pistol is dead.

[Cardinal]

For me, personally a bird and especially a parrot family bird is a million times more precious than a rat. Having lost 2 of my precious budgies, i have to admit i do not have a favourable disposition to them.

One book that would be good to read for bird lovers and also rat lovers is Rat Island by William Stolzenburg. It will move you to tears- both of sorrow and joy!

 

[itzjbean]

Aw, so sorry to hear how it happened. I was actually reminded of this budgie I used to follow on Instagram, his owner allowed him free roam of the house when ever someone was home, and he suddenly passed one day. Turns out while he was free roaming hte house, he was chewing on and ingesting the screen on the window and had gotten too many metal particles in his stomach that would not pass.

I am so sorry it had to happen this way. I have never owned rats, I actually got bitten by one at the humane society years ago, but I hope you can learn to forgive them and also forgive yourself.

 

[Flboy]

I must add, the horror of this is so painful! Our first loss, Tango, was through a series of unrelated events, that the last act was horror! I was given a clear premonition, but because of personal issues, I delayed! Tango died!

 

[EllenD]

I'm so sorry this happened to you and to your bird...This situation happens far too often, and it happens to very well-meaning and caring pet owners. So you're not at all alone in what happened. You just need to learn from this are realize that just because your pets are loving towards you, that means nothing when it comes to their natural, innate instincts. You cannot rid a cat from being a hunter and a predator, though many, many people have tried and failed, and continue to try. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone in both parrot forums and bearded dragon forums say that "My cat has never hunted, attacked, or hurt a fly, he's just fat and lazy, and is totally uninterested in my other pets"...This attitude is extremely naive of anyone with multiple types of pets to believe.

Don't blame your pet rats at all, I know it's hard, but they were just doing what they naturally, innately do. They are at our mercy and in our care, and it's up to us to keep our pets separated and unable to hurt each other. You know that now, you've learned, and you're all the better for it. That's all you can do, learn from this, make sure it is impossible for it to ever even potentially happen again, and be the best pet owner you can possibly be from this point forward...don't keep punishing yourself though, that does no one any good, including your remaining pets. They need you now...

 

[bug_n_flock]

Rats are in the other room. I had both birds out for a while yesterday after moving the rats. Fatty seems to be coming back around tho is still off.



Acared the crap out of me, his forhead is bald. I thought disease or something, but no. Both birds are molting and Fatty just lost his forhead feathers all at once. Never seen a bird do that before, but there are a bunch of pin feathers all coming in there so I'll just keep an eye on and try not to worry too much.



Question, I'm going to pack away one of the three cages for space reasons and also to not have a depressing empty bird cage sitting out. Pistol's cage fits better in the room. Would it be ok to move Fatty or Alex in and pack away one of theirs, or would that not be being sensitive enough to my birds' mental states?


And thank you guys for your support and compassion. I was very scared that in addition to the horror of what happened I would be blamed by you guys. Heaven knows I blame myself for what happened already, I don't need others pointing it out.



Once again, thank you guys for being here.


From phone

 

[Jen5200]

Before packing up one of the cages, could you try moving one of them into the empty one and see how they do for a few days? Then you’d have a better idea how they would react and it would be easy to switch back if they don’t seem okay with it.

Again, so sorry about what happened.

 

[EllenD]

Hey Bug (Sorry, I don't know your real name, lol), please don't blame yourself for this, as I said, there is not one person in this forum or in the entire world who has not made well-meaning, albeit tragic mistakes...but continually blaming yourself for it is no good for you, and in-turn that makes it no good for your birds, your rats, any other pets you have, family, friends, etc.

Let me tell you a quick story, and keep in-mind that I'm now 38 years old and have not only owned pet birds since I was 6, but I grew-up in a family where my mother and grandmother had both owned and bred Budgies, Cockatiels, and different species of Conures for decades, and I started breeding my own birds at the age of 16. So I'm in no-way inexperienced, nor did I not grow-up with other pets, specifically dogs and reptiles...

About 5 years ago, at a time when the only birds I had in my own home were my breeder-Budgies, who lived in a large, indoor aviary and were not "pets" per se, I decided that I wanted to again have a pet parrot in my house (at this time I had one dog, an elderly pug who died of old-age shortly after this story took place). I decided that I wanted a Green Cheek Conure, as my mom had bred them and I had always loved their personalities and demeanor, though I had never owned one myself. I tracked down a very reputable breeder in the Lancaster, PA area through another breeder and friend of mine in New Jersey, who had no clutches at the time. This breeder lived about a 3 hour drive from my home, so I called her, and she happened to have a clutch of Turquoise Green Cheeks who had just finished weaning a week prior and were ready to go. I didn't expect to get a bird so soon, but hey, why not. So I went to my shed, hauled in the pieces to one of my large cages, put it together, set it up with bowls, a swing, and whatever toys I had, and then I went to Petco and bought a ton of new toys, perches, etc. I drug in one of my T-stands, got it set up, etc. Then I drove to Lancaster...she had 3 normal Turquoise babies and one Cinnamon-Turquoise baby. I played and interacted with all of them, and the Cinnamon-Turquoise (DNA female) kept coming to me, climbing on me, chewing on my ear, etc. Her prices were a fraction of what a Green Cheek usually costs, let alone a hand-raised/fed one, and I paid her $250 for Izzy, my little Cinnamon-Turquoise Green Cheek baby that was now just 11 weeks old and tame as could be, loving, attentive, who learned to fly to me in just one day, etc. I took her to my CAV, she checked out great. I had Izzy for about a month, when I was asked if I would be interested in adopting a hand-raised/fed, baby Blue Quaker Parrot (long story, basically someone got her and didn't really want her, only had her a week or so, then called me)...So I'm going "Do I want 2 baby birds right now? Oh, why not!!!". So I drove to NYC to pick-up my sweet Blue Quaker baby, Lita, who is one of the loves of my life, and is doing awesome...Anyway, so I suddenly had 2 baby parrots that I loved more than life itself, everything was going excellent with them, and best of all, they loved each other! A Blue Quaker baby and a Cinnamon-Turquoise Green Cheek cuddling and playing together all day long, every day, and including me in their little group...it was amazing...

Then after having my Green Cheek for about 2 months, I went to take a shower, and Izzy, as she always did, flew right into the bathroom with me, and sat on the shower-rod while I took my shower. She had been doing this since I had brought her home, she loved water and bathing, and she would sit up there while I showered, then when I was done I would put her on my hand and let her shower too...Well this day I hadn't noticed, but Izzy was actually sitting on a wet washcloth that I had hung over the shower-rod the night before...well as I'm rinsing my hair, I hear this loud and awful "THUMP!", and I look up and see that Izzy is no-longer on the shower-rod. Izzy was fully-flighted, but apparently what happened was the wet washcloth she was standing on slipped off of the shower rod from underneath her, and it actually somehow covered her when it slipped off the rod, and it was too heavy for her to fly out from underneath, so it basically slammed her to the bathroom floor...that was the thump. When I opened the shower curtain I saw the white washcloth and could tell that Izzy was underneath it, and I knew immediately what had happened...

I took the washcloth off of Izzy and immediately could tell that she was badly injured; she was holding her wing up and away from her body, I knew it was broken, but that wasn't what I was mainly concerned about. She was shutting her eyes and was wobbly, losing her balance and not even able to step-up onto my finger...I grabbed a towel and wrapped her up in it, and took her to her cage so that she could be somewhere safe while I threw some clothes on...I rushed her to the 24-hour emergency Animal Hospital that is literally 10 minutes from my house (this was on Saturday night, my CAV wasn't opened of course, though I did email him from my cell phone while I was in the exam room with Izzy at the Animal Hospital)...they have a CAV on-call, who happens to be my CAV, so when I had emailed him he told me he was already on his way as they had called him...x-rays showed a fracture in her wing, but no other visible injuries, but it was quite obvious that she had a bad concussion. Nothing I or they could really do, they gave her Oxygen while she was there, she did stabilize and she looked quite alright when we left...He put a temporary splint on her wing and I was to just keep her still and warm the rest of the weekend, and then first-thing Monday morning I was going to bring her to his office for a re-check...she never made it to Monday morning, she died sometime during that same night, as I sat next to her cage and fell asleep around 12:30 a.m., and when I woke-up around 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning, she was dead in the bottom of the hospital cage I had set-up for her...we later found out that she died of pressure in her skull from a brain-bleed she had from the impact with the floor...

So there I was, this really experienced parrot owner and breeder of literally decades, AND a person who has a Bachelor's in Health-Science/Pre-Med and a Master's in Animal Health Science, for god's sake, who killed her baby bird that I'd only brought home 2 months prior...One stupid, careless mistake/bad decision and my baby was dead. And I couldn't really feel too sorry for myself, as Lita I had to take care of Lita, who woke-up that morning to find her sister and best-friend wasn't there to eat breakfast with...that broke my heart more than anything else. So all I could do was make sure that Lita got as much attention and love as she needed and that I could give her, and that's exactly what I did. I started taking her everywhere with me, she was attached to me every second of the day that I was home, and soon I found myself able to start talking about what had happened to Izzy with friends and family, and just by-chance, one of those friends happened to know of a hand-raised, baby, Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure who was 15 weeks old and who needed to find a new home ASAP, as the people who had purchased him from a local Petco about a month and a half earlier for their teenage son (her aunt and uncle purchased him for their 15 year-old son as a birthday gift that he begged for) wanted rid of the baby Conure. There teenage son lost interest in the bird literally after the first day, he refused to change the baby's water or food, he hadn't let the baby out of the cage in weeks, and the baby was already "mean" as they put it, biting everyone and screaming all day long, every day. They tried to take him back to Petco, who would not take him back of course, so they were going to put an ad on Craigslist advertising the baby with his cage and 2 toys for free (yes, he came to me in a cage meant for Finches that had 2 toys in it, and they were little, plastic Budgie toys)...I immediately called them while she was driving us over to their home about 30 minutes away, as I told her that some other horrible owner would be picking that baby bird up for FREE within the first hour of them posting the ad. Sure enough they had someone on their way to their house to get the bird when we arrived, I explained my situation and my experience with birds, and they basically said "Here, take him" and handed me the cage with him inside it...And that's how I got my Bowie, the love of my life...I love all of my birds deeply, they are all my family, but Bowie is special. My bond with Bowie is special. I can't imagine my world without Bowie...

So things do happen for a reason, and we are all going to keep making mistakes, and that's okay, just as long as we learn from each one of those mistakes and move forward, not backwards. And beating yourself up over a mistake that you made is not only non-productive, but it will only make the pain you feel about simply losing your bird worse and worse. You need to be able to grieve and mourn for your bird so that you can heal, and if you continually blame yourself for what happened, you'll not ever be able to properly do this...