Okay, so much for coming out of his cage. We are back to quivering and quaking, but at least no strikes to the offered arm.

Wow. This is wierd. Especially for it to still be going on after all these months. Do you think your bird sitter tried to get her out and then freaked out and dropped her hand or knocked her off balance? Still, you would think she would have gotten over it by now.

She won't come out even if you leave the cage door open and walk in the other room? Could you attach a perch to the inside of the cage door and then the cage door partially open?

The bird sitter owns a cockatoo herself - Merlyn who has been here with me for the last 4 years in foster care because she can't have him where she lives. She comes every single Friday night and has dinner with us as I previously said. She is very intimidated by my flock. There was serious stress and discord while I was in Florida. My hubby and her were at each other's throats, so there was a lot of phone calls, and everyone was nuts. Believe me, she would never try to get Sammie out. He is big, and has a big beak. In fact when I'm not home, she can't even get Merlyn out of the cage because he gets all cocky, and she is afraid he is going to fly off the top of his cage onto someone else's cage and get hurt. If I leave the cage door open, I'm sure he will go to the top of his cage, but then, how the heck am I gonna get him off there without getting bit.

Do you think it was the stress from the yelling between the two and the stress of the events at the time?

I know I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but I'm just sharing my experience. I try to keep things calm, cool and collective at my house for the most part. Whenever a voice gets raised they all get quiet and alert and watch, but Rocky is a different story. Rocky comes from a sketchy past but when you raise your voice he gets very defensive, snorts and hisses and the crest is up. He starts making his percolator noise (what I call it) which means he's ready to attack and will start head flipping. You don't dare get near his cage til you give him plenty of time to relax and let him know everything is cool.

Do you think this could have really effected Sammy to the point he still remembers it?

On the rare occassion that Jerry and I raise our voices to each other, the entire flock goes to screaming. They just hate it. Things are usually very very quiet here, and that is what they are used to. I knew Sammie wasn't happy when I got home. He wouldn't let me touch him. Then he would strike me if I tried to get him out. Now after the strikes, he quivers - maybe he knows he shouldn't have hit me, I don't know. We will continue to work on this every day until we get it taken care of.

Do you think she would let Pam take her out? or do you think she won't let anyone take her out besides Jerry? I'm just curious if he's mad at everyone except Jerry because Jerry is who he is really really bonded to.

Shane - you have the femminine gender on your mind - just because Jack is a girl.......Sammie is a BOY!!! LOL
I don't know if he would let Pam take him out or not. I know he likes Jim Grover a lot also. I would be worried that he would bite Pam if she tried to take him out, and as you see from my face, their bites are nothing to mess with.

true true
He would probably snap Pam's little arm in half!

Unfortunately, male cockatoos (more so with Umbies and Moluccans) will choose a mate at or about breedng age (5ish years old). They can become very one-person birds at that time and strongly bond to that person. They can become like jealous husbands and want to strike or even harm the intruder. I have a Cockatoo Guru with whom I have spent a lot of time talking about behaviors in older U2s and M2s. She said females are less likely to do this.

Sorry I do not have better news for you, and I hope this is not the case, but unfortunately, it does happen quite often. If you want me to put you in touch with her, please PM me and I will give you her information. She's fabulous.

Sammie has always been Jerry's bird, and was quite violent to me until I learned to warp my arm in a towel and put on a long sleeve shirt so that he didn't hurt me when he bit - it worked. He tolerated me so that he could get out of the cage. We became friends, when he had his wing amputated and I was his one and only care giver. This is a bit differant. He shakes. You can see he wants to come out, but won't. I am going to have to push the issue eventually, but now now, because I have to go away AGAIN this weekend. Then, hopefully I have no more travel in 2007.