The Goffin is the smallest of the commonly kept white cockatoos and probably the cleverest bird in this part of the market. They have been the subject of serious research into tool use and problem solving, and anybody who has kept one will tell you the research is not surprising. They are also cockatoos, with everything that carries.
They will get out of the cage
This is not a joke about a clever bird. Goffins undo clips, slide bolts, unscrew fittings and work out catches that hold other parrots, and they do it when nobody is watching. The danger is not the escape, it is what a loose parrot finds in a kitchen - open windows, hot surfaces, other pets, cables. Buy a cage with locking catches, and assume the bird is working on them.
Boredom is the other half of the same trait
A mind like that needs a job. A Goffin with nothing to do takes up feather plucking and screaming faster than almost any other parrot, and both are much easier to prevent than to cure. Foraging toys that hide food, things to dismantle, and a changing cage rather than a fixed one. The owners who do well with Goffins talk about rotating toys weekly, not about buying good ones once.
Noise
Loud, and a cockatoo loud rather than a conure loud, though less relentless than an Umbrella or a Moluccan. They shriek in bursts, usually morning and evening. A detached house is fine. A flat is not.
Powder down
They are cockatoos, so they powder. Anybody in the household with asthma or a dust allergy should treat that as a reason to choose a different species, not as a cleaning problem.
Compared with the bigger cockatoos
Goffins are generally less prone to the desperate, cannot-be-left attachment that gets Umbrellas and Moluccans given up, and they are small enough to house in a normal room. Keepers who want a cockatoo and have been warned off the big ones often land here, and it is usually a sensible landing - provided the enrichment is taken as seriously as the cage.
Living with one
Thirty to forty years. A pelleted base with vegetables, kept low in fat, and a great deal to destroy. They are affectionate, physical, and funnier than most parrots - a Goffin that has worked something out will come and show you.
Buying one
Ask what enrichment the breeder uses, because the answer tells you whether they understand the species. Ask when the bird weaned and ask about disease testing. The breeders listed on this page raise Goffin Cockatoos and can be contacted directly through the site.