Welcome back to PC, Hazel. You were fortunate, as was your bird. Many have not been, and that was the point of this thread, which has been resurrected after lying dormant for a year. We're very glad everything worked out for you and your Too. Would love to see some pics of him, and the Cockatoo forum is pretty quiet lately!

The 'tube' is also called a crop needle and they come in all different sizes for different species of birds. It's a thin metal tube bent to a curve to allow for better placement and they have something like a little ball at the end to make it too wide for it to go the 'wrong way'. They are actually very useful with very sick birds or birds that have had beak trauma and cannot eat on their own.