Umbrella vs. Umbrella

My friend Peter came over a couple of weeks ago to help me with something on my computer.  As soon as he arrived he went over to say 'hello' to Chris & Holly.  Peter had only met them once before and not in my apartment.   I let Chris & Holly out of their cages and they started their circus routine of jumping on and off of Peter's back, arms, head & shoulders.  Chris, especially, would not leave Peter alone and was making a huge pest of himself while Peter was trying to read the instructions for my computer upgrade.  I had ordered pizza for us and fried mozzarella sticks for Chris & Holly (special treat) and thought that would distract Chris.  No such luck.  Holly was being a good boy and eating his treat.  (Admittedly, pionus parrots are a little more food driven than cockatoos.)  I decided to put Chris in his cage with a mozzarella stick.  He picked it up, violently threw it across his cage and started screaming bloody murder.  Apparently, at that moment in time, Peter was looking better to him than a mozzarella stick (big compliment coming from a cheese addicted cockatoo).  I had to let Chris out of the cage because the tantrum was horrific and we weren't going to be able to get anything done with all the screaming.  Finally, I turned to my last resort:  I handed Peter an umbrella and he had to sit under it to work.  For some reason, my Umbrella Cockatoo has always been afraid of umbrellas.  Thank goodness he's afraid of something!  I'm just not sure Peter will be willing to come over here again any time soon....

Cockatoo repellent