One Bird Died - Remaining Bird is Lonely

User Question
My family just inherited 2 birds from a friend of a friend. They are two males (found out from your page) and about 6-7 mounths old. We named them Bob and Larry after veggie tales. We went to the store that night and bought them food (pellets) and was in the process of hand training. We had Bob eating millet out of our hand (but he wouldnt let us take him out of the cage.)

I have done everything you site says to do and this morning I found Bob dead. It looks like he threw up all over the place and it was on the walls and around his mouth and nose. My husband thinks it could be because the cage is right under the heat vent ... but this makes no sense to me because I thought they were warm weather birds.

I know you are not a vet and I dont expect you to know what happend. But I could use some advice for the remaining bird Larry. He is the anti social one and I think they were together from the start. What should I do. How do I comfort Him?

Lisa's Answer
I'm so sorry to hear about Bob! Vomiting in birds is not a "disease" - it's just a symptom of something else that's wrong. Just like in humans, vomiting can be caused by all sorts of things - bad food, fume inhalation, sickness, or more serious issues. It's probably hard to remember exactly what was going on that night, but were you having any smokers over? Using teflon pans for cooking? Cleaning the carpets? It doesn't sound like he had a cold - you probably would have noticed him being listless beforehand and colds usually don't kill a bird that quickly.

It is important for a bird to be *warm* but not in a draft. Drafts are very bad for birds, especially ones that go from very hot (i.e. when the vent is running) to relatively cold (when the vent shuts off). A bird needs to be in an even temperature - not in an area where the temperature varies wildly.

For Larry, while he might be anti-social, he is still a parakeet and a flock bird. So he'll want to have a friend to keep him company. I have advice on the site about how to introduce a new bird into an existing situation. Good luck!

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