At long last, BeBe's isolation was over and we brought the three U2's out to the play area in the den. Murphy took the highest perch in the back of the gym and Ashley took the perch nearest Carol. When we put BeBe on one of the perches, she immediately jumped down to run out of the room. I fetched her back and held her in my arms and told her that the guys (Ash and Murph) are her friends. She let me hold her, but that didn't mean she believed me. This was going to require work.

BeBe shared the new large cage (with a divider) with Murphy, who demonstrated a little more interest in her than Ashley. Ash just wanted to be with Carol. I put a perch on BeBe's side about 2 inches higher than the one on Murphy's side so she was a little higher than he was. There were also perches where each could get away from the other.

Right away, BeBe and Murphy slept on the perches nearest to each other. Murphy would lean against the bars of the divider seperating them, while BeBe left three or four inches between her and the divider. After several days, I caught them doing birdie kisses through the bars. During the daytime visits to the public play area, BeBe slowly started to approach first one and then the other male. After about a month, she started to preen them a little. But she was afraid to let either one touch her. She also tried to put her foot on each male's face. (Somewhat like a human baby touching mother's face) She did the same to me and it probably was something she learned from a previous owner or handler.

Ashley had shown no interest in BeBe whatsoever. But, as he watched her with Murphy in the next cage, even with the divider, he began turning his back to them to stare at a corner. He was cool to both Carol and me. It seemed that he thought he should have a roomie, even if he showed no interest in one. We renewed our efforts to find a female for Ashe.

After two months of BeBe and Murphy playing kissy face through the bars of the divider, we took away the top piece of the dome for the cage so the birds could go from side to side over the top of the divider. I stayed up all night the first night and slept during the day when Carol was awake. Murphy seemed to follow BeBe around, but didn't threaten her. She acted nervous and uncomfortable. One day I found her walking on the bottom of the cage on Murphy's side. I worried that she was trapped there, so I opened the cage and moved her to the other side. She took one look at me and promptly climbed over the divider to reclaim the spot I had just rescued her from. Ok, so she wasn't trapped and I worry too much.

Murphy was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. This guy was definitely on THE MAKE! He chewed two huge 1.5 inch diameter by 2 foot long dowels into splinters, some no bigger than toothpicks. He wanted BeBe to admire his pile of splinters; however, there was one that he didn't want her to touch. She didn't understand and for that matter, neither did I.

It was at this point that I started a program and wish to share that with other bird handlers now. Every time that BeBe gave out a yelp, Murphy got scolded and sometimes a 5 minute time-out punishment. This was first started as I was scared witless (even more than my normal state of witlessness) that one of our U2 males would kill or be killed by his prospective mate. I do not think that scolding the male when the female yells will stop mate aggression, but MAYBE: 1) the male will hesitate or even run to a neutral corner because he knows that big bird (me) says that is a NO-NO and 2) the female will yell sooner and louder because she knows that big bird (me) comes running and always takes her side. MAYBE the combination of these two things will give me a one to five minute alarm/break to get there when trouble is brewing. If you think I am wrong in this, please don't tell me as I like to feel needed.

But if I am right (I probably am in spite of what Carol says), several ideas spring (lovely word, when one is in slush from a winter wonderland scene gone bad) to mind. As soon as we unload this over-taxed museum piece that we live in and move to an area where we can construct greenhouse/habitats for the birds, I want to install a microphone/speaker system in each breeding cage. Hopefully the software to analyze sounds of whales can be modified for cockatoos. Each new sound can define an entry into the library so the program will be able to recognize similar sounds. Then, the program can alert us when a new sound occurs. I can sleep with a beeper-buzzer taped to me under the pajama bottoms. And I will hope that when I roll out of bed at 3am to 4am with a buzz in my pants, it will prove to be that one of the females just found a new way to express her pleasure when the earth moved for her. But, if it is that one of the males just won't take no for an answer, I will help explain to him that when she says no, it means no! And if I am awakened to find that a male just won't take no for an answer, I will find creative ways to express to him that I am very disappointed.

The speakers? Wow, I am glad that you didn't forget those. Ashley likes to sing off-key (VERY) with Carol (who sang in a chorale and has a very pleasing voice), but he does it with great gusto. So, in his cage area, if a female yells for help, maybe we pipe in Carol singing the Ashley song. Perhaps he will stop and sing and dance to her voice and forget about killing the female long enough for me to get there? If this sounds silly, please remember that 20 years ago, it was unheard of for a husband to be guilty of battering his wife. Today, we know that it is not silly, but unfortunantly it is common. And if my voice saying: "NO NO, STOP THAT!" causes a male to stop, then it is right even if it sounds silly.

While on this subject, male birds in the wild posture and display to each other. Male moose bang into each other's heads. Male frogs try to out yell each other. Male peacocks use a display of colors in the tail feathers to establish who gets the new girl in town. MAYBE we need to let the male cockatoos display to each other with crests up and wings out yelling at full voice to let off pressure which might be taken out on their poor mates. It would be a kick in the pants to find that when we make the males be quiet to please us, it makes it more likely that one kills his mate because he can't deal with the pressure we put on him. Egad, does this mean that we have met the enemy and he is us?