Rob's Birds

Boo-boo

Boo-boo is a male umbrella cockatoo. He's supposed to be around 15 years old (2005). He was removed from his previous owners and spent several months in foster-care.

Spring 2005, I sent an email to the lady providing foster-care for him, because she said in her posting about him that she was letting him have coffee.... A correspondence developed, since she really didn't know much about cockatoos, and I was willing to answer questions. I told her I couldn't take him because I already had three umbrella 'toos. After a few months, she was pulling her hair out over the unsuitable people who'd expressed interest in him. She told me she couldn't think of a better home for him than with me, and of course by that time I'd been hearing about him every week... She brought him to me* on condition that I agree to answer her questions about pet birds in future.

*(Very nearly -- she drove down to the outermost northern suburbs, I just had to get across the metro-area. She drove a lot farther than I did, though it took us about the same amount of time.)

He looks a bit scruffy in this photo, taken at the vet's the day he arrived. He was too tired and stressed from the long drive to actually have an exam, but he got to meet most of the staff, and charmed them. During his vet visits later, he was very sweet and gentle -- my vet said he acted like a fledgling.

He's a good flyer, has more control than most of my other birds. While in quarantine, he would come out and fly the length of the house a few times, then return to his cage on his own. He is a cuddler, and loves to grasp the neckline of my shirt and scrunch himself in under my chin.

When I moved him to the birds room and a larger cage (larger than the one he had for quarantine), he did become territorial and cage-aggressive for a few days, but I took this as a good sign that he was laying claim to what was "his."

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Later, I got him to move into his new domed cage. I brought the new one over next to his "old" one, and let him out to watch as I moved his toys and perches into the new one. Before I finished, Boo was climbing on and then into his new cage, and seemed quite pleased with it. I closed the door and he settled in to eat, and then checked out the toys, and his bag. He likes that the new cage is taller, and that I put a perch up there!

He had lived with a couple of macaws, and sometimes speaks "macaw" and sometimes speaks English in a macaw voice (low-pitched). He does a good macaw "gronk", he crows like a rooster, yips like a puppy, he says "hi" and "hello" and "watchadoing?" and "good-bye" and "pretty-bird" and "hi Boo-boo". He also speaks cockatoo, and English in a regular cockatoo voice. Sometimes speaks English indistinctly, what his foster mom called "mushmouth"

He's been very good about eating the mix of Roudybush and Harrison's pellets I give my birds, with some nuts and seeds mixed in, and he likes apples (we're working on other fruits and veggies). (May 2007 -- Boo has decided he likes watermelon.)

Boo-boo has learned to say "Alex" already -- but then, he learned to say "bag" within a few days of being given one. Alex came over on my arm to see Loki and Boo-boo, and Boo-boo was nicely saying "Hi!" -- Alex just wanted to yell at him, so I told Alex to say hi and not yell, and pretty soon Boo-boo's saying "Hi, Alex!" -- Alex scrunched down a little and said "hello" but then wanted to go back to his cage.

Boo-boo impressed me when I was introducing him to the other birds, telling him each one's name, and that Alex talks and Loki talks a little and Chester talks...
Boo-boo drew himself up and raised his crest, and said clearly, "-I- talk."
Things Boo-boo says.

When Boo-boo speaks clearly, his use of language is more impressive than Chester's. He uses "I" to refer to himself, he uses different verb tenses, he uses contractions on occasion.

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Feb 2006
Yesterday Boo-boo bit my finger when I was returning a toy to his cage through the bars -- it bled quite freely, so I let it drip on his toes, and told him that was NOT nice and he was NOT a good bird. He stayed reved up for the rest of the evening, so he didn't get to come out (he'd been out earlier, though).
(Putting my blood on the biter's toes works really well with Alex, he detests it. Doesn't help much with Loki, the (former?) feather-chewer, he's used to the taste of blood. Bert, Chester, and Casey don't bite (at least not me), Jazz nips once in a while, but she doesn't draw blood.)
Today I could see he was really trying to be good, despite temptations :-) (and he'd gotten the blood off his toes) So I asked if he wanted to come out. He did, but wasn't sure if he should stay on my arm, and jumped off onto his cage top twice. The second time, he went from his cage to Jasmine's -- and then didn't want to come to me. I pointed out that Jazz was climbing up from the bottom as fast as she could -- he said "Oh-ohh" and stepped up just in time. We went into the playroom, and he posed for the mirror, and did some stretching and wing-beating before deciding I really wasn't mad at him any more and he could cuddle, so we did.
After a bit I decided to do names again (haven't for a while). I hold him at about eye-level, and ask, "What's your name? What name?" then I touch his chest and and say "Boo-boo, name Boo-boo." Then I ask "What's my name? What name?" and touch my collarbone, then say "Robin, name Robin." Then I asked him his name again -- and he said "Boo-boo." So I praised him, and told him he was good bird. Then I asked him what's my name -- and he said "Mom." He makes me laugh! I told him "mom" was okay, or "Robin" (We'll practice more.)

When Boo-boo was placed in foster care, he had a different name; he's never said it here. (Alex and Chester frequently say their own names.) The next-door neighbors of his foster mom had a small black dog who delighted in staying out as long as possible when let out just before bedtime, which often led to both households of people looking for and calling for Boo-boo.
So as he became comfortable here, he started saying "Hi Boo-boo." He was very pleased when I began calling him Boo-boo. Maybe he wanted a new name for his new life, maybe he wanted to be the one everybody kept calling...

Alex	Casey	Jasmine	Bert	Loki	Chester	Boo-boo	Tookie
Baby	Others	Things	Foods	Notes	Likes	Start	Store

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