The Cockatoo Chronicles: Necklaces

Much like his mommy, Chris loves jewelry and he loves to adorn himself with small objects. He will take beads or bits of toys or even fallen feathers that he and Holly have shed and he will tuck them into his feathers. I'm not sure why he does this, but a bird behaviorist told me that she had seen other cockatoos do this. Holly never does this, so I wonder if it is behavior particular to cockatoos. Lots of parrots like to play with jewelry that their people are wearing and Chris is no exception. (An unfortunate incident with a Mikimoto pearl necklace my late father gave my mother (who gave it to me) early in their marriage confirmed this. Thanks to the folks at Mikimoto is it restored to normal and, to their credit, they did not laugh in my face when I told them how it broke.)

Back to birds and jewelry: bird toy makers make necklaces for birds. They are meant for people to wear so the birds can play with these necklaces without harming the "good stuff" and interact with their people. These necklaces can also be hung in the cages so the birds can play on their own. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not to encourage something with a beak that can crack a walnut to chew on a necklace near my face! So, Chris gets his necklaces in his cage. They are made of plastic links and have plastic and wooden beads on them. Here I am modeling one kind:

Plastic bead bird necklace

I guess Chris wanted a necklace of his own to wear because when we were playing with his toys he seemed to want me to put one around his neck. It was actually a makeshift choker made from remnants of two of his toys: a plastic key ring and a wooden bead. I put it on my wrist as a bracelet, but he wanted to wear it and liked showing it off. He got annoyed when I tried to take it off of him, but I couldn't let him wear it for too long. I was afraid he might get his foot caught in it or hang himself, God forbid. Here we are below playing with it.