- Hey everybody Jamieleigh
here from Birdtricks coming at you with a toucan care video because I get asked so
many different questions about toucans as pets. (upbeat guitar music) Asked about poop, here you go. (upbeat guitar music continues) This is Rocko. Yeah, I think he's about
eight, or maybe seven. He is a Toco toucan, he's a male. They live around 25 years but honestly, most don't make it that long in captivity just because these animals are so incredibly hard to care for. I remember reading a while back and I haven't been able
to find anything on it, so if any of you do please leave me a link in the comments because
I'm so curious about this. But I remember when I first
started researching toucans I found out about this thing where there's a type of tree
that they have in the wild that collects the rainwater and something about whatever is on the tree mixes with what's in the water, these guys drink it, and it kind of makes it
so that they can have iron in their diet in the wild because in captivity, they
die from iron storage disease which is hemochromatosis. So it's incredibly hard to
keep iron out of their diet in captivity because you
find out when you can't have something, how often
it's in certain things. For these guys, we try to keep the greens out of their diet. We try to keep it 70%
fresh fruit but non-citrus. They can have some vegetables, but again you need to be really careful about the iron content
that they're getting. Water--they have to have distilled water because there's iron in water. They're also on a low-iron pellet, so the lowest parts-per-million
is the best pellet for them which I found is through Missouri. He loves these pellets. This is what his pellet looks like. And when he was a baby, I used to put them in distilled water, and they
would get all puffy and soft, and they were easy for him to eat. So he has access to a
few of those right now, then he has a big bowl of
fruit over on his other stand. And that's what his diet is: fresh fruit, a low-iron
pellet, and distilled water. Toucans get a lot of their water
content through their fruit but in order to drink
with their giant beak, they have to have a huge water dish. So when I spill it, it's a bummer. Do we feed him meat? No we do not. Some people do feed
their toucans mealworms. Some feed them meat in their
diet if they're maybe breeding. But no, we do not have
meat in Rocko's diet. There's no reason for us to
provide the meat in his diet. In the wild, though, these guys do eat lizards, snakes, small birds... They eat meat in the wild. This is a great question: Do they have a harder time doing things because their beaks are so big? I would say just from watching him, yes. He has a harder time preening which means fixing his feathers because he just can't reach them. Like a parrot, a parrot can
reach all over its body. He cannot. Does he have favorite toys? Yes, it's usually things he's
not supposed to have as a toy. However, with toucans,
because of their beaks, they can't destroy things like parrots, so we often get them
baby toys or cat toys, things that are fun and squeaky. So he likes texture. He likes things that have texture. So we get him a variety
of textured things. We get him these which make a fun noise, balls that he can play catch with. One of his favorites are
these little fuzzy balls because he likes the texture. He likes to rub it on things. You want to play with that one? Yeah. This is also a really
nice like soft texture. You can see him rubbing that on stuff now. He's just totally into it. His eyes are closed; he's
so into this right now. So favorite toy: furry-textured things. So this is Rocko's fun bowl of toys. He also has a variety
of toys in his enclosure that he can play with. Most of them are preening toys because he doesn't actually
take wood and destroy it like a parrot would. He loves swings; those
are some of his favorite. He loves anything where he can grab it and shake it and it'll ring a bell. He also likes the woven
toys where it's like bamboo or something where it's
woven and he can unweave it. Hands-down his favorite toy ever is drawstrings. So if I wear a sweater-- even the other day I was
trying to get him to come out and come hang out in the house, and he's like, "No, no, no. "I don't want to." So I put on a hoodie with two
drawstrings and he's like, "I'm there!" Oh my gosh, he's adorable. Hey, check out my face. I look prettier than ever. So is Rocko free flight trained? Yes, he was free flight
trained from a baby, but not to the extent
that our parrots are. Toucans--it turns out
when they're in flight is when they are in their most vulnerable. So it's not really an
ideal sport for toucans. They're just not really
that comfortable in flight. They use it as 100%
means of transportation. He does a little bit
of flying in the house, but for the most part he's like a "I wanna get there so I'm gonna go there." He doesn't really do a lot
of exploratory flights. What do we call--just going
off and doing fun flights. He'll do longer flight
to get into certain rooms like to go into my bedroom,
but for the most part we don't see him using
flight as a means of play. He's gotten out accidentally--ha!-- in Florida and in Idaho and places where we've had him in aviaries,
and he's come right back and it's been fine. So he's trained to, I would
say, a level of precautionary where you flight train your bird so that if something
happens, it comes back. That's the level he is. He's not a super skilled flyer because he hasn't had as much
experience as the parrots. No offense! Oh my goodness. You're just the most handsome thing. I would not recommend toucans specifically for free flight though. I wouldn't say, "Go get
a toucan for free flight" 'cause man... Is there a free flight video of him? Yes! I will add a card so you
guys can go check it out. We really need to make an updated one. Do you need a license to own a toucan? No, you do not. You just need to understand
what you're getting into because they're really
complicated animals, and they're super intimidating
when they're pissed off. I'm way more scared of him
when he's angry than a parrot. With the parrot, I'm more
willing to work through it and find a way around,
but when he's pissed off, I'm like...I'm just going
to let you calm down and we'll try to work
through it when you're ready. That brings me to his beak strength. His beak is very lightweight. So, for me, super lightweight to hold it. For him, probably not as light. He actually tucks it and lays it on his back here when he's sleeping. It is strong though. I've given him a full watermelon,
and he's killed the thing. Like totally annihilated the watermelon. So they're meant to be able to eat. Their beak is serrated
so they can grab things, shake it, smack it
against stuff to kill it. He tears pieces of fruit and flings it. So he's very capable for what
he needs to do with his beak. It just doesn't have the same
type of strength as a parrot where it's like pressure per square inch. If he clamps down on me, it hurts, but the worst
part is when he shakes. So if he's trying to hurt me-- he's mad at me and wants to bite me-- it's not like a parrot where they just come over and they chomp down. His chomping down doesn't hurt much. There's not like a lot of
pressure there necessarily. What hurt is when he
grabs and then he shakes because then you feel the
serrated part of his beak. But honestly what he'll do
if he's super mad at me and telling me to back off to
the point of having to bite is they jab. That's what he does. It sucks! I did ask Dave if he'd be
willing to show you guys because Rocko gets more
pissed at Dave super easy 'cause I'm pretty sure there's
no "Toucan Attacks Human" video on the internet,
so I do wanna demo that. I'd just feel bad for Dave
'cause he's gonna be a sacrifice. You guys better show him so
much love in the comments. So much love! How hard is it to have a toucan as a pet? I feel like because of
their diet requirements, their space requirements,
and their temperament of being able to change really quickly-- just an aggressive
toucan is pretty scary-- that they are incredibly difficult. I would say they're messier... (toucan clicking) I would say they're
shockingly less destructive. This is what a toucan bite looks like. So you can see it's a jab. You don't have to take it, babe. You're good. Don't have to take it anymore. Thank you though. That's a pissed off toucan stance where he kind of raises his beak. How would you describe that? - He kinda...
- It's like, "Come at me bro!" - [Jamie] Yeah, in scientific
terms, "Come at me bro!" (both laugh) So the noises are confusing, right? Because if you guys saw earlier, he made that noise right before I pet him. (toucan clicking) - So he was inviting me
to interact with him. - [Dave] This is pretty aggressive
and it changes instantly. - [Jamie] Yeah, so as you
guys saw, he was totally cool. He was playing with stuff. He was fine, and then he
changed his mind about the presence of Dave and got angry. - [Dave] You're not
really going to be able to see my arm too much here... - [Jamie] Let me turn it around. Oh, he's going, "Give me your arm!" Can we see what he did? Did he do anything? Oh, that tiny little thing. - If it was a finger though, like he can slice down pretty deep. - [Jamie] So, Dave, people
wanna know does their bite hurt? But that's our top
question is: What is it-- What does the bite feel like? Does it hurt? - Yeah, it hurts like hell. I would rather be bit by
a macaw than a toucan. So like what you just saw on my arm is like his warning bite. If you picture a serrated knife or a serrated pair of scissors,
like on a finger for example, that's where it hurts the worst 'cause it it will hit the finger, and
then you just got eight inches of beak to slide back
with a serrate on the top. But imagine that, and it'll just-- it just slices down so quickly. - [Jamie] Would you recommend
a toucan to an experienced... - Nope.
- ...parrot owner? - [Dave] Recommend a toucan to--no. There's so little known
about them that even in an unlimited budget
situation, it's difficult to keep them alive. I say they shouldn't be pets and we've been really lucky
with the ones we've had. You know, like with
everything, there's always an exception to the rule. They're...they're just difficult. They're difficult and they're moody. But they like--sometimes they
like these types of toys. Oh, do you like this one? Fiji used to love this. It was like her favorite. - [Jamie] He wouldn't play catch with me. (Dave laughs) He won't play catch with you either. - You want that one? - Nope.
- He's pissed. - Did you guys see that? - [Jamie] I don't know
if they could see that, but basically what would've
happened if he would've kept holding that is Rocko
would've gone right past it and for Dave. - So I will say, unlike cockatoos-- so he's jumping at me
'cause he's angry about my presence at the moment. But, unlike cockatoos,
I have never experienced a toucan that'll fly at
your head and attack you. In this situation, he's
looking at me as like, "Hey, you know, get out my
space" which I can respect, but he's not flying at my
head trying gouge my eyes out. Can I have that? (Jamie laughs) - Hey, I really didn't think he would just sit here so calm this whole time. I thought this video would be changing all sorts of locations, but it's cool. I literally wrote down
all you guys' questions so I could make sure
that I got all of them. And hopefully the pace is really quick so you guys feel like
you're getting the answers. Is the training the same as parrots? There's a whole different
set of body language queues. He has a much faster metabolism,
so he will feel hungry really really quick, which
can lead to aggression much faster, so you have
to be aware of that, and the food is really really important. But as far as the training
techniques and concepts, those are the same. It's just how you apply
them would be different. Oh, you're ... you are losing uh stuff huh? Getting preened? You much be itchy, huh? Are you itchy? Do you have new feathers coming in? Names of different types of toucans: Rocko is a Toco toucan; he is the largest. I've had a Swainson toucan. I love the keel-billed toucans. My favorite is the channel billed. Sorry Rocko. I just love the way the
channel billed look, and I got to see them in person
and I was just like, "Wow!" I also like the size of the
smaller toucans a bit better. How's the cleanup? Messy! If you guys are familiar
with lories or lorikeets, you understand like the
nectar/fruit-based diet, and when you eat a lot of
fruit, there's not a lot holding your bowels
together, so it's kinda like splattered paint if I'm honest. And you can tell exactly what
he ate based on his poop. Sorry this is getting
graphic, but at least I'm not gonna show you photos. When he eats grapes,
only the skins come out. The insides are gone of the grape. That's all they digest
and the peel comes out. When it's blueberries, it
looks like blueberry paint. When it's pellets, it's pretty much like an orange/white splatter of paint. But there's no just like
little bit of droppings. It's like splash! Real nice. Can Rocko do tricks? So, because his metabolism is so quick, I give him food all the time. But as far as tricks,
he did a whole routine in a show called "Parrot of Becks" that we produced for a theme park. He does a vertical flight. He also flies on queue,
so all we have to do is hold our arm and we snap and he flies. And he's really really good about that; that's how I got him in
the house this morning. (toucan screeches) They can naturally catch
things, but he doesn't usually want to play catch, but
I could try to demo it. Gonna have probably a fail. So this ball is squishy. It's his favorite sort of
ball to play catch with. Play catch? (toucan ticking) Ah, come on bud! Show 'em you can catch. Rocko, you can totally catch. He doesn't want to catch. If it was fruit, he would catch it. (upbeat band music) He's in too mellow of a mood
to play catch right now. But I swear toucans are
really good at playing catch naturally when they actually
want to catch the object. (splat) Did you guys hear that? Splat. I guess I should clean that up. Does he dance? Hey Rocko, do you know how to dance? No. Can toucans talk? No, they cannot. At least they can't mimic human speech. Because of the way that their
throat and their tongue is, their tongue is very
feather-like; it's very thin. They cannot mimic human speech. So they can make kind of a purring or grumbly growly type noise,
but there's no talking. And they're curious about everything. Can they eat nuts? No, they cannot. Nuts and seeds are not
apart of their diet. Stop! Neither are teacups! Is he a strong flyer? I would say sometimes I think he really is. When he does these amazing flights, like he flew into my bedroom
through the doorway and did this amazing
turn and I thought like, "Wow, he's like getting
really really good!" And my girlfriend had three toucans, one of
which she worked a lot with indoor flight. (toucan wings flapping) So it sounds like a chaotic
mess, but he lands just fine. But I wouldn't say that toucans... that Rocko is necessarily a strong flyer because he's never really flown
in super high winds before or had his skills super duper tested. And how lopsided is this. I would say he's a great
flyer in this environment. He does a really good
job navigating the house. He doesn't crash, so that
would make him a skilled flyer in the house, but a strong
flyer, I would say no. Strong flyer is pretty much wild birds. Those are strong flyers 'cause
they do it all the time. Rocko, even though he has the space to fly and he does fly everyday,
wouldn't say he's a strong flyer. My standards of a strong flyer might be different than yours, so if
you mean strong flyer like he can get wherever he
wants to go in the house without getting hurt or
crashing, yeah, strong flyer. Why did I want a toucan as a pet? I didn't (laughs) So when Dave was young, he actually... he had doves because he got into magic and he wanted to put together
a dove act, so he did. He got doves, and he used
to go to this feed store where he would get his dove seed. And one day he walked in
and they had a toucan, and they were like,
"Hey, want a pet toucan?" and he was like, "Wow,
that's awesome! Okay." So he bought a toucan. And we knew nothing! I literally remember
googling and being like, "They say to feed it monkey chow. "How are we supposed to find monkey chow?" Then I read later that
monkey chow was horrible which we never got our hands on anyway. But people used to feed
these guys dog food and monkey chow and things like that, and found out they were
dying really prematurely from iron storage disease. So I never actually wanted a pet toucan. And that one unfortunately died around six or seven years old from
an accident on tour where we moved the animals into a building and there was a gas leak, and the
toucan was the most fragile respiratory system-wise, and
so she was the first to go. Luckily, we didn't lose
any of the other animals, because there was a bunch
of animals in that space. There were dogs, cats,
all sorts of things. And they were all very
lethargic, but our toucan dying is what gave away that
there was something wrong because she was in really good health. Luckily, we didn't lose any other animals, but it was devastating to lose her. After we lost her, our
fanbase actually got together and bought us Rocko. Yeah, so thanks to you
guys, we have Rocko. However, I wouldn't get another toucan. And I'm not saying that
I'm not grateful because it was an amazing gesture
of love and support from our fanbase and I
super duper appreciate that. And that's just like--words
can't even express how shocked we were when Rocko came about and how in love with him we are. But my experience with toucans
has just led me to be like, (sighs) we are not cut out
to have toucans in captivity. They are so incredibly difficult
and hard and there's just too much unknown about
caring for them properly. He's so much fun and he's such a joy, but then when he's scary,
he's freaking scary! (laughs) So I can't imagine somebody
getting into having a toucan and getting him on a bad
day and just being like, "Oh man, now what?" I feel like people would
be way more screwed with an angry toucan than an angry parrot. So Dave and I have
already talked about it. When Rocko goes, there
will not be another toucan for us in the future. Not that there's not
exceptions to every rule, and I'm sure there's some people out there that do a great job, and of
course I do the best that I can and I try to provide him a kickbutt life. However, I just can't beat nature. Yeah, I wouldn't do it again. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. But I love him and he's awesome. Except for the days he's
not feeling awesome. Are toucans loud like macaws? Heck no! I feel like everybody has a
noise that they can't stand no matter how loud or subtle it is. So an interesting question that I did get that I didn't get to talk about yet was: Are toucans solitary? And they are much more
solitary than parrots. I know that they feed, usually, alone. They're in much smaller flocks. Everything in captivity that
I've seen, it's always been one or two toucans paired
together, but if there's two, they're usually a mated breeding pair. I did have a friend who had
three toucans and she tried putting two of them together
in all sorts of ways and they all tried to kill each other. We, at one point, had
two Swainson toucans. They were both female, and
they fought like crazy. So, it was--sometimes you
could get them to get along and they would be okay near each other, but for the most part,
they were not getting along and it was constant. I would say they're relatively solitary. He loves being in our presence,
but he doesn't necessarily want to interact all the time. Parrots, I feel like,
want more interaction. He'll come over and say
hey, but for the most part he's just flying around
being his curious self. Live in kind of a flock of... maybe six to eight in the wild. I've found that in captivity,
they are not housed that way. So even in breeding facilities
that I've seen or parks, the most toucans I see in an area is two, and they're like a breeding pair. There's not like a... a clan of eight toucans
together because I don't think it probably ends well
when they get fighting. Getting between two toucans
that are fighting is the worst! It's way worse than
getting between two parrots in my opinion because
you get the brunt of it when you get in between those beaks, so-- and I've done that before. And that's probably the only
time that I've had a toucan made me bleed is--or
make me bleed is because I got in the middle of
two toucans fighting and they were going full force at each other. So, definitely if you do get a toucan, do not get more than one. It's more than likely that
they will not get along. So these tiny little
feathers, they're so so soft. (toucan clicks) And then this orange is actually skin. It feels like velvet. And then the white is a little less soft than this black up here. This black is the softest! You can see his nose. That is where he breathes out of, so that's where I can smell his breath. (toucan clicks)
