bare eyed?

[bazie]

Hi there i have a ciaque and am seriously considering another bird.. I went to the store that i got tookie at (a very good petstore that acually socialzes and cares properly for their birds) and there was a baby bare eyed there! Me and my girls totally fell for her. She was soooo sweet and cuddly i really wanted to bring her home. But my husband was more interested in the amazon that was there. He would like to get a rumbuctious talkitive bird. I have heard that the bare eyes are fairly good talkers?? I didnt like how nippy and i have heard that amazons are a one person bird and get aggressive when mature. So now im trying to talk him into the be2. I am the one who takes care of them anyways. What are the be2 like?? Ive been reading about them and everything sounds just what im looking for but i would like to hear from others who have them?
Also this bird is 1700.00 which is quite high but i cannot find any breeders in Ontario, Canada. One website i found for a breeder in british columbia said only they and one other place in canada breed bare eyes. I dont want to have a biird shipped as i would like to meet the bird first.
Now im tempted to get my little sweety from the store!!!! Oh i need some serious self control!

[FoxersArtist]

Bare eyed cockatoos usually are roudy and talkative and they have the sweetest little voices. Many amazons tend to be a bit more low key and are well known for being "perch potatoes" due to lower energy levels. All cockatoos can be unpredictable and their body language can be hard to read. Most amazons are very easy to read. A one person bird is a personality trait and does not really depend on species from my experience. However, most of the bare eyed cockatoos I have met become choosy about who they like once matured. I would describe them as being absolutely loving and dedicated to the people they like and fierce with the people they do not like. I have never really known an adult bare eyed cockatoo to skirt around the edge of aggression when they dislike someone. They bite fast and hard. Amazons tend to be similar in the sense that when they like someone, they are usually very sweet and forgiving (but they can have their moody days too). Amazons, more than cockatoos can make good family birds depending on the species. I would not suggest a blue front, double yellow headed, yellow naped, mexican red headed (or green cheeked). I would suggest looking into getting an orange wing, white fronted, lilac crowned, or other less hot tempered species. Bare eyed cockatoos are reported to be easier to care for than some of the larger cockatoos and I agree. Ours is not as demanding as our larger cockatoo and is not as loud either. He can be a real sweet heart but a real stinker when he wants to. Owning any parrot presents with certain challenges that will make life interesting and exciting for your family. Whatever you do, make sure that the bird really responds with your family before adopting and please keep in mind that many times, a baby cockatoo will change interests once matured and may no longer be the sweet and cuddly little baby you met at the bird store 5 years earlier. Owners who are not prepared for this sometimes suffer devastating heartbreak only after becoming hopelessly attached.
-Anna

Originally Posted by bazie

Hi there i have a ciaque and am seriously considering another bird.. I went to the store that i got tookie at (a very good petstore that acually socialzes and cares properly for their birds) and there was a baby bare eyed there! Me and my girls totally fell for her. She was soooo sweet and cuddly i really wanted to bring her home. But my husband was more interested in the amazon that was there. He would like to get a rumbuctious talkitive bird. I have heard that the bare eyes are fairly good talkers?? I didnt like how nippy and i have heard that amazons are a one person bird and get aggressive when mature. So now im trying to talk him into the be2. I am the one who takes care of them anyways. What are the be2 like?? Ive been reading about them and everything sounds just what im looking for but i would like to hear from others who have them?
Also this bird is 1700.00 which is quite high but i cannot find any breeders in Ontario, Canada. One website i found for a breeder in british columbia said only they and one other place in canada breed bare eyes. I dont want to have a biird shipped as i would like to meet the bird first.
Now im tempted to get my little sweety from the store!!!! Oh i need some serious self control!

[Abby]

We have a 13yo BE2 and Anna summed her up beautifully.

She loves my husband (her chosen person), generally responds to my requests and will allow me to scratch her when she's in her cage without nailing me but can be openly aggressive with others. She's not obvious about when she's going to strike either which makes can make it difficult to read her in time. My husband can do just about anything with her including holding her upside down. The rest of us can barely scratch her.

When 'toos bite it's like nothing else and Coco is not exception. Bottom beak rips while top beak grips. I've known her to hold on with beak, swing her claws to another body part and move her beak to latch on somewhere else.

Coco has been with us for 2years now. Yes she's Queen Horror but despite all this there's just something about her that makes us just deal with life with madam.

Not all BE2's are like this, but I've noticed that most who are in bird dealers and fodder stores as the store bird have "I bite hard" signs on there cage. Don't see that with any of the other store birds.

[bazie]

OMG she seems like the sweetest bird there ever was! I know shes just a baby but i really fell in love with the cuddly part of her. From what ive researched on the net I was under the impression that toos were "love sponges"craving attention whenever they can get it. I thought they didnt grow out of the cuddles, that they stayed like that. She seemed like everything we wanted in a bird. Cuddly, talks?, funny and playful. Youre telling me toos arent like that? That we would be better with an amazon.

[chapala]

It's pretty clear what the above posters are telling you. Just because a young bird is very friendly and cuddly, does not mean that behavior will continue when the bird reaches maturity. I'm sure there is a lot of heartache around among 'Too owners whose sweet babies turned into something akin to a monster bird!! Also, a 'Too needs to learn independence, as do all parrots, and because they are easy to cuddle as babies sometimes means the owners spend too much time cuddling, and not enough time teaching them independent play, tricks, etc. That can result in major behavior problems later in life.

[Sadielade1994]

Originally Posted by bazie

OMG she seems like the sweetest bird there ever was! I know shes just a baby but i really fell in love with the cuddly part of her. From what ive researched on the net I was under the impression that toos were "love sponges"craving attention whenever they can get it. I thought they didnt grow out of the cuddles, that they stayed like that. She seemed like everything we wanted in a bird. Cuddly, talks?, funny and playful. Youre telling me toos arent like that? That we would be better with an amazon.

Thought I might pipe in. What you describe about a too is what gets these magnificent birds in trouble. They take longer to mature and will carry that baby behavior for some time. But they do grow, get hormonal and have their bad days just like other parrots. Their beaks are different than many of the other parrots with the upper beak point but lower beak with two sharp point. When they bite it is a ripping affect. Tooz end up being rehomed for a few reasons. One is noise (yep, they can get loud) and hormonal behavior. Both are issues that can be worked with and the best way to handle it is to start from the beginning and help them be a bird. That means they need to play on their own knowing how to entertain themselves. It means learning to stay off the floor and not chase. It means us understanding mating behavior and what being territorial means. Strokes on the back and under the wings can stimulate sexual behavior. Claiming a sofa and chasing people may be funny at first but it only deepens the territorial behavior that gets these little guys in trouble.

Yep, they are great to cuddle as long as they have balance in their life.

Just a few thoughts.

[bazie]

thanks for all the advice. I am heartbroken right now as I dont think i will be getting her.

[RubyMuse]

Originally Posted by FoxersArtist

Bare eyed cockatoos usually are roudy and talkative and they have the sweetest little voices. Many amazons tend to be a bit more low key and are well known for being "perch potatoes" due to lower energy levels. All cockatoos can be unpredictable and their body language can be hard to read. Most amazons are very easy to read. A one person bird is a personality trait and does not really depend on species from my experience. However, most of the bare eyed cockatoos I have met become choosy about who they like once matured. I would describe them as being absolutely loving and dedicated to the people they like and fierce with the people they do not like. I have never really known an adult bare eyed cockatoo to skirt around the edge of aggression when they dislike someone. They bite fast and hard. Amazons tend to be similar in the sense that when they like someone, they are usually very sweet and forgiving (but they can have their moody days too). Amazons, more than cockatoos can make good family birds depending on the species. I would not suggest a blue front, double yellow headed, yellow naped, mexican red headed (or green cheeked). I would suggest looking into getting an orange wing, white fronted, lilac crowned, or other less hot tempered species. Bare eyed cockatoos are reported to be easier to care for than some of the larger cockatoos and I agree. Ours is not as demanding as our larger cockatoo and is not as loud either. He can be a real sweet heart but a real stinker when he wants to. Owning any parrot presents with certain challenges that will make life interesting and exciting for your family. Whatever you do, make sure that the bird really responds with your family before adopting and please keep in mind that many times, a baby cockatoo will change interests once matured and may no longer be the sweet and cuddly little baby you met at the bird store 5 years earlier. Owners who are not prepared for this sometimes suffer devastating heartbreak only after becoming hopelessly attached.
-Anna

I agree with Anna. My bare eyed loved only the little girl in his previous home and she grew up and went to college. He went to a shelter, a foster group, and to me after he attacked multiple people. He is loud beyond belief, extremely strong willed, defends his territory, and will bite faster than any other bird I have. He is also gentle, loving, wonderful with a young child, and makes some beautiful sounds when he wants to. You will not get either/or in any bird. All birds love and all may act aggressively at times - and all birds prefer some people over others. Cockatoos love too much in some situations and not enough in others. They are very complex, have many needs, many emotions, many behaviors and will overbond, overpreen, and harm themselves when understimulated. They also have a lifespan that includes sexual maturity.

I agree that an Amazon is a better fit for a household although a bird is not a dog and will not just go to whoever...no matter what species it is.

Remember, parrots are wild animals and no different behaviorally than if you raised a squirrel or a racoon....seriously. And yes, I have done both.

With that said, parrots are smart and wonderful and I love sharing my life with them but it breaks my heart that people keep breeding them faster than the rescues can place them. And, all rescue birds were once that hand-fed baby....keep that in mind.

[Cindy Q]

As a person that has had birds all of my life and larger parrots for about 10 years I have found that there are certain birds that I mesh better with. Initially based on books, reading online and meeting birds in passing in the store I chose an african grey as my first big bird. Too much research made me change my mind, I had set out always wanting a macaw, it had been my dream bird. At that point I didn't even know about african greys but everythign I read steered me away from macaws as a first time bird and I felt initimidated and eveything I read about greys sounded great AND less intimidating, so I opted for a grey. But I wasn't satisfied, it had never been what I really wanted. 10 years later and I have my macaw finally and a few others along the way. Now I know 10 years later after meeting hundreds of birds and raising my own that i'm not even an african grey kinda girl, I love mine but its not really the kind of relationship with my birds I prefer. I also found that I don't care much for amazons. I seem to prefer really interactive birds, not the really independent ones that prefer to only be in the same room watching the action as opposed to being in the middle of things. I like the birds that come looking for me, that fly over and want to be in the middle of everything. I find that I prefer the macaws, cockatoos, and caiques. Love clownish rotten birds that love attention and allow me to touch them all over, that roll around on the ground to play and aren't content to sit nearby watching the action go on around them all of the time. Some birds only tolerate head scritches, no rough and tumble play, my grey is far too dignified for that, just perching nearby as you do your chores, within eye-sight and while they are sweet too, they're not the kind of birds I prefer. I don't have any interest in amazons and couldn't imagine that somebody that was interested in a cockatoo would be happy with an amazon, they are so different! Its like you saying man, I have a craving for a hamburger and me suggesting a salad for you instead...just apples and oranges. Now I don't know you, or know if you know yet yourself what type of birds you graviate towards or what type of relationship you're looking for but to me those 2 types of birds are on opposite ends of the spectrum.


As a foot note, I would like to add that I agree with Sadielade above, cockatoos ARE so much more then just snuggly. They do sell themselves as babies, which is a shame because so many get rehomed when people discover what other issues they can tend to have. They are definitely a lot of work but for me its so worth it.

[bazie]

I really love an interactive bird. I wouldnt be happy with a perch potatoe! That i know. Ive always wanted a cockatoo, I just seem to gravitate towards them. I realize that all birds change out of that baby stage and Im well aware of all the emotional problems they can develop. I think the be2 is slightly easier then say a u2 isnt it? I guess im really surprized that everyone here on the cockatoo board is trying to steer me away from them.
But I did go back to see peaches today and I was going to put a deposit on her but shes been sold.... I just cant put my finger on why but i really loved that little girl. We just seemed to click.