This is the story of a Moluccan that was always loved, then one day her owner became very ill and a new loving owner took over,   only to experience disaster....

Tuffy is a 24 year old moluccan cockatoo; she came to live with me when she was 20. Most of
her life was spent with the sweetest lady who just adored her and cared for her every need.  I
heard about Tuffy when her mom took very sick and could not care for her any more, that was
4 years ago, Tuffy was happy, healthy just a bit shy and the biggest sweet heart.  She was never abused or misstreated.   My life and hers fell apart when, my husband and I split up......

"Now I know" all the stress I was feeling she felt, It was to much for her, and she started to chew at her skin, under hers wings and legs. After many trips to the vet Dr. Rosco who was fantastic with Tuffy and my self. I'm afraid I broke down in tears in her office, every test came back fine.
It was behavioral so I spoke to a bird Behaviorist, and tried moving the cage around, etc.
nothing seemed to work, every day it was getting worse, she was now chewing on her chest, the more she hurt her self the harder she would chew, high on endorphins that her body released.

We tried putting her on haliparilol, all it did was make her dopey and didn't want to eat,and she still mutilated, meanwhile she is not sleeping and neither was I.   I don't think there is anything more heart breaking in the world then watching some one you love so much hurting herself and there is nothing you can do but tell her you love her and that she is a beautiful girl, and
everything is going to be alright. The mutilating had started in late October (2000) by December she had a hole in her chest about the size of a silver dollar, one day I had come home and there was blood all over; she had bitten in a vein on her wing and She nearly bled to death.

So back to the vet, this time to put a collar on her. God what an awful thing, the neck piece stopped her from biting her chest, but she could still get her wings which she did. So we had to
put a hoop on the piece. Tuffy was like she lost the will to live in the collar, no more playing or shouting, she just sat there and shaking. She is still not sleeping; the only way I could get her to sleep was to lay on my chest ,I know this is dangerous and you should not sleep with a bird but
it was the only way I could get her to sleep. I just couldn't keep her in that awful collar. So I
keep trying to design a new one without the glass collar or hoop.

After about one hundred different designs I came up with one that works great, she is happy, shouts, plays and is back to the fun loving bird she used to be. Tuffy will probably always
mutilate if she gets the chance.  Three or four times a day she goes without her cape to groom
her self, supervised of course. She is fully feathered and there no marks on her but I won't leave her unsupervised without her cape for a minute. Tuffy still sleeps with me and will never get over that, I have tried to make her sleep In her cage, but all she does is run around in circles and gets very agitated.

Unless you lived with a bird that is a mutilator, know one has any idea how heart breaking and awful this behavior is. Most birds that are mutilators die from bleeding to death or salmonella poisoning.