Goffin's Cockatoo Owner's

[crazeemama]

I would like to hear from people that have Goffin's about there personalities - likes, dislikes etc.
Also what you like about them and what you don;t care for .
I am getting annother rescue and i am afraid i don't know much of anything about Goffin's so any info would be appreciated. thanks

[birdygirl]

I believe that goffins are escape artists. So you need to lock the cage good and tight.

[birdgirl]

I've never owned a Goffins but I've met many they are fun loving and playful every one that I have met loves music and will dance to a good beat even if they are not tame. like birdygirl said they are escape artists many owners have to use pad locks on the cages.
best of luck

[Amanda]

Crazeemama, I just sent you a PM.

[crazeemama]

Thanks for all your support guys; i am really glad to have found this group. Everyone is so supportive. I appreciate all the info and will make sure the cage is securely locked when appropriate. I hopoe Goffins are ok with other birds in the household.
Yet another player for the "morning symphony"!

[Jenny]

Lol! I don't have a goffin's but have met a few in the vet clinic and all have been very "hyper" you could say and like attention! I think compared to the U2's and M2's they're much easier to take care of, though with a screaming problem...... BTW, what all did the owners tell you about it's screaming habit? Is it constant screaming or what? Well, whatever you don't know about goffin's, you soon will! ;)

[crazeemama]

Jenny i think i answered this in the NEVER SAY NEVER THREAD..... Must be visiting the STATE OF CONFUSION again! LOL

[dlaura]

I have 4 birds and the Goffin has been my biggest challenge.
My Goffin, Angel, is hyper and seems to be on the nervous side.

When we first brought her home she would scream and holler at the top of her lungs when my husband would arrive home from work. He was doing different shifts at that time and it made things hard on him to get sleep in when needed. Seemed that she also did not like men.

Angel's cage would be covered when she began screaming and got a lot of attention when she was quiet. My husband would take her out of the cage and Angel would tuck her head under his chin and just cry and mumble out her frustrations to him - until she worked up to screaming and then he would return her to her cage - cover her if she continued too long. I think this went on for more then a year - and then one day we realized out of the blue that she had stopped the screaming. Now she chortle's and sort of coos and can communicate with us via body language rather then screaming. Angel loves the whole family now and will leave me to visit my husband or son. However, she is still on the nervous side when she hears a loud noise or something she thinks is unusual.

Around December of last year she began to pluck her chest feathers and to this day is bare in that area. Having had her tested and all is well - I am ignoring it, changed her over to pellets which she loves, moved her into a larger cage and bathe her much more often - mist when a bath isn't possible.

The vet told me not to feel guilty over the plucking - these animals belong in wild and weren't meant to be pets. He feels the plucking behavior is related to her beginning puberty and may be something she may never stop. So, we love her unconditionaly just as she does us. If we are holding her and she plucks - we will just get up and tell her "you plucked so you are going back to her cage" eventually this to may stop just as suddenly as the screaming did.

We are her original owners and plan for it to stay that way. In conclusion, I guess I am trying to say that with patience and routine reaction to unwanted behavior / love and rewards for the wanted behavior will win out in the end - you just have to be patient and patient and have even more patience. I am sure you will succeed as from reading your posts - you do have patience.
So, good luck with the Goffin and any other ?s you have - I will be glad to try and help.

Sincerely, Diane (sorry this post got so long)

[crazeemama]

Diane -
Thanks for sharing your experiences. it really helps me feel more prepared by knowing what others have faced with theirs. This will be the poor little guys' 3rd home. I doubt he will be going anywhere else by the time i get the birds behaving etc, i am to attached! Just a softy i guess. Thanks again.

[Jenny]

Interesting and fun hearing about Angel, Diane. Today I was at the bookstore flipping through some 'too books, and nearly everything I read about goffin's said that they're comical and have tons of energy. I think it'd be a good idea to give the new goffin plenty of opportunities to let out some extra pent-up energy, as my mom says. From everythign I've heard about 'toos with screaming and other problems, I think a big part of it is that they just don't have chances to release their energy like they would in the wild, so it can turn into screaming. In the BirdTalk article about them last year it said for ideas, to take them on walks, dance with them on your arm so that they have to flap their wings, give them baths often, let them play hanging onto the bungy rope toys, do stair-climbing with them, have many perches and things to do in their cages...just anything to get their muscles and bodies working. Good luck Crazee! I can't wait to hear all about your new little G2 buddy! When are you going to be getting him?

[dlaura]

Hi Jenny,
glad you enjoyed reading the Angel saga - sometimes it is hard to relate your experiences without getting lengthy. You are very intuitive about Goffin behavior ...........as your suggestions are much of the same we have done for Angel. Forget to say that Angel goes to Bob now without a qualm now and will ask to go to him if I have her out and he is in the room. It is really amazing!

Crazeemama,
You are very welcome. I know how frustrating it can be and wish you much luck with your adopted Goffin - besides the unwanted behavior - they can be very loving and cuddle under your chin and enjoy being scratched. The thing Angel loves most is being out and free to feel free. She will flap her wings and chortle when she is on top of cage door or on top of cage. Birds just crave attention ..................guess everyone needs a certain amount.

Diane

[crazeemama]

Jenny -
Thanks for the research! It is much appreciated - I pick him up in Denver tomorrow after my appointment for my hearing test. So i won't have to wait much longer so we'll see very soon how things are.

To all that replied - i want to thank you all. It really helps me get a perspective hearing about your goffins' and just the general info.
I will post more about him when i get back - usually i have to rest up a day because it really wipes me out to drive that far in one day (and back!)

[crazeemama]

Well Oliver and i made the trip..... all the fids have been taken care of for the night and i am turning in. Will let you know tomorrow. First looks, he seems to be in perfect feather,very alert and a little overwhelmed perhaps. he hasn't made much noise except to say Hi. And he squawked a bit when ty got off his cage, Outside of that he has been the perfect Gent. Now we'll see what happens when i shut the lights off. I hope for a calm night because i am soooo tired.

[dlaura]

Crazeemama,
Well it is 9:15 Eastern time and I am wondering how Oliver did overnight. He is in perfect feather and quiet ...............wonder why he is on his third owner.................... can't wait for an update.

I keep meaning to tell you that I love your signiture sign off!!

[crazeemama]

Oliver did very well last night. He had a couple of bleats after i shut the lights off but i just talked to him anc he seemed to be fine. He is fairly quiet right now. I think he is just a little overwhelmed! He sounds like a little lamb! it is so funny. He does love to cuddle.
I am sort of wondering why he was given up too. I think one problem was he was the wife's bird, nut liked the husband and didn't have much to do with her. oh those love triangles!
She was a vet tech and guess how she 'quieted' her African grey (ab out 1 year oold?) by dunking him in water! Now she is livid that the creature doesn't trust her! GO FIGURE. I imagine she will be calling a few months down the road about taking it too.
Olivers' wings were unclipped so i did have her clip them before we left. I almost cried they were so beaautiful, but i think it will help having them unclipped for awhile.
Then she decides she wants 125.00 for his cage. Well all i had was plastic so we will just have to make due for now. He has a t-stand, and i put him in the travel cage at night. It sort of made me a little mad! here take my bird and be good to him, but if you want his cage you have to pay for it!
I just shake my head sometimes!

[birdygirl]

Sometimes birds stop their behaviors once they get to be with a person who they trust. So take that as a compliment. oliver obviously trust you and maybe he was screaming to get out of that terrible situation. That is terrible about the grey. Somepeople make me so angry.

[Mrs.Birdy]

Crazeemama: Oliver is so lucky to have you to take care of him now. If the former owner dunks the grey in water when he screams, I can't imagine what she did to this little Goffins.

It makes me mad, too, when I think of the stupid things people do to deal with their birds. Someone needs to dunk her (the cags owner) under water and see how she handles the shock.

Good luck, sounds like Oliver is a good little G2. Have fun!!

P.S. too bad about the cage....owner is probably desperate for money (maybe she gave up the bird in order to get a few bucks for the cage).:(

[birdygirl]

I agree. The cage was to bad. Oh well, sometimes people are like that. But I love Goffins toos. They are so cute. Have fun with oliver

[dlaura]

Sounds as is she changed the deal after you got there.........what a shame..........if she truly had any feelings for this bird (a vet tech with no feelings for her own animal???) she would have wanted it to be as comfortable as possible and not have gotten greedy about $$$$$.

Mrs. Birdy, I agree - it makes me MAD also about how people treat their animals. If this is how they treat a member of their family - imagine how they treat strangers and such! I agree with your suggestion about dunking the CAG owner - sounds fair to me.

Anyway, at least you have Oliver now - being a vet tech is she sure of the sex? Due to name I thought she might have known.
Good Luck with Oliver and let me know why is this his third owner .........sounds like a sweetie to me.

[Mrs.Birdy]

Some people get so petty. When I adopted/rescued Marcel, he was supposed to come with a very large, fairly new green cage.

Well at the last minute, the foster family decided to keep that cage and send him to me in a smaller, older cage (which by the way was filthy). I didn't argue, I was just so happy to have the little guy.

The cage is adequate for his size and has an open playtop which Marcel loves. It took me one whole day to disinfect and clean it (my husband and I). The cage is ok now, but eventually, I will get him a larger, newer cage. He also came with a portable concrete perch which I place on a small table for him to enjoy dinner with the family on. Also, Bonnie, the rescue liason, recently gave me an absolutely lovely, large Acrobird activity playstand that he loves to climb on and play with.

I was told the foster person must have wanted to sell the "nice new large" cage to make up for some of the money he put out to take care of Marcel.:( When anyone gives away a bird, it is only right that they also give away the cage the bird is used to so it won't be further stressed out trying to get used to a new cage, let alone a new home.

Just airing my opinion here....

[teri]

hi crazeemama,
alot of what i have read and the parrot education seminars i go to say that your new bird you just brought home will be relatively on good behavior for the first 10 days and then all it's bad behaviors will start to emerge, so the very best thing to do is establish rules right away and don't waver from them, one good rule is don't let your parrot come out of it's cage on it's own, you bring it out by telling it to step up and you put it on it's cage outside, and when it goes to bed you put it in it's cage, i'm probably telling you this and you probably already know this. also another thing if the bird likes only one peson you can avoid this by playing a game of "hot potato" where everyone in your family stands in a circle and passes the bird around, and then each person individually takes the bird out of the house for an outing just that person and the bird so that it bonds with everyone in the family and not just one peson. hope this helps.
-teri

[crazeemama]

Teri - thanks for all the info. I have heard about the 10 day thing too. I guess nonr of my rescues have known about that because they had all their bad habits hanging out since day 1. but maybe Oliver will be different.
Mrs birdy and birdygirl - thanks for all support. Yeah it was a nice cage and i am sure she felt that she wa asking only a nominal price and normally it wouldn't have mattered but my car and house insurance had been paid this month so the slush fund had pretty much dried up. Oh well, a neighbor brought over a home made cage that thry hadn't used in years!. It will be big enough for him for now. he had a home made t-stand that came with sohe really enjoys that. This cage is like a wood cabinet with wire in the parts instead of wood panels - it is oak and kinda pretty. Reminds me of some sort of Victorian thing. oh well,ol;iver is helping me with this and we need to go outside today. i have spent most of the day reorganizing to make room for Ollie And i took a rather long nap in afternoon.
He made a couple sounds today as i was nodding off. I just answered him that iwas right there and he was fine.
One thing the lady had that was nice is a bunch of fruit trees in the back yard - she had oliver and the grey outside in large collapsible kennels. under the trees. She also breeds wolfhounds.
I woulxd like to make something outside for my guys. We have SOmany feral cats in the neighborhood that i am not sure how to make it cat proof, plus mosquitoprrof (WNV) etc.etc.

[Jenny]

I'm so glad that it's working out well for the most part so far! I just hope that Oliver stays sweet and quiet like he has been for you. Some birds turn sweet as anything when they're first in a new home, but after they get used to it....you see what they're really like! Since you are great with birds though I know it will work out just fine. Wow- a vet tech doing that to a bird?! I can't believe some people either.

[crazeemama]

i think she was a dog person and just couldn't deal with a bird that wasn't subserviant. Face it - not everyone is a bird person. She has beautiful wolfhounds and raises them so she must have some patience. But dogs are not birds and birds are not dogs! I think that may have been the crux of the matter right there.
She got Oliver from an elderly woman that was going into the nursing home 2 1/2 years ago. I guess he was pretty ratty and was starting to pluck. So she turned him around and he seems healthy and well adjusted. he will go to anyone. He is very sweet (at least at the moment!) Maybe she's the sort that likes the challenge part and then moves on. I do think the bird having a better relationship with her husband was a BIG piece of the puzzle. But thats just my opinion.
Aaanyway Oliver seems happy enough with his old/new cage and it will suit ontil something else comes along. Surprises of surprises, my son LOVES Oliver! So i think i will be able to enlist some aid making a play area on his cage,
Oh i have to tell you how this lady made olivers t-stand. she used the bottom off an old chair that rolled, and stuck the long part in there and nailed a short piece to it! I liked that idea,
I have a thing for "reincaarnated" objects!