Cockatoo advice

[duckncover]

I don't need specific advice on cockatoos as much as the situation I'm going threw. My friend has a bunch of cockatoos. She has 13 of them and they are all just so intelligent. She runs an organization to try to save endangered species and has some rare ones but also some pets. She has 1 umbrella, 1 lesser sulfur, 1 greater sulfur, 1 mullucan, a pair of black palms, 2 extremely rare giant bare eyed, and 6 blue eyed. The black palms are very rare but their is only 24 blue eyed cockatoos or so in captivity and she has 6. 2 pairs that are getting close to having babies. She wants me to get a cockatoo since I admire hers so much and I have wanted one ever since I fostered a 9 year old male umbrella for a rescue I work with. I have the experience and the time but right now the 1200 for one is the problem. She thinks I'd be best off with an umbrella. She doesn't breed them unfortunately so shes going to try to find me one. She is trying to get her blue eyed cockatoos to breed but even if they did they are worth like 24,000 dollars a bird so I don't even want to ask. HOWEVER she has horrible asthma and wants me to build a flight cage for her to keep the other pair in so then I can build a nest box for them. She said she'd pay me for that and again if they have babies. She said something to me the other day about "I'll give you an egg and you can hatch it". I don't like asking but I didn't fully understand what she meant by that. If she meant she'll give me one to hatch and then give her the bird or give me one to hatch and then keep the bird for myself. It seems illogical for her to just give me a bird of that expense even though without my help she wouldn't have babies in the first place. Plus it wouldn't hurt as bad for her to give me an egg since it isn't technically a baby yet and the parents will just lay another if she takes one out. I could always make a deal that I will not sell it and if I can't keep it it goes back to her. That way she won't be worried that I'm scamming her. We are good friends and I've done a lot for her, mostly free of charge, and in the future will be doing a lot more. It sounds crazy for her to give me an egg to hatch and keep but wouldn't she have said it differently without the word give if she meant she wanted me to hatch the eggs for her to keep. And on top of all that I only have her old little giant incubator and she wants to get a super expensive parrot egg incubator to hatch hers eggs in so why would I be hatching them at all if that was the case. I really want to ask what she meant but I could be way off and make it look like I'm asking too much of her.

 

[AquaEyes]

Just out of curiosity, what is a "giant bare-eyed cockatoo"? Do you mean a slender-billed cockatoo?

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I would just ask her what she means. You could ask her if she gives you an egg and you succesfully hatch it, what are her plans for the baby.

However, if you really want a cockatoo, they are not hard at all to come by. Many, many, many cockatoos need homes and many rescues will adopt out birds. The sanctuary where I work is constantly getting new cockatoos in and the lady I work for will often just send them to new homes and not charge anything (After getting to know the new owners of course). However, these birds CAN be pretty costly to feed, especially when you factor in the fresh fruits and veggies, so often the money spent buying the bird and the cage is the cheap part! You probably already know that, but it's something to keep in mind.

If she is not willing to let you adopt one of her birds or even to give you a baby in exchange for the work you've done, then certainly look into sanctuaries and rescues. I would never suggest that someone buy a bird at a pet store or a breeder, unless that person was looking for something specific. In your case, since you don't seem to mind the type of cockatoo too much, I would let the bird pick you.

 

[duckncover]

They may be slender bills. I have never seen them they are at her other location. It's not that it's hard for me to find a cockatoo, I just want one that isn't neurotic or trained wrong. I have considered rescue a million times over but the rescue in my area seems to take on the harder cases for the most part and I already have an amazon from there and he is the most scared animals I've ever seen. If you even bring your hand toward him he freaks out. We've had him for 4 years and he is my baby but will never be a cuddly pet. If I get a baby I'd be able to train her to amuse herself and do a different behavior for attention besides screaming. It's still up in the air though I might still adopt.