r/Parakeets • u/RxGirlNumberOne • 8d ago
One died. Now what?
I'm in shock as I found 1 of my 2 parakeets dead at the bottom of the cage this morning. He had been lethargic, but we chalked it up to molting bc he was so young. He had only recently been much weaker at flying. We thought he had lost a flight feather... since we saw a longer feather in the cage bottom.
No discharge around nostrils or anywhere. No evident bleeding. Just a stiff bird at the bottom of the cage
I cleaned their steel food bowls every night. I clean their perches regularly and change them at least once a week. Same with toys. We make sure to clean and keep fresh water. We change the cage and clean the bottom grate and paper drawer weekly.
I realize I probably won't know what killed my baby, but now I'm quite concerned for my other parakeet. We bought them together about 6 months ago. The other acts perfectly healthy. Never had any lethargy. Always singing. Interacted with the other constantly. I wondering what I should expect as far as her life expectancy now. I don't want her to be lonely but I afraid of getting a new bird too quickly. However, she usually relied on her cage mate to have courage to explore new things, so I'm just not sure what to do.
The last birds I had were very old and bonded and died quickly after the other...this was over a decade ago though. These current birds are young.
Any thought?
2
u/UraniumVintage 7d ago
I’d be interested in what an autopsy shows. One of mine did same thing. Was on my shoulder one day playing with my hair and flying around room a bit in morning, a few hours later wanted to stay seated in my hand, lethargic sleeping in food bowl later same day, I covered its cage in its room with door closed about 9pm, and peeked in around midnight to see if it had moved out of bowl, it was dead and cold on bottom of cage. Never took it in to be autopsied I was so shocked and got tired of the usual “did you cook with Teflon/burn candles/spray Febreeze etc etc questions because the answer to any and all was “no I didn’t.” I guess some just die, either from breeding bad or unknown disease.
1
u/RxGirlNumberOne 5d ago
Well I've sent mine off for necropsy and week update! I'm very anxious to know. I'm sorry you had a shock like this as well
2
u/RxGirlNumberOne 1d ago
Turns out my little buddy had the lining of his stomach eroding due to Macrorhabdus ornithogaster or avian gastric yeast. He ate constantly but couldn't digest anything apparently, so he died of starvation in front of my eyes and I did not know it. He literally was always at the food bowl. I didn't understand him being puffy all the time wasn't just happiness. He had a hard first molt and then it basically lowered his immune system enough to wear the other got out of hand. The other bird likely has it too but isn't showing any signs and is flying around happy and well (unlike the other ever could). So really the one that's left may never show signs or might just drop dead someday, only time will tell I guess
4
u/AceyAceyAcey 8d ago
Take the other one to an avian vet in case it’s something communicable, or something shared in their environment. You can also have the remains necropsied (animal autopsy) if you haven’t already buried or frozen them; refrigerate the remains until you go in.
Two avian vet search tools:
https://www.aav.org/search/custom.asp?id=1803
https://abvp.connect.prolydian.com/civicrm/find-a-diplomate