On New Year’s Morning (a great morning to discover this) I found my parakeet Henry dead at the bottom of his cage. My family and I have had him for about two years since he was a few-month-older, and it was hard to see him like this, (he always looked like a little baby to us.)

But, now we also have a 6-9-month-old cockatiel. She’s on the other side of the room from where he used to be as I type this, and I’m really worried about her health after Henry’s sudden death. I’m planning on going to an avian vet to get her checked out as soon as we all possibly can, (which, unfortunately, won’t be for at least a few more days; we aren’t exactly centrally located to an actual avian clinic; everything we’ve been to handles solely cats and dogs), especially because she’s so young and her immune system can be susceptible to anything, especially compared to a 2-year-old.

About a week and a half to two weeks before Henry died, my mom and I decided to relocate him to a nicer part of our living room, which was a little bit higher than where he used to be. What we didn’t realize is that my dad had recently been tinkering with the heating vent nearby; the vent was exposed for a short time and was blowing hot air at him for the four days he stayed up there. I have to admit that sometimes we can forget to keep a keen eye on him, (at the time we were remodeling the house as well), and he didn’t get a good food-and-water change for at least a day and a half. When we found time to check on him, his water was completely bone dry, and the husks from his food dish were strewn all over his equally distressed cage. Shocked, we took him down immediately and put him back in his original lower place and replenished his water and food supply, but I guess health-wise, we may have been too late. Henry acted really weird after that, almost neurotic; a simple, everyday sound like someone coughing or a light turning on or off seemed to get him extremely agitated. His eyes were a little freaky, too; they constantly seemed to be dilating. Even though he was acting so weird, I figured that he was eating and drinking normally and was responding to contact, (in a flustered way, but I didn’t think much of it at the time), and that he would get over this funk in a week’s time or so, to which my mom agreed, (although as hesitantly as I did.) In the meantime, he was very lethargic, and we attributed it to the exhaustion from not receiving enough food and water for that amount of time.

Bindi – my younger cockatiel – shows a few symptoms like Henry did, although she shows them much, much more mildly. Turning on lights and making sounds does agitate her, but it’s more like a "grumpy cat" reaction, (ruffles up feathers, gives you a "what the heck did you do that for?" look, and goes back to her business.) She eats everything in sight (including the healthy stuff, something that I have to note that Henry never did; Henry was a fruit and treat junkie) and drinks water normally and at a regular basis, (in the meantime, since she’s in the vent area, but just at a lower height, I’ve been dropping small ice cubes in her water to make sure it stays cool enough to keep from drying out.) She gets lethargic as well, but my mom said that she heard from a bird-breeding friend of hers that birds as young as she is often require a lot of naps, so we haven’t paid much concern to that.

Anyway, I just want to know what happened to Henry both as closure to the mystery behind his death and as a reassurance that Bindi won’t have the same fate. Thanks so much if you can help. Like I said, the next opportunity we’ll have to find a clinic to take her to won’t be until at least a few more days, so we would really appreciate some at-home advice as to watching and caring for her until then. Also, as I said before, she is in the area that Henry was when he was near the vent, but she’s at a much lower position, and direct thermal contact between her and the vent is completely blocked by the Christmas tree we still have up, (and the vent is currently covered with the new grate.)

age can contribute however id would be mu guess that she died from sudden temp changes. from hot to cold and heat blows really hot if youre under the vent,.keep a close eye on the other if it is in the same spot make sure to protect him

One Response to “How did my 2-year-old parakeet die?”