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Allie, like Budddy, came to me under
special circumstances. She belonged to a lady that thought about
breeding her, but decided against it... Probably a good decision, since
from my experiances Allie is extremely imprinted on humans, and would much
rather have nothing to do with other birds!
The problem came when her owner, Shelia, decided not to breed her, but niether had tito spend on her as a pet. Allie started chewing and plucking her feathers, and Shelia started really looking for a home for her... She was worried Allie would start chewing into her skin and mutiliating herself, which cockatoos are prone to do. When she DID find sore spots on Allie's chest and under her wing, she naturally started getting a little frantic about getting Allie into a home where she'd get the attention she so obviously wanted. That was pretty much how I ended up with her! Allie has done just wonderfully here. Her sore spots healed quickly, and she's grown back most of her feathers, though she's still rough looking because she hasn't molted the chewed feathers... Still, she looks better than in these pictuers which where taken not long after she came home. Even more than that, she just seems happier and more well-adjusted... She still craves attention, but she seems less frantic to get it, and spends time alone better. Allie is by far the cuddliest, most
attention demanding bird in my flock. While Goffin's have a reputation
as being more active and less "velcro-like" than most cockatoos - Buddy
certainly lives up to this reputation - Allie, on the other hand, must
be an exception! If I were to give her a choice, she would happily
spend 24 hours a day with me, being petted and cuddled and loved.
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| Allie is four years old. She
says "Hi Allie!", usually when she wants something - attention, food, attention,
that sort of thing ;-) I've heard her experiment with more words,
but havn't understood any of them to date, though I thought I heard an
imitation of Buddy's "hello". Buddy, she hates... Perhaps that's
not the word, mainly she's just afraid of him. She's gotten a little
better about this, but still won't let him near her. She doesn't
mind the other birds, more or less pretends they don't exist... Like I
said at the beginning, she's pretty people-oriented!
Allie is rapidly becoming the spoiled brat of my group. She spends most of her time on my shoulder, snuggling as close to me as possible. She doesn't like to eat non-pellet foods from her dish, so I end up handing pieces to her one at a time... She'll eat them if they come from my hand, but I have to be careful that she doesn't think I'm offering petting, or else she'll happily give up the food to try to beg for cuddles! She just LOVES being told what a "goooood girl" and "pretty biiird" she is. And she HATES bedtime - I rarely hear her scream, but can usually count on one or two good yells after I put her in the cage for the night. Allie has more methods of asking for cuddles than I thought existed - first, there's the "Hi Allie!" method mentioned above, usually combined with bouncing up and down. Then there's the head grabbing method; slowly ruffling her head feathers with one foot while staring deliberately at the intended scratcher; there's bowing for a scratch, putting her head down persuasively; and then of course, if all else fails, she can always walk up to a hand and shove herself against it. It's hard to resist Allie! |
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