Rake vs. Cockatoo

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Bondi, my galah (rose breasted cockatoo) was NOT happy about me raking out the aviaries with her inside them! I didn’t realize I hadn’t done so with her in there before, as I have with my macaws who could care less and always try to jump on top of me while I’m raking.

Bondi felt very differently and was on high alert the second she spotted the rake! As soon as I raked underneath the perch she was on, boy was that NOT okay!

I quickly ran inside and grabbed my video camera because it was just too funny of a moment to pass up! Bondi hardly scares as I am constantly desensitizing her to things. My goal was always to “spook” the “spook” right out of her so that nothing would scare her as far as household items are concerned (the dropping of books, shaking of trash bags, slamming of washers and dryers and clinking of dishes)

I didn’t really think about getting her used to rakes. So, after this video was done, I was pretty much done raking and gathered up all the eaten toys and leftovers on the bottom of the aviary and put them in a trash bag. I left the rake lying against the opposite side of the aviary and she was fine with the clean up part. What that was doing was taking her focus OFF the rake yet it was still in her presence where it was considered “okay”.

I still had two more aviaries to clean and rake, so I moved Bondi into the next one with me and began raking. She didn’t move from where I put her and watched the rake. This aviary was harder to rake and not go under her because it has one solid tree in the middle and I had to rake around the stump of the tree which was hard and sometimes I would end up bumping it and that would spook her more than normal. By the time I finished the third aviary, Bondi could care less about the rake anymore! It was great.

So in this story of rake vs. cockatoo… cockatoo wins. In the video however, not so much!