# Food/enrichment advice needed: neglected cockatoo



## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

There's a 20 year old female lesser sulfur crested cockatoo that unfortunately resides in the office here at work for the past 4 years. I have tried to convince my boss and coworkers countless times to rehome her with more knowledgeable, experienced people, but they "love" her. This bird is horribly neglected and stressed. She sits in a dim, 65 degree room by herself all day, and the most attention and handling she ever gets is about 10-15 minutes an evening at best. Her diet consists of a crappy seed mix of which she only picks out and consumes the sunflower seeds, walnuts and almonds in the shell, salted mixed nuts, and fast food. That's right, I said fast food. McDonald's cheeseburgers and Dunkin Donuts wake-up wraps are among her regular "treats". Pretty sick, right?

She looks like hell. Her feather condition is terrible and she plucks her legs, chest and back bald. Its obvious that she's bored and unhealthy. Aside from re-homing, which I can't see happening, what can I do to provide this bird with a better diet and more enrichment? I'm certain she'll still be fed the garbage she's getting now, but if I can at least add some healthy items, I'll be somewhat satisfied...I guess. Anyone have tricks on encouraging junk food junkies to eat fresh produce and such?

Also...homemade foraging toy ideas? If she's not going to get any attention I'd at least like her to be able to keep herself entertained a bit. She's not ever closed in her cage but doesn't leave it to explore other parts of the office. She's either in or on it always. I wish I could go crazy with ropes and jungle gyms all over the ceiling but I don't think my boss would go for it, haha. 

At one point I convinced them to purchase her some proper lighting. Unfortunately it was hung where she could reach it and she chewed right through the electrical cord. Ugh. It's never been replaced. I feel so sorry for this bird. Please help me help her!


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

Bring her a variety of fresh fruits & veggies. Seed & fast food is NOT the right diet for that poor thing. (remove apple seeds & peach pits if you give them and limit citrus)


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

I always bring fruit for my breakfast and try to share, but she's never been interested :-/ Providing good stuff isn't the issue, it's just getting her to actually eat it. A bird enthusiast friend just told me that very often it's more about shapes and colors than actual taste, so I'm going to try to cut different colored fruits and veggies into different shapes and lengths and see if I can trick her that way, haha. I'm hoping for more ideas like that.


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## jdatwood (Apr 13, 2009)

You could try something like this...
All About Cockatoos - MyToos.com


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

Thanks, Jon. I just bought a bag of dry mixed beans and some colored pasta. I'll cook it up tonight and mix in a bunch of veggies! I desperately hope she likes it. The bird bread and sweet potato bars on that page may be a big hit with her, as they look similar to the junk food she's often fed. I'll have to try those too. 

I really wish I could just find her a better home :-/


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

Okay...so I've been working on stuff since I got home. I made her a bunch of toys and I prepared ton of food for her. She's got:

-A cooked mixture of various legumes, mixed veggies, and pasta seasoned with garlic powder
-Plain cooked oats with lightly boiled, mashed cranberries, seasoned with cinnamon
-Green and orange bell pepper rings
-Orange bell pepper squares
-Carrot slices and sticks
-Lightly boiled cubed sweet potato
-Raw cranberries
-Chicory
-Spinach leaves

She's got to like something, right?!


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

Unfortunately birds fed crap are really difficult to get back on a good diet, especially when she's got junk available. It's worth a try though, maybe you can take away the junk food if no one looking and dump in healthy stuff? For toys, hit up people you know with toddlers, maybe they have some good baby toys you can get, or rummage sales, string it all together and switch them up frequently. I don't know of any homemade foraging cups really, I know a lot of people on my ferret forum use them for them, but they buy the bird ones. Really if you can find some tough plastic bowls and something to cover them, drill a hole through it all so it's attached that would probably work fine for starters. I'm glad someone is there trying to make this poor birds life a little better.


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

A little update on the bird...

She loves the toys I made for her. She's already annihilated a couple of them! I found this awesome site with a ton of great toy/enrichment ideas http://onafricanwings.com/Parrot Enrichment and Activity Book.pdf I'm ordering a bunch of cheap stuff (unfinished wooden beads, huge plastic buttons, jute cording, Chinese finger traps, paper treat bags and boxes, wooden spools) to make her some inexpensive foot and foraging toys. I also love your idea with the bowls, GoingPostal. I'll drill a hole in the center of each of two bowls, invert them and string them on a chain so I can hide stuff between them for her. 

This morning I caught her with a foot full of cranberry oatmeal! She took a few bites and then dropped it on the floor, but at least she took a few bites! I haven't seen any evidence of her having eaten any of the fresh produce, but I'll keep at it.


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

My dad has a Yellow Nape Amazon, she's always been a 'pellet' junkie lol. But we started giving her more fresh foods and veggies and offer the exact same thing EVERY day for a week or two then she will start eating it. She loves Apples and Grapes. She was about 20 years old before we started giving her the fresh fruits/veggies. She eats Harrison's Bird Food Pellets which is an excellent food. I have seen birds who are feather picked victims develop awesome plummage on this food. Things like 'bird bread' help too: Harrison's Bird Bread Mix-harrisonbirdfoods.com There are recipes online to make your own. Guido (my dad's bird) likes pasta. They like food that's big enough for them to hold in their feet and gnaw on. Guido also loves hot peppers. Most birds do. For my lovebirds I would just keep offering the same food over and over again and eventually they ate it. I fed things like broccoli, kale, spinach, carrots.

Guido likes to rip up old phone books, empty toilet paper rolls, and loves to throw around a small kong.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

TOYS! Lots of toys. Rotate them out to keep her stimulated. I'd get the light fixed as well because proper lighting is a HUGE part of nutrition for birds. I'd also play music for her.


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

She does have a radio playing in there 24/7 and now has all new toys. I'll keep making and rotating them. The lighting thing REALLY bothers me. I've sent many an article but I'm pretty sure they go unread. Well, I just bought a new wall mount fixture for my bird at home, so I guess I'll bring my old clip-on fixture for the cockatoo. I'll just have to fixture out how to mount it safely or get one of those metal cord protectors and affix it to the wall or something. 

Sadly, I could make all the changes in the world to her space and diet and this will still be the absolute wrong environment for her. Blah.


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