Yesterday we woke up to find our beautiful African Grey parrot dead in his cage. Why, we don’t know…he seemed perfectly fine. We are hoping it was just old age.
He was my husband’s mother’s bird, who we inherited from her. He has been in the family for 35 years…most of my husband’s life.
We are really going to miss him saying “hello” and “goodbye” to us as we come and go, calling for my husband to pick up the phone or close the back door, and yelling at the cat to get off the furniture (all in an excellent imitation of my mother-in-law’s voice).
He hadn’t learned my name yet, but he did a terrific impression of my laugh.
I got annoyed sometimes at his food being scattered all over the floor all the time, and the amazingly accurate impression he did of our carbon monoxide detector (which malfunctioned and went off all day once when we weren’t home). But overall, he was a great friend and a real member of the family.
I literally gasped when I read this. Poor little birdie. All my sympathies to your family - parrots really seem like an integral part of the family even more than dogs and cats to me, since they live for so long. He sounds like he was a real cutie. What was his name?
Thank you so much, Anaamika! It is really sad, since he’s been around for so long, and since he talked so well. I think my husband’s pretty shook up about it, although he is pretending not to be. Mr. Bird was a real link to his mom, who has been gone now for about 8 years.
His name was…get this…“Mr. Bird.” My in-laws were terrible at naming pets! I think that techincally his name was Charlie Bird, but they liked to call him Mr. A sign of respect, I guess!
I’m so sorry! They are such bright little souls, it is so sad when they depart. Hopefully, your birdie just passed in his sleep. I have a cockatiel who’s age is a mystery since he came to me out of the blue…literally… and I know I’m going to freak when he goes.
I cried horribly when my dear little Edgar died. He was a blue parakeet that flew in through the garage door at work one day. I purchased Casey at the flea market as a companion for him. When Edgar died mysteriously, poor Casey was so lonely and sad I obtained Jones. Jones had a penchant for escapery and sadly broke his wee neck betwixt the bars. Dear sweet Casey befriended the mirror and would hide behind it mumbling whenever approached and was breaking my heart. I returned to the store and obtained Casem. I wonder if I will forever be replacing Edgar’s companions. On the plus side, watching a bird that has never been given the freedom for meaningful flight be introduced the the screened in front porch (Budgieland) and develop skills under the tutelage of Casey has brought much pleasure. I had Edgar for six years and still miss him terribly.
My condolences. I’ve lost parrots and been very affected.
Whenever a bird dies of unknown causes, I’d consider having a necroscopy performed to see if a vet can determine a cause. I surely would if there are other birds in the household who might be at risk; if not, it might still be informative, or worth the money, if it turns out some hazard that could harm humans did him in…you remember canaries in coal mines serving to warn humans of air quality.
And lastly, speaking of air quality, whenever I read that a bird has died suddenly and unexpectedly, I wonder about nonstick cookware. PTFE outgassing from nonstick cookware is a recognized hazard to pet birds, but not many people seem to know about it yet.
I cried my eyes out too whenever any of my birds died. The one that breaks my heart the most though…I once took care of a little bird that had fallen out of her nest and had broken a leg in the fall. She was never well, and we fed her through an eyedropper and took such good care of her. She would limp her little way over to us and one day we came home and suddenly she flew to her Mommy; she’d learned to fly all on her own.
We kept her as carefully as possible but one day she got out of her enclosure. I was only gone an hour, when I came back I found she’d somehow got stuck in a sunny patch of light behind some books. The sun had given her heatstroke and she was obviously sick as hell. She died, trembling, in my hands. I could only think that I had given her a few months of love and care before she’d finally left me.
Excuse me while I go wipe my eyes. sniffle
I want a bird so badly but I know it’s not the right kind of apartment, not enough sunlight and no place to put her to be “alone”.
Thanks for the advice, Sailboat…I try to get the word out there to bird owners about nonstick cookware. We don’t have any ourselves, but I know you are right that people don’t seem to know about the hazards.
I never thought of the necrosopy…we had the carbon monoxide detector by his cage, and it didn’t occur to me that there might be other air quality issues.
