Self Mutilation

We love Baubo. By we I mean my wife and me. She is a mean as hell bitch to everyone else. The only people she has not bitten in the family is my wife and myself. She is mean because she doesn't feel well. And she is emotionally distressed. This can be caused by a few things. One being that she is at her sexual maturity and frustrated. The only mates she has are the two of us and we are not birds. Not even good substitutes for birds. She squawks very loudly. She can be heard for blocks around the house, in the winter, with the windows closed and doors shut. Most of the time she does this when she is alone in a room. If we both leave she wants us back immediately. She is destructive and becomes so when she is having a temper tantrum.

Baubo also has a sweet side. She loves us as much as we love her. She can be cuddly, and at times, downright fun. She dances and bobs as she plays or displays exuberance.  Her disposition, for the most part, is fairly relaxed and friendly, unless there are other people in the house. Then she becomes a nervous nut wanting to approach them for acceptance and validation. But, she bites. Everyone. So we either have to cage her when people are over, or struggle continuously to keep her from jumping off of our shoulder and attacking. Before reaching sexual maturity she was very friendly and completely safe around strangers, friends, and family.

From the above picture it is clear that Baubo picks her feathers. She plucks them out the same way some people cut themselves, and most likely for the same reasons. My wife claims the bird has borderline personality disorder. This is most likely caused by her diet, but I believe her frustration also contributes to her self mutilation. We have thought about getting a second cockatoo, but that is something that could go terribly wrong. And we might get stuck with two nutters instead of just the one. We have tried a cone, but she is so destructive that she can rip through the plastic with her beak in a matter of hours. We try. We do love her, and it is apparent she feels the same toward us. We can hope that someday soon Baubo will emotionally mature to the point that she is less of a bitch and more like the cuddly lover we brought home from the rescue. And that she will learn to like herself enough to stop hurting herself.