Ask Lafeber

Parrotlet Sudden Death

Hi there

Do you have any ideas as to why my parrotlet may have died please. It is too late for a necropsy as my son wanted to bury her,.

We were out for the day; come home she is on the floor dying. She lives with her beloved, a quaker parrot, very closely bonded never ever seen them fight. Successfully bonded over a year and live together in same cage.

Had food and water.

Extremely hot day, the cage was by the window.. but the Quaker is fine. Our conure who was also in the same room in the next cage over is also fine,.

There is a small amount of blood under her wing, on her pin feathers, both sides of her tail, I can’t find any wound. Just lots of sore looking pin feathers and congealed blood. There are a few droplets around the cage, no blood on the quakers mouth.

We are devastated and just want to try understand.

Thanks in advance,

Freya

Hi,

I’m very sorry for your loss. Unfortunately, the blood indicates that the Quaker killed her. It doesn’t mean he did it on purpose, but sadly his beak is much larger and stronger. Large beaks and small beaks do not mix. Even under supervision, all it takes is the larger bird doing what should be a playful bite, and when the other bird is that much smaller, it usually results in death. And having them caged together was just a tragedy waiting to happen. We offer free pet bird webinars, and I can’t tell you how many times our Vets have warned against mixing species that are not the same size. These are top Avian Vets, and they have seen the sad results of a bigger bird biting a smaller one. It’s a very hard lesson for an owner to learn, and sadly this is not uncommon. When two birds get along so well, you think there’s no chance of anything happening. But the bigger bird does not know that its bite is too strong for a smaller bird. Again, I’m very sorry this happened.

Take care,

Brenda