My Free Roaming Parakeet Got Lost

User Question
I had a partially trained parakeet and I came home one day and he was gone. I gave him free reign because he would go back into his cage when he wanted to. I have yet to find him. I went a few weeks ago and bought a baby parakeet and was reading how to hand train them before I let him out. Well my son left the water place open last night and he climbed through it and got out. I just went ahead and let him fly for awhile. When I got ready to go to bed I looked for him and I can not find him. Do you have any way to help me figure out what has happened to my birds. Is there a favorite place they like to hang at. Please help

Lisa's Answer
First off, you should *never* let a Parakeet just wander around a house unattended. Think of a parakeet as a 2 year old child. Yes, they are semi smart about not deliberately jumping into danger. But they make mistakes! They are very curious about little nooks and crannies, get stuck, and if you're not there, who will get them out? What happens when you open the door to come in and they fly or run out the door? They should only be let out into a sealed area, where nobody could accidentially open a door or window without warning, without open flame, without spinning fans, without dangerous plants.

Parakeets love to explore. They could literally be *anywhere*, probably got stuck somewhere and then died from starvation. Parakeets can find old toilet paper tubes in the trash, crawl in to see what's inside, get stuck and die. It is VERY easy for a parakeet to die if they are left to randomly explore.

Make the entire house very quiet turning off *anything* that makes any noise including clocks and such. Then get down on your hands and knees and go around every square inch of each room that the parakeet might have gotten into. Make little chirping noises and see if you hear any feeble responses. Hopefully this latest one is still alive and you can rescue him, but parakeets literally need food daily to live.

If you get another parakeet, please NEVER leave it out unattended. This is an awful way for the little birds to die, and it can easily be prevented. You need to be in the room when they are out, and then put them back in to safety when you leave the room.

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