My husband, Quentin, and I have been fostering or bird sitting parrots for a few years, and last year the director of a local animal rescue asked if we could foster a seventeen-year-old male Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. The Big Decision: To adopt or not to adopt. Living with a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo I’ve had Mitri for two years now and he’s still doing great! It’s a shorter, slightly modified version of a longer article I posted on this site. Webmaster’s note: I wrote this for the June, 2009 issue of “ Parrots” magazine. After he was put back in his cage, Mitri just popped the door open again, so my husband had to hold the door shut for the rest of the ride. I then noticed that he was perched on the seat between my husband and me. He was in his travel cage talking to himself and he suddenly went quiet. He did this when my husband and I took him to a parrot club meeting. Mitri can also easily escape from his little travel cage. My husband had to replace all the regular nuts and bolts in Mitri’s cage with lock nuts that Mitri can’t get off. Mitri is also very proficient at taking nuts and bolts out of his big cage. He dislikes all the parrot play stands I’ve gotten him, so he has a spare cage downstairs he can hang out on. His main, big cage is upstairs, but he spends a lot of time downstairs.

MyLesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Mitri, can easily open the door from his spare cage downstairs. Cockatoos have reputations for being escape artists, and various padlocks and clamps are often needed to keep them in their cages.

Sulfur crested cockatoo sounds