Jack ~ Umbrella Cockatoo

On May 31st, 1998, I got an email from Betsy. There was an umbrella cockatoo in the Bay Area that was in need of a good home. It stated plainly that he had problems, quite possibly needing hormone treatments.

Apparently, the bird was found in someone’s yard and eventually given to a breeder. Although the breeder preported to have given him “every test under the sun”, his veterinary records indicated that he’d actually had minimal tests —and no polyoma or PBFD tests. (With the condition of his feathers, we almost didn’t let him in the house until the PBFD test came back negative.) He was reported as aggressive. He’d killed 2 cockatiels, one african ringneck and blinded another ‘tiel. His age is estimated at 2-4 years, and umbies are fairly well known for being pretty evil during their pubescent period.

We think that Jack is actually suffering from a deplorable lack of attention, love, respect and guidance. He displays neurotic behavior, i.e., bouncing inexhausably when put into his cage, but is just fine if left out on his tree. Quick movements toward him, and a lot of undetectible actions cause screaming in terror. A swift hug will calm this down. He can snuggle for hours. This is a bird that has terrific potential in my opinion. I sincerely hope that steps were taken to find the original owners, because the “finders” were embarrasingly lacking.

Jack has never shown the slightest aggression to any of our birds (even the smaller ones), so I would really love to have the true story behind the “killer” thing.