Unexpected death of my rescue

Hello,
Last Sunday I adopted a 15-20 year old cockatiel. This whole week he has been active and happy, very affectionate and eating and drinking well. Yesterday, I came home from work to find he had passed away in his cage. His cage was one he had lived in the past 15 years with his previous owners, and I had added a few new perches and toys that were from the pet store. Would Metal poisoning be able to kill a bird that suddenly had he somehow gotten around it? He had played with a white Gold necklace I was wearing but had not torn it apart- it was just around my neck while he hung out on my shoulder. I'm devastated, and want to know what went wrong so suddenly. We had planned to take him to our avian vet for a check up later this week once he had gotten settled. Could stress from a move from his old home to mine been stressful enough to kill him? He acted happy and healthy this whole previous week. We have buried him, as I did not know if an avian vet could tell me what may have caused him to pass away without doing an autopsy. Any insight would be appreciated, I had really wanted much much more time with him and I'm going crazy trying to find out what I did wrong so I won't make that same mistake again.

Thank you for giving this darling a loving send-off. He left this life as a treasured bird, and that means a lot.
Yes, the vet could have done a necropsy to determine the cause of death, most likely, but in your grief, I do understand that you were eager to give him a proper burial.
Really, there's no way I coud speculate on what happened. The life expectancy of a cockatiel is usually 15 or so, although some do live a lot longer.
I doubt the necklace was involved, although I'm afraid of all jewelry and don't allow the Rb to play with any.
I'm sorry for your loss.

I’m so sorry for your loss!


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Awe, I'm so sorry this happened...thank you for giving him a loving home in his last days...

I think Gail nailed it, if he was thought to be between 15-20 years old, then he probably passed-away naturally from old age...20 years old for a cockatiel is like 90+ for a human...So he was most likely a happy, healthy boy, it's nothing at all that you did, it was just his time...I'm so sorry though, what a horrible thing to have happen in just a week...I hope this doesn't deter you from adopting another bird to add to your family sometime in the future, when you're ready...

I am so sorry! I hope you are doing as well as can be expected....very sorry for your loss. As stated previously, this is all speculation without a necroscopy but

I highly doubt that the necklace was to blame, especially when, before the internet, people did things all of the time that were not good for birds. I am not saying that logic is without flaw, but surely there was something else wrong (especially because zinc, lead and copper tend to be the biggest offenders and he didn't even take it apart).



It is very hard to say what went wrong, but it could have been anything--

he could have chewed on a rope toy at his old home and gotten bound up, he could have had a stroke, tumor, PDD or other disease (not always symptomatic), egg binding issues, he could have choked, or had liver issues (as you said, he ate mostly seeds) or a heart condition, he could have hit his head when startled....he even could have even died of failing health due to old age----I know that there are reports of cockatiels living into their 30s, but when it comes to equivalents in terms of people, those guys are like the octogenarians of the bird world. The average life expectancy (reportedly ) is 10-14 or 15-20 depending on the website ...if yours was over 15, then maybe he just didn't have the greatest genetics/ quality of life (prior to you) and wasn't going to make it due to innate predispositions. There is always the possibility of teflon poisoning or fumes, but I am sure you were cautious in that regard....so....try not to beat yourself up. I Googled sudden death in cockatiels and this is what I found ( but old age is a real possibility!) :

https://www.beautyofbirds.com/suddendeathinbirds.html
If you do decide to get another bird, and you are worried about the possibility of disease, then disinfecting everything with something like F10 SC would likely be a good start.

Again, so sorry you are going through this... It was very likely something out of your control.

So sorry for your loss. Try not to speculate too long on what may have happened. Am sure it was just natural causes.

At 15-20, this was a relatively very long-lived cockatiel, who may have simply passed away from "natural" causes. The gold necklace is a very unlikely as is potential stress from moving factor versus simple "age" - cockatiels lifespan generally fall between 10 and 14 years.

My deepest condolences for the loss of your cockatiel.

Without a necropsy (autopsy) it can be difficult to trace the cause of passing. As others have suggested, senior age may have been a factor.

If you plan to use the cage for a future bird, please thoroughly clean and inspect for chipped paint, and discard* any toys. Depending on the type of perches, they too can be sanitized.

*While a toy may not have been a cause, they are often hard to clean. Either discard or save as sentimental keepsake.

Cockatiels have the potential to live into their 20's or even their 30's so "old age" can't exactly be blamed....

However, birds fed a poor diet their entire lives do tend to age faster than birds fed a healthier diet.. that is, they are more prone to health issues than birds who are well cared for.


My own cockatiel is 17 and still lively as ever. Lost one cockatiel last year that was 19+ years old. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how old he was, but I'm sure he was probably at least in his 20's. I feel like another tiel I lost was also probably in her twenties, although I'll never know for sure... what I do know is that she was at least in her teens.


Never easy losing a pet, regardless of how long you've had them. As has been stated though, without a necropsy, there's no easy way to even guess what might have gone wrong, and it might not have had anything to do with you... or maybe it did? Either way, I wouldn't recommend a necropsy now.

MonicaMc said:

Cockatiels have the potential to live into their 20's or even their 30's so "old age" can't exactly be blamed....

However, birds fed a poor diet their entire lives do tend to age faster than birds fed a healthier diet.. that is, they are more prone to health issues than birds who are well cared for.


My own cockatiel is 17 and still lively as ever. Lost one cockatiel last year that was 19+ years old. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how old he was, but I'm sure he was probably at least in his 20's. I feel like another tiel I lost was also probably in her twenties, although I'll never know for sure... what I do know is that she was at least in her teens.


Never easy losing a pet, regardless of how long you've had them. As has been stated though, without a necropsy, there's no easy way to even guess what might have gone wrong, and it might not have had anything to do with you... or maybe it did? Either way, I wouldn't recommend a necropsy now.

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Actually Monica, while Cockatiels can potentially live into their 20's (into their 30's is extremely rare), unfortunately the average lifespan for a Cockatiel in captivity is between 15-20 years, and that could be under the best of care by their owner. My mother bred and raised Cockatiels for over 20 years, and her "pet" Cockatiels, not her breeders, lived in a massive, indoor aviary, were fully-flighted and got to fly every single day of their lives, and were bred and hand-raised/hand-fed by her and weaned directly onto the best diet a captive bird could eat...and they got more attention and love than I did as a child, lol. While I got really into owning and breeding/hand-raising English and American/Australian Budgies, my mom was all about the Cockatiels (she also has an CAG which she got from a friend of her's who was a breeder when he was just weaned, and he's now 32, so she just loves these guys). She had 5 "pet" Cockatiels that were never bred, not once, 3 of them were siblings, all males, and the other 2 were siblings, one male and one female.

The one of the 5 that lived the longest was 23 years old when he died, and the female lived the shortest amount of time, passing away at 18 years old. And knowing a lot of the people who bought hand-raised baby Cockatiels from my mom, the record for the well over 100 that she bred/hand-raised and sold as far as their life-span was 25 as far as she knows, and that's ancient. Also, my second-cousin and her husband opened a wonderful, privately-owned pet shop in my little, tiny hometown back in 1992 when I was 13 (it's still open and still owned by them but run by their son and his friend now). While they are both "bird-people" and they have a Blue and Gold Macaw that they bred and kept as their baby the year the store opened in 1992 and then later got a CAG, my cousin was the bird-breeder for the store. She bred and hand-raised every single bird that they sold in their store, everything from Canaries and Finches to Budgies and Cockatiels, to different species of Conures that weren't at all popular or even well-known by the general public back in the early 90's...and her husband bred and raised all of the reptiles/amphibians that they sold (still does in his home) and all of their freshwater and saltwater fish. She stopped breeding their birds for sale about 10 years ago, though he still breeds most of their reptiles, amphibians, and fish in their home...So now they only sell birds that they can buy locally from breeders that they know, mostly Budgies and Cockatiels (used to be from me) and occasionally some other birds...Anyway, we have had the discussion many times about the lifespan of certain species of birds, what can lengthen them, what can drastically shorten them, etc.

A hot-topic of conversation for myself, my mom, and my cousin (with me being a Budgie breeder/owner) is how most of the general public really, truly believes that the average lifespan of an American/Australian Budgie is around 5-7 years, when in-fact their average lifespan when they are fed a diet low in fat, as many Budgies die young of both Fatty Liver Disease and different fatty tumors that cause vascular and respiratory issues, is between 15-20 years old! My first Budgie lived to by 18 years old, just shy of 19, and the oldest that I've ever had was 21...So my question to my cousin and my mom was always why do Cockatiels not have a longer lifespan than Budgies, assuming they are fed a healthy, varied diet and not bred to death...If you asked either my mom or my cousin what the average lifespan of a Cockatiel is, they would most-likely tell you that #1) Males usually live longer than females, as female Cockatiels have an extremely stressful tendency to lay egg after egg and clutch after clutch, infertile or fertile, doesn't matter, and this is extremely hard on their bodies and is thought to drastically shorten their lifespans, and #2) The average lifespan for a Cockatiel in captivity, when fed a diet low in fat and that is varied, is about the same as that of an American Budgie, between 15-20 years. And if you do a search online, read most books on the subject, or just research the stories of past Cockatiel owners, you'll find that 15-20 years is actually higher than what most Cockatiel owners report.

And yes, of course there are exceptions, and any individual bird can far-outlive their expected lifespan...I think the American Budgie recorded to have lived the longest died at 29 years old, and I'm sure there are reports of Cockatiels living past 30, but that is certainly abnormal and rare. My mom's Cockatiels who lived past 20 years old had a really good quality of life, but you could certainly tell that they were elderly birds.

So the bottom-line is that it is quite possible that Liz's Cockatiel, believed to be between 15-20 years old, did in-fact simply die of natural causes...Now of course, when a bird, a dog, a human being gets to be "elderly" and we say that they "died of natural causes" or that they "died of old-age", there is always an actual "cause" of their death, usually it's something like a heart-attack, a stroke, cancer, etc. So it's possible that Liz's Cockatiel did in-fact have some underlying disease-process that finally ended it's life, or maybe it had a heart attack, etc., but the bottom-line is that if her Cockatiel was in-fact 15 years old or older, then he lived to be on the high-end of the lifespan for a captive-bred Cockatiel, and actually lived to be far older than most pet Cockatiels live to be...

Ellen, I feel like you well aware of the fact. I certainly don't expect my own cockatiel to live 30+ years, but if she did that would be amazing!

It just saddens me when birds die at half of their potential lifespan or less and people automatically say the bird "died of old age", when they have the potential to live so much longer!


Someone I knew on another forum and I'm sure I could probably find again had a male canary die short of his 20th birthday. A canary. Birds that aren't really expected to live beyond 3-5 years, 8 at best.


We can't always control their health and genetics though... I lost my 7 year old red throated conure to cancer last year. She should have lived 20+ years, but she only had 7... I heard that she ended up out-living her relatives, which is rather heartbreaking. I never knew there were health issues and I never spoke with the breeder directly (although I tried). She was simply a bird needing a home and I was willing to give her one. The person I got her from was fostering her.