Two of my cockatiels have recently died )o=

[blusher1966]

I got Bojangles 9 months ago -- given to me by a friend. He was lively and happy -- always single, saying 'pretty bird', doing cat calls, whistling for the dogs, mimicking a wounded dog and even coming up with new stuff on a regular basis -- he would go on for hours. He was my best companion in lonely times when I moved to a new town 70 miles away. My grown son and his family lived with us in our other house and the bird was stressed -- plucking his feathers out and such but he calmed down and livened up when I moved and took him with me. Two months ago I visited another bigger town and found another. I felt bad for him because he looked all alone and sad so I bought him and took him home. I put them together right away because I didn't have another cage. Things seemed fine and they seemed to be getting along. Within days another friend gave me a female cockatiel because she was moving out of state -- Bucky -- she stayed in her own cage, next to the boys. Things seemed good until about a month ago - the store-bought bird was still quiet but Bojangles was his same old self and Bucky seemed to try to mimic Bojangles-- then I went to bed one night and Bo was on his perch ready to sleep, the next afternoon he was dead at the bottom of the cage. The cages had been side-by-side so I assumed they two left were familiar with each other - over the next few weeks I progressed to moving Bucky into the cage with the other bird -- two weeks ago. She was talking/singing and he was starting to be more social. I watched them eat and drink together with no problem -- two days ago Bucky started getting frantic in her cage and her feathers seemed disheveled, she seemed weak so I put her back in her own cage (he was frantic). I even gave her a box in case she was egg bound. She seemed to perk up and even took to sleeping in the box -- she died today - in the box. I have no clue -- I have had birds before and never had this problem before. What did I do wrong?

[HudsonJuan]

A related discussion, New was started.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I am so sorry about the loss of your birds.  That must have been truly devastating!  I don't believe that you did anything wrong.  Birds can have many of the health problems that occur in any other species such as: kidney disease, parasites, liver disease, endocrine disorders, cancers, infectious disease, behavioral problems, nutritional deficiencies, etc.  

They can be sick for a long time before you notice that anything is wrong.  Hiding illness is a very important inborn behavior to hide from predators.  Therefore, each of the birds that you lost may have been harboring illness for quite a while before they passed.

[blusher1966]

One more thing...Bojangles gave NO indication that something was wrong. He was healthy when I got him -- the person I had gotten him from had him for over a year and he seemed healthy for the entire time I had him. Bucky was healthy when my friend gave her to me -- they had her for years with no complications. As I said, I noticed the other day that she was not herself - feathers all messed up, she seemed to stagger around the cage and would 'freak' from time to time - seemed to slam herself against the bars, sometimes getting her wings stuck between the bars -- she seemed too weak to hop around and resorted to 'beak climbing' and often misstepping when she tried to get on a perch. That is when I put her back in her old cage and the other bird got very upset -- he is not social but began to screech and squawk when I took her out. Now she is gone and he has gone back to the quiet, sad, anti-social bird I first bought from the pet store. I am absolutely devastated )o=

[blusher1966]

I had a bird 10 years ago and introduced another immediately that I brought home from the humane society --they lived happily together for several years until the complex I lived in decided to spray for bugs and didn't tell us - we kept the them by the window in the summer because they loved it -- they were dead the next morning.