Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what is the smallest cockatoo in the pet trade?

The bare-eyed and the goffins are two of the smaller cockatoos that are more available in the pet industry. The goffins seems to be the most available and guess what we do have one in our family LOL!

Gizmo is my baby. I have raised her from two weeks old. I adopted her when her parents quit feeding her, her clutchmates died and her "family" didn't know what to do with her. I hand fed her. She is now two years old (almost). Reading in books I found that goffins are supposed to be one of the "least able to be taught, most hyper-active, unable to train with treats, least speaking ability, etc of the cockatoo family and of many species of birds." Just goes to show not to listen to everything you read. That description may fit a lot of goffins cockatoos. In fact I have had many through the rescue over the years who seem to fit into that mold. Some were able to be trained after a person took the time, although they didn't seem to be as enthusiastic over treats as many others like the macaws and conures in general. Others weren't as open to any training but the minimal.

Gizmo is different (and I am sure there are others who will say the same about their own goffins). She would do anything for either a peanut or a red chili pepper flavored treat. She steps up, flies on command, comes on command, (both the flying and coming and going perch are both on voice command or on hand signals) goes perch, rings her bell, climbs a ladder, drinks her "tea", rolls over and lays upside down whenever told. All for a Good Gizzy and a treat LOL! She does not have to have a treat everytime but when I tell her it is "Time to go home" she climbs in her cage and hangs in her door until her treat arrives. Then she happily goes on in to her perch and munches away. She also does speak, understandably to all visitors. She will say, Hi Gizmo, Gimme a Kiss, Good Girl, Oh My Sweetie, Love you, Be good Now, Step up, Hiya Tiki, Lolo, and Kako and Kako want a kiss. Besides making kissing noises, and various other noises. She does all of these while working at home with or without people present but when she goes out of the house to another place she picks and chooses what she will do but she is still quite young so we are working on that.

She will snuggle up on my lap, she will go to whoever I tell her but if anyone tries to take her without me telling her to she does nip. I think she gets that from me though LOL as I tell anyone around when I am working with her to not take her unless I tell her to go to them. Then she calmly sits on their arm until I tell her to come back to me or to go perch.

I do think Gizmo is an exception to the goffins personality although I do expect like in all birds the tempermental first breeding season etc. I am sure there area some that have wonderful experiences with goffins just as I am sure there are those with horrible experiences with them. This can both be because of the individual bird and the individual owner.

how much wpould a bare eyed or goffin cost from a breeder or pet store also how much would a mini macaw, electus and pionus cost? thank you for the replys.

Sorry I saw this question also asked above, I must have skipped right over it when I responded to the others so I will answer it here.

A lot is going to depend where you are located. It may also make a difference as to whether the bird is handfed, socialized and parent fed or just parent raised. Different breeders charge different prices according to each.

In my area (Missouri) there would be around the following costs
bare-eyed cockatoo (haven't seen as many breeders of these) around $800-$1000.
goffins cockatoo $650-$900
mini macaw (will also depend on type) $750-$1100
eclectus (depending on type) $800-$1100
pionus $700-$900

These prices run a wide range but the lower priced ones are generally (not always) parent fed babies without much human socialization. People who handfeed or well socialize and abundance wean their babies are more likely to charge a little more money for their time and care. These prices are listed from different breeders I have had contact with in my area so again may not be accurate for your area or even all over my area.

Also some breeders will try to offer you a deal if you finish handfeeding the baby yourself and will try to convince you that it will bond better with you. This is definitely not true!!! A baby bird will "grow away" from its parent at some point and if it sees you as a parent may completely switch who it is bonded to upon maturity. If it meets you after having been weaned it should still bond to you but will be less likely to view you as a "parent". Also if you buy a fully weaned baby from a breeder there will most likely either be a health certificate from their vet or they will allow you to take it to a vet within so many days and if a problem is found refund you the money paid. If you buy an unweaned baby many things can go wrong and there is absolutely no guarantee with your baby. If it dies either from past mistakes (at the breeder) from unnoticed health problems already developed or through your own error in care then you are just out the money and the baby!

their is nobody home for about eight hours a day exept weekends other than that at least one person is home so under these circimstances wich bird would you recomend? also for the noisier parrots i asked about, at what times are they noisiest and are they quieter in the evening? we also have two dogs one of wich got jelous of our last bird, do you have any advice on how i can get dogs to at least tolerate a bird? thank you for all the info.

I really can't help much on the dog issue. We had a little terrier mix dog that was wonderful with our african grey, he would come when Lewy whistled for him and beg for a treat from Lewy (he loved bird food) but he was an older dog and passed away. We do not have any other dogs and don't plan to get any so I don't have any other personal experience with birds and dogs in the same house.

As far as which bird would be best in a home where it will be alone a lot it will really depend. My first thought would be more along the lines of a green cheek conure which you had asked about in another post I believe (I could be wrong ) Out of the ones you mentioned here I would probably say the pionus or possibly the mini macaw. Our goffins is a sweetie but when she gets left alone for too long she starts to shred her tail feathers. This may partially be because I am home most of the time so she is not used to me being gone for most of a day or a weekend and will then shred the tail feathers. Our eclectus does the same. She is bonded with my husband and if he does not spend time with her for long enough during the day (she decides how long then she will pluck more feathers. We have never had a mini macaw pluck although some people have and I have only seen one pionus that plucked (again I am sure others have seen more) but anyway they were both due to health issues not boredom or loneliness.

As far as noise, our eclectus lets out a scream when she gets up and will call for about 10 minutes or so after that, the rest of the daylight time she does talking, animal noises etc. Then at around 7-8 when it is starting to get dusk she will again call and scream for around 15-20 minutes. None of our birds scream after lights out except on the rare occassions one will have night terrors (we usually have night lights so never pitch black but still dark). Our goffins does not really have a set time of day she will just decide she is not getting her deserved attention and scream, this doesn't happen very often because we work with her a lot and we don't reward the screams so it is a seldom occurance. We have had other birds in that will scream for an hour or longer in the morning and evening. A lot will depend on the individual bird and how its calls and screams are rewarded or ignored.