Keeping your cockatoo healthy

Consider your bird’s cook, caterer, housekeeper and taxi service for yourself. You can help your cockatoo live longer by providing healthy food, clean living conditions, and a trip to the vet if necessary. Cockatoos are generally healthy unless they are kept in dirty, crowded conditions or fed incorrectly. Provide filtered sunlight during the day, fresh food and water daily, and clean your cockatoo’s cage twice a week or more as needed. Get rid of uneaten fruits and vegetables from your bird’s cage within a couple of hours after feeding. Your bird may be sick if it has dirty feathers, is sitting fluffy in a corner of its competition, or has watery eyes or diarrhea.

You (and your cockatoo) are just what you eat

Domestic parrots are often fed a convenient but “junk food” diet of packaged parrot seed, water, and resolve. Just like humans, cockatoos rely on a variety of vitamins, minerals, and protein to stay healthy. The addition of plenty of greens, grated carrots and hard-boiled egg yolk provides the healthy nourishment needed for a long period of life. Calcium is very important for breeding female cockatoos, in which calcium reserves can be lost over time when laying eggs. Offer breeding birds plenty of oyster shell grit and cuttlefish bones. Captive birds can also develop nutritional deficiency A. Grated carrots and cooked yams can help increase vitamin The levels.

Cockatoos are built for long-distance flights; in the wild, they fly many miles daily in search of food and water. Pet cockatoos have no room for this type of extreme exercise.

Cockatoo Safety Tips

Cockatoos can live 20 years or more if they receive proper care. Practicing common sense and home safety can add years to your bird’s life. Never leave cockatiels unattended with small children or household pets. Within the wild, cockatoos feed on the surface. Pet cockatoos enjoy exploring floors, but are easily stepped on and can become targets for dogs and cats when allowed to attach to the floor. Avoid exposing your cockatoo to direct sunlight without providing a source of shade. Cockatoos enjoy being outdoors in their cages, but require normal water and shade to prevent heat stroke and dehydration. Your current bird is too hot if it is panting and holding its wings slightly away from its body. If the bird doesn’t seem well or is injured, take it to the vet right away. Birds instinctively go to great lengths to hide illness, so if your bird appears ill, it’s time to see your vet.