How to reduce separation anxiety in our clinic Cockatoo?
Hello. I am a veterinary technician at a 3 doctor small animal Veterinary practice. One of our vets sees avian patients. We have acquired a 29 yr old cintron cockatoo named Lacey after her owners passed away. She began living here ~ 4 yrs ago. She has historically been a feather plucker and has gone as far as self mutilation (before moving into the vet clinic as well). She wears a soft e-collar when unsupervised. We cover her cage at night.
She is very strongly bonded to me and another technician. And allows a third tech to handle her. Other than that, she likes attention and pets from some staff. Every day that either of her favorite people are working she comes out at the end of the day and most days at lunchtime for time out of the cage and without her collar. She is on a diet of zupreem pellets and some table scraps. She has the large cage from her old owners in the corner of the high traffic area in the office, outside of the exam rooms. She is extremely sweet and loving with her favorite people.
If she does not like someone she will become aggressive and either bite the person she does not like or redirect & bite the person she loves that is holding her or close by. We used to allow her to be on a perch or an area while we worked but she has had a few severe attacks on the vet that she does not like. Due to this, she is now mostly in her cage except for the times listed above when we can physically sit with her. She is very reactive to men and strangers have to take time before she accepts them.
She is overly attached to me & often will scream when I am in an exam room with a patient where she can hear me, but not see me. We try to avoid giving her attention when she yells, but she will stress out the patients and owners inside the rooms and disrupts the office, so we end up having someone go to the cage to talk to her if they cannot take her out. We give her foraging toys in her cage, but often she will not play with them until the person she wants is by the cage to watch her.
Any tips on how to improve the situation?
