Cockatiel Story.

[robmarcol]

Hello, It is a bit daunting writing so I will do my best. My wife, Marie and I have been married 39 yrs, over this time we have had 2 budgies, a Collie and 2 cats that have all died of old age. The last cat, Clancy, died of liver failure around two years ago at 14yrs of age. We had a few months grieving period and in Oct. my daughter and grandchildren suprised me with a Cinnamon Pearl hand raised Cockatiel whom we named Jack. He was a beautiful affectionate bird who was with for only twelve months. One Sunday morning I arose to find him fluffed up and looking terrible in his cage. I went thru the yellow pages and found an after hours vet who agreed to travel to his surgery but sadley when the vet picked Jack up to examine him he passed away in the vets hands. The vet could not give me a real explanation as to what Jack had but did say he seemed to have a kidney infection. It took a few months to grieve through Jack but in Feb. this year we found a little runt of a bird, ( from an amature breader) that wasn't hand raised but none the less a very cute grey white face. She was very small, pigeon toed, a little bit cranky but we were attracted to her so we brought her home and named her Nikky, she was not real sociable, didn't like to be handled too much but would sit with you and whistle. After about three months she began to talk as well. Her wing had been cut so she had never flown, just fluttered a few meters. two weeks ago, (on a Sun. morn.) my wife had her in our courtyard in a small tee tree that she loved to chew, ( she had done this many times before) my wife on a chair reading a book. After about an hour Nikky decided to hop onto the ground so my wife went to pick her up and somehow she was able to raise airborn enough to go over the dividing fence into the mouth of our neighbour's dog. We were all devastated, including our neighbour. By coincidence her mum is a Cockatiel breeder who had a 6 week old Latino. they insisted we take him so he arrived on the Wed. with instructions and food. He would not eat the baby food supplied nor the egg and biscuit that he had been eating at the breeders so after some frantic phone calls we found he would eat seed. He did this for four days, was a very forward, affectionate bird who loved handling, could fly really well and loved his head scratched. Can you imagine on the fifth morning I found him in the bottom of the cage lifeless. We are absolutely devastated, guilt ridden, angry, frustrated, so many emotions, to think that we may have done something wrong. I am sorry if I am burdening or long winded but we cannot imagine how a seemingly happy healthy bird at night could be so sick(like Jack) or even die(we called him Nik) over night. Hence my search now to try and find some answers. My wife didn't want another pet at first but after a week is saying maybe but before we did I would like to try and be a bit more informed, hence this long involved letter. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you for your patience. Bob.:confused:

[birdnerd]

Wow, Bob,

You've had quite a time of it.

It sounds like Jack became ill. Birds are wonderful at hiding illness, and he may have been harbouring that "bug" since before you got him. That happened with a gray tiel I had. Do you have any idea how old he was?

Nik ... less certain.

List of possible culprits: If Nik had been handfed, he may have aspirated food, which happened to a baby pi I had. It took about a week from the time he stopped eating to his death. In that time, the vet tried all manner of stuff.

Alternately, he may have gotten into something he ought not have gotten into or something airborne in the house may be to blame. There are all kinds of nasty poisons and other fumes. Teflon/nonstick pans, deodorizing chemistry, carpet cleaners, various food sorts (if the bird gets into them) ... Hard to say, really.

:(

[Islandzoo]

Hi Bob
Thank you for sharing this with us.
You've had some really unfortunate bad luck by the sound of things, I'm so sorry for you guys :(
the only thing I can think of, is there anything in your house which may be giving off fumes or do you cook using teflon coated pans? Generally speaking unexplained deaths in birds is caused by fumes as this can affect them really quicky. The others may have more to add to that...
Please don't blame yourself it may be purely unfortunate coincidence and you obviously care very much for your birds.

[vmtwriter]

Wow. I am so sorry for your losses.:tighthug: It sounds like you've been through a lot. Kristie & birdnerd have good questions and ideas about if something in your house could be giving off fumes. It could be something as simple as a scented candle or air fresheners (the plug in kind) or those that stand alone. Even the deodorizer used in your vacuum cleaner. Maybe spray cleaners used in the house ? They have some nasty fumes as well. Birds have very sensitive respiratory features and certain "fumes or smells" can scar their little lungs.

I hope that you can figure out what is happening.

[Jean]

Hello Bob, I am sorry to hear of your many pet losses. Each time we loose a beloved pet it takes it's toll on us. I am sending you and your wife a special hug. :grouphug:

It's often hard to determine a sudden cause of death when it comes to birds. It gives you a chance to think about the safety your home offers for it's surroundings. First of all, you did not mention if your home was bird safe, maning all precautions have bee taken to assure a bird safe home.

Just to mention a few household precautions!

never use teflon utensils / burnt cooking odors
do not smoke in the house you share with your bird
never use spray or room air freshners, or toxic odors
spray deodorantsmust be kept away from your birds air space
keep cats and dogs, other pets away from your bird for it's safety
safe and unsafe woods and trees - please read - in "Practical Links"
safe and unsafe foods - please read - in "Practical Links"

You will find many more safe and unsafe hazards listed in our
"Practical Links" forum. Please, feel free to read and ask questions.
Good Luck!

[robmarcol]

Thank you so much for your support, my wife and I greatly appreciate it. Something niether of us thought all that important is household fumes. We knew about chemicals, some foods, niether of us smoke but some of the things your replies have mentioned we never anticipated. I will spend the weekend studying some of the links, thank you so much again. Bob.

[Islandzoo]

You're welcome.
Hope you find the links helpful, take care and hear from you soon :)

[Shirley]

Hello Bob,

I am very, very sorry for your extreme misfortune and cannot imagine the grief you've been faced with.

I don't see how your vet can say "kidney failure" without running tests and such, and I don't personally think it was household fumes because death due to fumes is quick -- not a slow process. You will probably never know what happened there... it could have been a bacterial infection, a congenital problem, a virus, a disease from early on that finally became active... there are many possible causes....and without a necropsy (like an autopsy) you won't know.

As for the little 6-wk-old, that is WAY TOO YOUNG to go to a new home, unless you are an experienced hand feeder AND the baby is USED TO BEING HAND-FED, and this is not your fault, but the breeder should have known better. The baby MOST LIKELY did not eat enough, and just spent a day eating too little, and basically slipped away painlessly. Many times, a weaning baby is PLAYING with its seed, not consuming it. Tucker, our 'tiel, weaned completely at 12 wks. Our Bourke's parakeets aren't completely weaned until they are 8 wks at least. We will not let them go until they are proving they can eat *on their own* and living alone in a cage with no other birds to copy, showing they really are in fact weaned. Regression is very common when a "weaned" baby is taken from his siblings and placed alone in a cage... he suddenly quits eating, plays with his food, and loses weight, and then possibly his life.

I sold a weaned Bourke's at the age of 8 weeks once to a lady who called THREE days later crying... it was dead on the floor of the cage. I was devastated! She was an employee where my husband taught school, and lived only 15 min away, so I went immediately to see what the situation was. She had bought a Spanish Timbrado canary from me at the same time. I asked to see his cage. It was still all set up... and his seed cup was filled with canary seed... well, for a young freshly weaned bird... this was unacceptable and unrecognizable to him! His body was still limp, and he was quite thin. Not at all the bird he was when he left here. He had starved to death. She thought he was eating the seed, and thought the canary seed was parakeet seed. (!!) In the canary cage was his parakeet seed, and the canary, about 8 or 9 months old because that's how old he was before he started to sing to prove he was a male, was willing to eat the parakeet seed. He was more "mature" and thus would eat a variety of things.

First of all, she had mixed up the seed. Secondly, she had not followed instruction to give them MILLET, especially to the young Bourke's, as that is a favorite for weaning babies, it's like candy, and high in carbs to give them energy, and would have kept him alive... although I don't know when/if she would have figured out she had their food mixed up... she was devastated that she had made such a fatal mistake! I was too, and I felt so badly for her, she was beside herself in tears and blame, and I gave her another Bourke's, and he is with her still (2 yrs later).

Don't give up... but understand that it is a very delicate time during the weaning process.. the bird is still a baby and very fragile... it is learning to eat, it can lose a lot of ground by missing a meal or by playing with its food instead of consuming it, and a gram scale is very important for daily early morning weighing.

Ask your friend to please give you another chance with an older baby... 14 wks perhaps and completely weaned for at least three weeks on its own...

Clip both wings evenly, not just one (not sure if this is how you clip) and understand that even clipped cockatiels can FLY quite well! There is a link to proper wing clipping in the Practical Links section, I believe. For a cockatiel, you will probably have to clip 8 primaries... start with 7, see how it goes, but likely you will have to clip 8 or maybe even 9. Also, young cockatiels are very clumsy at flying... Tucker broke his wing on his first ever flight. You can see his pics in the 'tiel forum... but you may have to use the drop-down box to see previous posts up to 2 mos old and older. I've had him since he was 3-1/2 wks old and hand-fed him. He will be 1 yr in October.

I wish you well; don't give up --- a bird will be most fortunate to have you as its bird-parents! :wub:

[robmarcol]

Thank you so much again. Shirley, after reading your reply some things stand out with Nik. We bought hand raising food, mixed it to a milky consistancy with boiled water. He would not eat it. After a couple of hours of trying we phoned the breeder who suggested an egg and biscuit mix, again we could not get him to take it so in desperation we sieved the millet out of a cockatiel mix and he took to it straight away. He mostly ate this over the next 4 days with a little bit of e&b. We only gave him small amounts in a shallow lid and he appeared to be eating it but as you say we are not experienced enough to know if he really ate enough. We were more worried about him over eating as it had been stressed to us to just let his crop bulge a little only. Like I said previously, we would like to be a lot more informed and then get another cockatiel. The neighbour whose dog caught Nikky, because of the shock and trauma to both them and us, I think kind of arranged Nik hurriedly as her mum was the breeder, thinking this would help. Unfortunatley it didn't turn out. Bob

[birdnerd]

Hi Bob,

Handfeeding is tricky business. I lost a baby WCP that way ... with a lot of experience behind me on other birds of other types. It's unfortunate that the breeder sent out an unweaned baby to folks who had never weaned a chick before. It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong, so don't kick yourself over it. Taking care of a baby is harder than it sounds.

I'm sorry to hear of your string of catastrophic losses. I can understand wanting as much info as possible to avoid another one.

A bunch of us here have/had 'tiels, so ask away!

[SunCloudWindJune]

My little baby bird did not eat much at first when I brought her home from a private aviary but I went patiently around the clock feeding her little by little even if she didnt want it. Then she got used to it and started eating more and more. Now she's my little piggy lol I'm also teaching her to eat other things too.