![]() ![]() When the world around him was calm, he could steady himself and observe. The twitching of his body settled down and, as his over-preening slowed to a stop, his feathers started looking smoother than ever. Spiderman wasn’t a fan of weekly injections for six weeks, but compared to before, it was like night and day. PDD has no cure but it can be treated to make an affected bird’s life much easier. PDD varies by species and individual but in Spiderman’s case (like many other cockatoos with the condition), it affects his neurological nervous system and flares up when he’s stressed. It took a while but, finally, test results provided answers: Spiderman had proventricular dilatation disease (PDD), a condition that affects a bird’s nervous system. They ran tests and tried different medications, looking for a way to give Spiderman control over his body and bring him some peace. Meanwhile, veterinarians worked to piece together a diagnosis. But being in a quieter setting with his own space was a good start. “When we first got him,” Elle says, “if we were … standing and looking at him, he would be on the opposite side of his enclosure, just scared or falling down.” It was a whole new world with a lot to take in. So, he just sat and looked at them, barely touching them and only occasionally chewing on a corner of cardboard or paper. They gave him toys, but he’d never seen such things before. When Spiderman and the 18 other birds who caught a ride with him arrived at the Sanctuary, caregivers set Spiderman up in his own space and covered all his perches in vet wrap to make it easier for him to hold on. But at his new home-between-homes at the Sanctuary, he would get some much-needed veterinary care and plenty of TLC that would change his life and help him find joy again. Spiderman’s history was a mystery, and so it wasn’t clear what caused his body to act as it did. He lost control of his body altogether and fell off his perch. His body language was subtle, not easy to read and made even more difficult by the way he twitched and shook. He was uncomfortable with other birds and didn’t trust people. It was as though you could feel the anxiety radiating from him. Not accepted into the flock, he clung to the bottom of the cage and trembled, preening and picking at his feathers until they were even more of a mess than previously. Spiderman had been singled out by the other birds he shared the space with. “There was definitely a tone and a reputation to him.” “We walked in, and they said: ‘This is Spiderman,’” recalls Elle Greer, supervisor at Parrot Garden, of that first meeting. And among them, a shaky, sulfur-crested cockatoo with rough-looking feathers stood out. In one enclosure, several cockatoos flapped, squawked and kicked up bits of feathers into the air around them. Competition for nests would also occur between the sulphur-crested cockatoo and the corella as well as the native white-tailed and red-tailed black cockatoos.When they arrived to pick up the birds, the sound was deafening as parrots of all shapes, sizes and colors called out in hundreds of different voices from every corner of the building. ![]() Sulphur-crested cockatoos would compete for food with the endangered western long-billed corella in the south of the state, in the 25mm rainfall belt. ![]() Large flocks may also create a noise nuisance as they begin calling before dawn and may call during the night. In Victoria, sulphur-crested cockatoos frequently cause widespread and costly damage to the soft timbers on houses and other structures, and to managed grass surfaces including golf courses, bowling greens, tennis courts, ovals and racecourses. In Victoria it damages vines and orchards, nut crops, vegetable, cereal and oilseed crops, young tree plantations and mature trees. In parts of New South Wales it is a pest to fruit, pea and sweet corn growers, and feeds on almonds and grapes and chews off the young shoots of vines. In eastern Australia the sulphur-crested cockatoo is a pest of grain crops. An increase in the number of sulphur-crested cockatoos in Western Australia would result in significant damage to grain and other crops and have negative effects on native bird species. ![]()
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