Thank you for watching Benjamin the Best Bird! Benji is an extraordinary bird who sadly must rely on humans for his entire existence. That is not how a bird should live. Birds should be flying in the skies and living in the trees. But not all are lucky enough to be living that life. Instead they are living lives into which people have forced them. Before finding us, Benji was in a stressful environment, and he plucked his feathers in response, so often that many of the follicles died. He has only half the usual number of feathers, and will never fly. He will need someone to watch over him for the rest of his life. There are far more failures in cockatoo ownership than there are successes, and the ones paying the price are the birds who are also the only ones not at fault in this situation.
If you are watching bird videos and thinking, "Wow, I want one!" please understand that you are only seeing a few minutes in a day with a cockatoo... I'd like to share some reality:
Cockatoos destroy anything and everything they can. Their destruction is so intense that they are officially declared "pests" in their native countries, where they destroy trees, crops, homes, outdoor furniture, and have even been known to damage cars.
Their scream is loud, and can be angerprovoking, like being punched in the face with sound. The noise is unlike anything I have ever experienced before, and if I didn't live with Benji, I would say that I didn't care to ever hear it again. Seriously folks, it's horrible. But it's their sound. It's what nature gave them to be able to communicate with each other while living in treetops not in people's homes. It is a sound meant to travel miles, and it does. Hearing damage takes place at 120db. The decibel level of a cockatoo scream is 120135db.
If you have (or anyone in your household has) a temper of any kind at all, this bird is not for you. It will destroy things dear to you, inciting anger. It will scream, which will ignite your temper (a great illustration in film, just replace the boy with a cockatoo:    • Everytime the Boy Screams in Vivarium  ). The more you yell at the bird, the more, and louder, it will scream. You will blame the bird, but it's really you at fault. The bird is screaming for a reason, and it's up to its caretakers to solve the problem. Sadly, while anger is not the most useful response, it is the most human.
They require a large enclosure, and many hours outside of it. If you leave a bird in a cage too long, it will scream, pluck its feathers, and in extreme circumstances, it will chew holes into its skin. Sitting in a cage is against their nature, & extremely difficult for them can you imagine anything more diametrically opposed to soaring in the sky? When out of their cage, they require close supervision due to the carnage that would be left in their wake if freely wandering. They also emit a dander that can cause lung issues in people and pets.
They are very emotional creatures who mate for life, which in their case, is +60 years. Their need for bonding, for having a being in their life that is "theirs," is very strong. They will depend on you everyday, in sickness and in health, til death do you part. Frequent rehoming is very hard on them, and can cause deep depression and selfmutilation. Lastly, understand you will be bitten at some point. It's simply communication for them, but it sucks (and hurts!).
There are thousands of these birds in rescues and sanctuaries all over the world, who were violently trapped, netted, grabbed... kidnapped from their homes, and forced to live with humans who later discarded them. There are more who were bred by people who think it's okay to do that. But it's not. Selling these birds to live in people's homes is like selling fish to live in sand.People acquire them because they are indeed adorable, but it is quickly learned that living with them is dramatically life altering and fraught with negatives, and the bird is then abandoned. It is believed that more than 600,000 birds are given to rescues EACH YEAR (or attempted to be given, but turned away due to a lack of vacancy). It is estimated that 75% of birds live a life of abuse or neglect. Let that sink in for a moment… 75% of birds in human care are beyond miserable.
We need to provide homes to the birds who are trapped in this life with humans because they have no alternative. Let's allow the rest to live in the wild where they're supposed to be. If you wish to jump into bird ownership, please educate and prepare yourself, and then go to a rescue and save a lonely bird who needs love and care, or buy from an owner who cannot, for whatever reason, care for the bird any longer. We must get breeders to stop breeding and selling them. These birds are not meant to live with humans, and when they do, it takes very dedicated, patient people willing to do the work for decades. If you think you are up for it, please adopt a rescue bird. You can change its life.