, or if they do, when they hatch out the chick they either do not feed it properly or kill it after a few days. 

Therefore the young Moluccans either as eggs, or very young chicks, are taken from the nest for hand rearing. So starts the cycle. The fact is that if breeders left the parent birds with the eggs and/or chicks to give them a chance, they might find that they did indeed rear their own young.

Many breeders do not give their birds a chance, but the first time they lay, the eggs or chicks are pulled. No wonder some adult birds then have problems rearing their young, they are mentally traumatised. The adult birds should at least be given the chance to rear their own, even if this means losing the first chick(s).

The main problem is at present most of the adult birds around will themselves have been hand reared. There is a shortage of parent reared cockatoos.

Luckily cockatoos in general, only produce one or two chicks at a time. Otherwise the market would be even more flooded than it already is, if say the clutch size was four or five (as with the Roseate). However this could be their downfall in their natural habitat.

Of course if the adult birds are given the chance to rear, and break eggs or kill chicks, then the only alternative is to hand rear.

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The other (white) cockatoos listed as CITES Appendix 1 are the Phillipine Red Vented, Goffins, Lesser Sulphur Crested and Citron Crested (since 2005).

Blue Eyed, Long Billed Corellas, Major Mitchells, whilst not Appendix 1 listed, are too rare to be sold as pets.

Other white cockatoos not on Appendix 1, (rightly or wrongly) and generally sold as pets are the Ducorps, Bare Eyed (Little Corella), Umbrella, Triton, Medium Sulphur Crested (Eleonora) and Greater Sulphur Crested.

Black Cockatoos and Gang Gang Cockatoos are a rarity in the UK and not something we have any first hand experience with.

*1 Appendix 1 CITES - Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species, birds which are endangered or critically endangered in the wild.

**2 It is accepted that some cockatoos, do not make good parents no matter what, and that hand rearing is an alternative to losing chicks, either with endangered species or not.