Ask Lafeber

cockatiel death

Hello, my friend lost her 6 year old cockatiel yesterday so unexpectedly. she said the bird (I don’t know its gender) the thing started when she came back home from school and saw the bird has drunk or eaten nothing. she tried changing to food and also tried multivitamins on the bird but the bird still had no willing for eating and looked kinda sick and tiered. after a while, its situation suddenly started getting worse and worse, it lost its balance(the feet were weak and numb) and couldn’t fly. then it fell on the ground, shaking, twisting its neck, moving wings. and then unfortunately died.
I promised my friend to help her finding the reason of the bird’s death so that’s why I’m submitting this question and hopping it will lead me to an answer. if you have any recognition or guess, providing it would be appreciated. thank you

Hi,

I’m sorry for your friend’s loss. Unfortunately the only way to know what happened is to have a Vet examine the bird. Most likely it had been sick for a few days and your friend didn’t realize it. Generally a sick bird doesn’t stop eating until it feels really bad. There are a lot of airborne toxins that can kill a bird including cleaners, air fresheners, scented candles, some cookware – pretty much anything with a fragrance or strong scent or fumes can be toxic. But an airborne toxin kills fairly quickly. If nothing new had been added to the home that day, then again, only a vet can determine why the bird died.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda