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December 2007
Over the last couple of years, I (and my vet) have been noticing small changes in Chester's physical condition. I began to think it was probably old age. (His blood work is a little off, he wants to sleep more, seems to be starting some arthritis in his feet, and once in a while has days when he tells me he doesn't feel good.) Recently I had to opportunity to talk to a lady who had bred wild-caught cockatoos for decades. I told her about Chester, and asked her at what age do umbrella 'toos begin to visibly age and become elderly birds? She said he's probably sixty, that's when umbrella 'toos tend to develop arthritis in their feet. (She also said amazons get arthritis much earlier, and pionus can develop arthritis in their feet when they are very much younger.)
November 2004
Chester is (believed to be) a wild-caught umbrella cockatoo. We have some history for him going back 20 years, but I'm sure he's older. (He strikes me as being years older than Bert, though I don't have anything specific to base that impression on.) It appears I am his seventh home (five homes and a shelter), but there could be more. He weighed 540 grams at his first vet exam.
Chester says many human words/phrases, clarity varies. He often speaks the sweetest voice, sounds like a small child or a very old woman. But he also talks in an adult female voice, and in a very gravel-y lower pitched (presumably male) voice -- Quite often "talks" unintelligibly in this voice, sometimes at length. He also talks in a regular cockatoo voice, like a rough purr or a slow-speed growl. Things Chester says.
He says "goodbye" when he wants you to leave or back off. He says "good night" when he wants to go to bed. He likes to be sung to, especially at bedtime. Chester "sings" (mostly "doo-do-doo-doot" -- he likes 'Elmo's song') and bounces, and says "I love Chester."
He had me the day we met -- he leaned against my arm, looked up at me with head tilted and cheek feathers fanned, and said "Chester love."
A couple days after he came here, he and Alex spent a whole afternoon talking people-talk to each other and laughing. Lots of laughing.
His previous caretaker said I must be a "bird whisperer" as Chester became comfortable with me very quickly. Soon after I met him, he permitted me to touch and pet him for an extended period of time, talked a lot and flirted, snuggled against my wrist/arm, gave kisses and made kissing noises, did lots of tongue clicking and tongue wiggling.
About two years before coming to me, his toe got broken -- I think his toe/foot still hurt anytime he moved without extreme care. The inner back toe on his left foot was turned completely forward. Xrays showed significant calcification in the tissues around that toe; if it could be righted, it would not be functional. I discussed it with both vets and we decided to remove that toe. The best outcome I could hope for is that his foot would no longer hurt. And that appears to be the result we got! Hurray!
Chester has been climbing all over his cage, top to bottom, including hanging upside-down from the dome-top.
He liked the ladies at the vets, talked and flirted like mad. (Eva says Alex is still her favorite, but Chester is her new favorite.)
New Mom/Old Mom dialog about Chester
Chester cracks me up. He's started to tease/make jokes with me. Some days when I'm sitting by his cage visiting, he'll start his "good-bye" routine like he wants me to leave -- then he'll say "hello!" and laugh.
One morning, he was talking in that gravelly, mostly garbled voice when I brought Alex over on my arm to see him. Alex decided to "mouth" Chester's cage bars. Chester was watching and said, clear as day, "Bound to happen." I repeated it back to him, adding "Alex touching your cage?" and he nodded twice and said, "Exactly."
Another day, he said, "Alex talks. Good talker." I agreed. He said, "Chester talks not so good." I told Chester he talks good. He said, "Pretty good for a cockatoo!" and chuckled. Chester uses people-talk appropriately even more often than Alex, and his vocabulary is larger. (I think that short conversation is a pretty impressive use of language. Obviously someone taught him the phrase "pretty good for a cockatoo" but the earlier comments are Chester putting together other words/phrases he's learned in new and meaningful ways.)
Sometimes he'll be swaying and headturning like Ray Charles grooving. His previous mom says he does that when he's really trying to impress someone.
She also told me he preferred the "cheap" seed/pellet mixes, to which she added Scenic and large Roudybush. (She also gave him in-shell walnuts.) She had tried better mixes, even Goldenfeast and Parrot Island... She sent along a supply of the food he was accustomed to, so I started trying to change his mind from day one. Luckily his cage has four bowls -- I used one for water, one for toys, one for his "old" food, and one for the stuff I'd prefer he eat. I started by mixing a little of the good stuff into his "old" food, and later taking out the things I could see he never touched, then I "upgraded" the cheap mix by getting better versions of its components (like Zupreem fruity pellets to replace the blah generic kind). It's having an effect -- he will eat some medium Roudybush pretty much every day and nibbles some Harrison's. He will eat his "upgraded" mix better than the original version.
Once, I'd run out of the colored Zupreem pellets a couple days earlier. As I was getting Chester his breakfast, I asked him what he would like in his bowl.
Chester said, "Want colored stuff. Taste better."
So I went to the store that day!
He eats canteloupe, apple, red grapes, banana, orange -- not so keen on veggies. He still likes walnuts (mostly as a chew toy, he eats less than half), and has started to eat the blanched peanuts and hull-less sunflowers, although he still prefers sunflowers in the shell.
Summer 2006
Since Tookie came to live with us, every time Tookie visits the birdroom, Chester says he loves her. When I told my sister about this, she said, "Oh, Chester loves everybody." I don't think she realizes that he hasn't always felt this way -- from what I've heard, not in at least two of his previous homes.
While he said "Chester love" to me the day I met him, he did not accept the other birds immediately, perhaps because he had spent time in a shelter with birds who picked on him, perhaps because he needed time to feel that this flock is "home." But by the time he had surgery to remove his broken toe, he seemed to feel safer being with the others in the bird room while recovering from the anesthetic. I'd kept him upstairs with me (still in the travel cage) but after a couple hours, he seemed to be fighting the anesthetic, struggling to get awake -- I took him to the bird room, and within a minute, hearing the other birds around him, he settled down and went soundly back to sleep til morning.
Chester's previous mom used to sing to him the song from "Bye-bye, Birdie" that goes, "we love you, Birdie...", substituting Chester for Birdie. He and I sing it here*. After a few months, Chester began putting the other birds' names in the song when he sang it. A couple months later, he started putting my name in it, too.
* The lyrics have morphed into "The Pretty Bird Song" -- the order of the names varies each time it's sung. Chester starts singing "I love birds, I love pretty Chester" and continues on through the names if I don't join in right away.
I love the pretty birds,
every one.
They are so silly,
and so much fun.
I love Alex, and I love Bert,
and I love Casey, too.
I love Loki, and I love Jasmine,
I love Boo-boo, oh yes I do,
and I love Chester, too.
I love the pretty birds.
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