Tuffy is a 24 year old Moluccan Cockatoo; she came to live with me when she was 20.

Most of her life was spent with the sweetest lady who just adored her and cared for her every need. I heard about Tuffy when her mom took very sick and could not care for her any more. That was 4 years ago, Tuffy was happy, healthy, just a bit shy, and the biggest sweet heart. She was never abused or mistreated.

My life, and hers, fell apart when my husband and I split up. I guess, now, I know. All the stress I was feeling she also felt. It was too much for her, and she started to chew at her skin, under her wings and legs. After many trips to the vet, Dr. Rosco (who was fantastic with Tuffy and myself), I'm afraid I finally broke down in tears in her office. In the end every test came back fine. It was a behavioural problem. So I spoke to a bird Behaviourist, who suggested I try moving the cage around, etc. Nothing seemed to work. Every day it was getting worse, and she was now chewing on her chest. The more she hurt herself, the harder she would chew, high on endorphins that her body released. We tried putting her on haliparilol, but all it did was make her dopey. She didn't want to eat, and she still mutilated. Meanwhile she was not sleeping, and neither was I. I don't think there is anything more heartbreaking in the world then watching someone you love so much hurting herself, and there is nothing you can do but tell her you love her, and that she is a beautiful girl, and everything is going to be all right.

The mutilating had started in late October, 2000. By December she had a hole in her chest about the size of a silver dollar. One day I came home and there was blood all over; she had bitten in a vein on her wing and nearly bled to death. So back to the vet, this time to put a collar on her. God, what an awful thing! The neck piece stopped her from biting her chest, but she could still get at her wings, which she did. So we had to put a hoop on the piece. With that collar on, Tuffy became as if she had lost the will to live. No more playing or shouting. She just sat there, shaking. She was still not sleeping; the only way I could get her to sleep was for her to lie on my chest. I know this is dangerous and you should not sleep with a bird, but it was the only way I could get her to sleep. I just couldn't keep her in that awful collar. So I kept trying to design a new one without the glass collar or hoop. After about a hundred different designs, I came up with one that works really well. She is happy, shouts, plays and is back to the fun loving bird she used to be. But Tuffy will probably always mutilate herself if she gets the chance.

Three or four times a day she goes without her cape to groom herself, supervised of course. She is fully feathered and there are no marks on her, but I won't leave her unsupervised without her cape for a minute. Tuffy still sleeps with me, and will never get over that. I have tried to make her sleep in her cage, but all she does is run around in circles and get very agitated.

Unless you have lived with a bird that is a mutilator, you have no idea how heartbreaking and awful this behaviour is. Most birds that are mutilators die from bleeding to death or from salmonella poisoning. There is a web site, http://www.myloos.com that deals with cockatoos and mutilation. Everyone should visit this site before buying this type of bird.

If anyone is interested in how to make the cape I invented for Tuffy, please e-mail me. I'd like to help anyone out there who has the same problem. I don't want to see any bird or person go through what we did.

 

Diane Dwyer