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.

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