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Stalking the Blue Eyed Triton Cockatoo

The search for Mozart's Younger Brother!

Part 2: Lost in the Woods

Updated: 11-24-2006

Mozart the hiking Triton Cockatoo on the Billy Goat Trail, Great Falls, MD, 2004

Mozart on a hike along the
Mather Gorge of the Potomac River

Recap: We lost our Triton Cockatoo companion "Mozart" in October, 2004 after 14 years of companionship. Without a Cockatoo in our lives we felt like we were "lost in the woods." We have decided to obtain another male Triton Cockatoo, hopefully from the same parents through the American Bird Company. Even though we have lived with a Cockatoo for 14 years, we had no idea of how often or when they breed, how many eggs, how long it takes the eggs to hatch or how the chicks develop.

In January we learned from Pat Boros at the American Bird Company that an egg had been laid by Mozart's parents on January 11th. The gestation for a Triton is 26-29 days, so we marked our Calendar for February to check back with Pat to see if it had hatched. In early February there was no news, but we learned that if there were a chick, it would be left with the parents for the first 3 weeks of its life, and then be brought to the store where they would take over the feeding and rearing from the parents. If there was a fertile egg, the chick would not be brought to the store until early March.

Mozart at Harpers Ferry, WVA, Summer 2004

Mozart at Harpers Ferry, WVA, Summer 2004

We had to wait until early March to check again if a Triton chick had hatched and made its way to the store. Alas, we learned that the egg was not fertile and there was no chick. Pat commented that she thought that the dark cold winter weather was responsible for the lack of fertility. The only good news was that all the birds at the breeding facility were busy laying eggs, so there might be a chick hatching in early April. We continue to wait. And hope. What will April bring? Will there be an Easter Cockatoo chick? Or will it be later in the Spring? We remembered that Mozart was hatched on May 14, 1990. He went home with us later that same year in the first week of August. Will a younger brother wait until May? What happens if the chick turns out to be a female? Or if there is no chick at all this Spring? We'll just have to wait and see.

Sometimes when life turns a dark corner, like it did for us when Mozart died, it can get worse. Ever since the day Mozart died, our parrot, Pele, a beautiful female Solomon Island Eclectus parrot, has been sick with a leg infection. This is another story that went on much longer that we could ever have expected. More...

Pele, a female Solomon Island Eclectus parrot

Pele, a female Solomon Island Eclectus parrot

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