The time will come when dire situations will push you to take emergency measures to save the cockatoo eggs. Some, especially young parents, may leave the nest. The sudden absence or death of one of the parents will also lead to the complete abandonment of the eggs. Nesting activities to support the clutch are a two-way job, at most the hen sits on the eggs all night while the male gives her rest intervals during the day. The task will be too much for a single parent to handle, and although there are legends of it happening, it will truly be impossible to accomplish without divine intervention. That would be the divine in you.

So there are actually two options for saving the clutch, both of which require you to completely remove the eggs from their birth parents. One is to artificially hatch them and then hand-feed them from day one, a rewarding but exhaustingly expensive and usually heartbreaking experience, as chicks hand-fed from day one are prone to myriad diseases, lacking the immunity provided by a parent who feeds them.

The other option is parenting. Adoption has been an old strategy to allow some species to escape extinction. Bengal or society finches are famous foster parents who don’t really need a female and male pair to get the job done. When they see the clutch, the whole “society” will adopt and raise them. However, the world of cockatoo parrots is not as lucky as the finches, adoption is possible only for those who, at the same time, are also nesting.

So option one. Adopt the abandoned clutch for another pair of nesting cockatoos. Make sure the age difference between the original clutch and the one to be fostered is no more than three (3) days. This is to avoid a large disparity in chick size. The larger ones will compete with the newcomers for food and when the difference is too great, the parents will most likely switch to survival mode and cull the smaller nest.

Option number two. Foster the eggs to another nearby and similarly sized species of parrot, most commonly the parakeet. Same as rule number one, watch for the disparity in the age of the eggs. Remember that the count begins when incubation begins. The cockatoo and the parakeet have the same average incubation period, from eighteen to twenty-one (18-21) days.

Option three. Low foster African lovebirds. These are so popular that most bird breeders have at least a couple of them. Although they are smaller, they are good and willing adoptive parents. The problem is that the chicks will be larger than their foster parents in two weeks, so be prepared to resume hand-feeding after this period. They will be easier to hand rear at this stage and will acquire much needed immunity from their African parents.

Option three. Breeding under minor species and major species of parrots such as the parrot. No expert breeders have reported any success, so it’s best to abandon the idea and proceed with hand feeding.

Breeding is a privilege for a few, but when it’s available, it’s a huge saver of time, money, and pets.