Taming a wild caught Goffin Cockatoo

A friend of mine has had Goffin Cockatoo living in his basement for the last 5 years with no human interaction. I pretty much demanded I take him as I can provide a much better environment for him. The problem is that he is wild caught but I like to try to tame him. Right now, he has been sharing a room with my cockatiel, which was a hand fed baby and is very social. Would someone please give me advice on how to begin the process of gaining his trust and taming him.

Well, this is a very noble and generous gesture of yours! Thank you on behalf of the poor bird! It's also a huge and long-termed commitment that will imply a lot of work with very little to show for a long time. Wild-caught birds are mean, mean, mean and noisy, noisy, noisy. They simply don't like humans and who can blame them? And they are noisy because they learned to vocalize in the wild, in the middle of a large flock. Nothing like hand-fed birds, I assure you. I hope you have a birdroom where he can be cage-free because wild-caughts don't do well in cages, not even for a couple of hours, and toos are very, very destructive animals (they will chew not only furniture but walls and floors, too ). I would start by making an appointment with your avian vet for a complete physical because, obviously, birds are not meant to live in a basement and he has to be, at least, 17 years old, if not older. just letting him be himself and setting yourself up as the provider of food. Once he gets a clean bill of health, start by gaining his trust and then start thinking about taming him. No use even trying now, it won't do you any good, it takes a long, long time to gain the trust of a wild caught that has been neglected and/or abused as this bird has been and that is the first step toward any kind of a relationship with him. Get him used to your presence to the point that he doesn't try to put distance between you and him and, when this happens, start offering him treats from your hand. Once he starts taking them, start training him to step on a stick and take if from there.

A word of caution, go into this with your eyes wide open. You might be able to have some kind of a relationship with him but it will never be anything that resembles the kind that people have with hand-fed birds so don't expect a miracle. But what you are doing is great and you might well be saving this poor animal's life so kudos to you!

I figure it will take years for him to be able to feel somewhat trustful of me. He watches how the cockatiel interacts with me but I don't know if this will help. Whenever I enter the room he shakes like a leaf and I feel terrible. If I could take him back to where he was caught, I certainly would. I would love release him to his native land as I think capturing live birds should be outlawed. But Iam where Iam.

I've given him a few weeks of me not bothering him and he seems much happier in his new environment. He makes a little noise at dawn but there has been no screaming as my friend warned me about. He said he screams every day but he hasn't exhibited any of that. Lately I've been more assertive trying to give him peanuts with my hand and as expected he wants nothing to do with me.

No, I would assume he doesn't want to have anything to do with you but he will, eventually, trust you. He will never be a cuddly bird but he will accept you and trust you. In time. Because don't forget that he is not only wild-caught, he also has no reason to trust humans after your friend's neglect and almost abuse of him.

Toos only vocalize when they feel comfortable. Vocalizing in an environment where they don't feel safe is tantamount to suicide in the wild and these are smart birds so he won't be making a peep until he feels he is safe. Don't forget to offer him a wide variety of veggies and fruits, wild caughts are excellent eaters and he will only benefit from a good diet (a sick or weak bird is not a happy bird). And the surest way to gain a bird's heart is through his stomach (or maybe I should say proventriculus )

Again, kudos to you for doing this for this poor bird! My hat off to you!