Our CAG Ivy was killed :(

Last week, we tragically lost our 1 year old CAG Ivy. We had gone out on date night at 8pm Friday night - everything was fine when we left the house. We got home around 3am and went to bed. I woke up at 4am to our ferret, Pirate, in my face. We got Pirate about a month ago. I woke my husband up and told him the ferret had gotten out of his cage and asked him to put him back. When he went downstairs with Pirate, he saw feathers on the floor, and noticed that Ivy wasn't in or on her cage (we always left her door open without issue before this). He called me downstairs and we started looking for her....and after a few minutes we found her killed and partially eaten next to the ferret's cage :smile016: We are still broken hearted and just feel so guilty that this happened. We have no idea how Pirate got loose, and rehomed him over the weekend because we just couldn't even look at him without feeling angry. He killed our little girl

We buried Ivy under her favorite tree in the backyard - she used to love perching on it when we brought her outside. As you can imagine, the last few days have been really hard, especially in the morning and the evening when the house is eerily quiet instead of hearing Ivy's sounds and chirps. We talked about it and decided that we want another grey. So we took the drive to Bird Paradise this evening and immediately fell in love with one of their CAG babies, another little girl. She won't be ready for about a month, which will give us some more time to mourn Ivy, but I'm happy knowing we will soon have a grey in the house again. I don't expect anything from this new little girl - she will never be a "replacement". I just can't imagine life without a grey after having one for the past year. Below is a picture of Ivy, and then a picture of the new little one. You might have to click for larger image.

Ivy


New Baby Girl

Sorry to hear about Ivy.....

Sky, ferrets are like mice, they can get into virtually anything that they can get their head into.....I was downsizing several years ago & refused to let someone have one of my birds because I found out their daughter had a pet ferret.....I realize that a lot of people believe different animals can live harmoniously, but I'm not one of them, when we're talking about snakes, ferrets, mongooses & several unusual pets.....heck, I don't even let the girl's pet cats in the house.....they bring in kittens, but when they start staring at or stalking any of the birds, there is a hard rule here.....the cats either live outside or the cats go away.....

Thanks weco - yeah it was a no brainer that the ferret had to leave. Not even playing around with that one. It's just such a hard way to learn a lesson like that. I had NO idea they could be aggressive, especially towards a bird with such a powerful beak. Our cats and dog didn't even mess with her. So sad

Thanks so much Antoinette. It helps.

i am terribly sorry to hear that Ivy passed away it's never easy to lose a pet like that to another one, especially in such a freak accident. i know how you feel Rest in peace Ivy

Thank you Dally!

That's terrible, although the ferret was only following it's instincts I would of also re-homed it. I cannot imagine what you must be going through, truly terrible.

So sorry for your loss. I have worked with all kinds of animals. And love them all. But when I got into birds seriously, I decided that my house would be a bird house only. Having been in the Animal Welfare business, I saw too many similar accidents. You cannot fault the ferret, he only did what came naturally. But, I, too, would have had to re-home him.

I'm so sorry to hear about Ivy.....I can't even imagine what went through your mind when you found her, that would be a horrific sight to see....I know it was tough when I rescued a sick dog that killed my baby right in front of me on the second day I took the dog in. Then my baby Cracker the Quaker died in my arms, I hand fed him since he was a baby, he was only 7 years old, he would be going on 13 years old now if he was still around. He was a escape artist and I was going to put him up as I was only a few feet away when he jumped towards me. Rocco got to him before I could. It broke my heart and I thought about getting rid of Rocco the husky, but we kept him cause of his sickness. It took me awhile to really let Rocco be with me but I had to give him meds every morning and every night for many months. And deal with his diarrhea daily for over a year. I had to put my feelings aside because I did take him in under his conditions. I just don't trust them with my birds period. Cracker is buried in my front garden where I always think of him when I look at my garden, the garden was freshly planted and done when he passed. It will take you time to heal but you'll get through it and caring for your new baby with more caution as we learn from our mistakes.

Awww sorry for your loss Mikey Thanks for the kind words.

I had a ringneck and a ferret growing up. They never even knew the other existed. The bird would come at during the day and be put back in his room as the sun set. At night the ferret was let out until I went to sleep.

I am sorry for your loss. I must say that a statement you made concerns me, that not even your cats and dogs bothered your bird. Mixing predatory species with parrots is a bad idea. Not saying you can't have both in the same house, but please don't have them out at the same time. My friend had a roommate who had a dog that would just sniff his bird. Then one day the bird flew across the room and the dog grabbed it out of the air, killing it. I don't think training or temperment trumps instinct.

That is so tragic and sad.

;-(

Poor guy.

I feel so bad for her and the ferrit too.

He is just being what he is. But I would have been so mad also and...

DAMN waht a way to go.

MY HEART IS WITH YOU.

Advice maybe to all.

Think about the combination of pets we get and also our habits for our pets. I luv all animals, but my Tiger before I had to watch out for that guy and he luved the dogs but... He is a Tiger ;-) SO I was pretty careful, but who thinks about smaller cute pets.

Will you get another ?

I wish we could send one to you from here. We will need some rescued soon and also we know some great breeders here.

;-(

My Heart is with you little girl

;-(

khai - believe me, from now on we will be MUCH more vigilant with ALL the animals in the house. It was just never an issue, so we never gave it much thought. The cats were scared of her, and the dog couldn't have cared less what she did. She actually climbed on his back when he was laying in the living room once and all he did was wag his tail while she preened him Unfortunately, we now know that anything can happen at any time.

MrsSquak - yes we are getting another grey. If you look at my original post at the start of the thread, I mentioned that we went to Bird Paradise today and fell in love with one of their babies. Her picture is now my avatar. She's on four feedings a day, so it will be about a month before she comes home. We will NOT be getting another ferret. I know it's just instinct and we can't fault him for what he did, but in this situation, we couldn't be around him without feeling resentment, and he deserves a better home than that. He was adopted over the weekend by someone with another ferret. So it was a win-win.

Skylavaulter, I am so sorry for your loss and all the pain and grief you are going through.

Our cats are rescued cats from outside, one of them grew up outside. BUT they both are afraid of my parrots, especially the big ones. They NEVER go anywhere near their cages but the cats are never allowed to roam around the cages when I'm not around either.

I know what I said above about Rocco killing Cracker, but Willie the macaw is the only parrot that the dogs do not bother at all as he bit them through his cage bars since they were pups and Willie feeds them treats. He is the only parrot that everyone in the household is afraid of including my partner. Willie actually LOVES the dogs, when he went through his hormones he only wanted the dogs as he was nicer to them. But somehow the dogs respect his boundaries and I really think it has to do with when they were pups while getting bit by him.

When we first brought Ivy home, the cats went up to her (supervised closely) and sniffed her, and she tried biting them. After that, they were like "yeah nevermind. We aren't messing with that thing". Haha.

Very sorry for your loss,heal and get well

I am so sorry for your loss, such a unfortunate accident
It's never easy, and so many of us on here can relate.
I have many birds here, but are all behind closed doors. my family is 100% when closing the doors, and we have 4 cats and 3 dogs.

I hope this new little one brings you much happiness, you deserve it.

Ouch; you must be devastated.

I'm like Weco when it comes to other animals; I basically assume that all animals can (and probably will) act on base instinct, regardless of how they appear to get on, and for however long. Also, as you have unfortunately discovered, accidents will happen.

These things are always that much worse when you have raging anger, but nobody to blame but yourself. It's best no to dwell on it too much, at least beyond the lesson learned. Good luck!