[Marilyn]

We had a cockatile, and she was a sweetie, except when she wanted attention or sometimes when certain sounds were on the TV. She would get very loud. Not just chirpy. She would sound like she was yelling at us. More like squalks. I tried covering her cage, and she would still make noise. I would put her cage outside sometimes on nice evenings and let her get some fresh air and give us a break. One night I forgot to bring her in, and we think a cat got to her and pulled off one of her wings. The vet tried to save her, but she died. We did not get another. She escaped once when we had her out flying around inside the house. She flew out an open door, but was found by some people at a nearby apartment complex who had birds.

Her beak was very strong. One time when I had her on my shoulder she was nibbling at my earring. I noticed later that she had crushed the gold balls on my earring. Maybe she thought they were shiny seeds or something.

She put off a lot of feather dust, too and was a bit messy. If we'd had a screened in porch to put her cage in sometimes, I think it would have worked better for us. We had friends who raised cockatiles and love birds, and they had some on perches on their screened in porch. They seemed very happy there.