Zebra Finch CSI

Until a few days ago, I had two male Zebra Finches. I rescued them from a friend in NYC (her boyfriend left them when he left, and she was going to “release them into the wild” …), kept them in my apt. in Queens for a few months, in another apt. in Upstate NY for a year and a half, and then here, in an old house even further upstate, since May.

The birds lived in a cage, in a room that we basically filled with animals because its location made it inconvenient for anything else (it was probably once–like at the turn of the century–a dining room, but a 1990s kitchen addition added fat dining room space to the house). The birds had a cage there, placed on top of the puppy’s sleeping crate, which was right next to the cage with our two ferrets. The cage was inches from a radiator, and the room also contained (a) the digital thermostat taht controlled the oil boiler (b) a carbon monoxide detector.

We recently switched the thermostat to the ON position, and it has a digital program that lets it go to different temps. at different times of the day, to conserve energy. The minimum temperature for overnights is 60 degrees F.

Now, we did have a cold snap recently. And when we got up in the morning (to our nice, warm house), the birds, sadly, were both dead. The simultaneity leads us to believe it was an environmental problem, not something internal. Our hypotheses:

(1) Too cold–they suffered from hypothermia. It’s a little strange, though, because the room they were in has gotten down to 60 degrees during the day at times. Still, this is our leading theory–perhaps they just couldn’t adapt to the sudden cold nights, or perhaps because it got cold at night, when their metabolism was running lower than during the day, they couldn’t stay active enough and warm enough.

(2) Carbon Monoxide poisoning–they died, after all, within about 2 days of our having turned the boiler back on for the season (though it does heat the tap water even in the summer). But the detector in that room seems to work (beeps when tested), it never went off, and the dog and weasels are just fine. So, seems unlikely.

(3) Illness–I also thought perhaps that the birds could have come down with some cold/flu/etc. (I didn’t observe them much the day before, so I don’t know if they were frisky or logy then) that proved fatal (esp. if exacerbated by cold temps.).

(4) Old Age–seems unlikely, as they are (I believe) only about 3 years old, and they passed away the same night
So, what killed my zebra finches? Obviously, if it’s something other than the cold (which still sucks–b/c I miss the birds and their silly cheeping–but my furry mammals can deal with the cold just fine), then I obviously want to take care of it–don’t want to wake up dead, as they say, from CO poisoning.

Who would you rather see leading the “CSI: Miami” team – David Caruso or a Zebra Finch?

Did you feed the puppy leftovers the night before? Beans, perhaps?

I’m leaning towards: paint or other substance on the radiators heated up and emitted fumes that killed the finches. Same way heating a teflon pan can kill nearby birds.

Its possible also that they were OVERheated from being inches from the radiator. Were they under a blanket? If you arrange a cage, a radiator and a blanket in an unfortunate way you can create a little oven.

Puppy farts? I suppose that’s remotely possible. Methane could have killed them.

Carbon monoxide levels dangerous to humans are higher than those that would kill a bird. That’s why canaries were used to detect harmful gasses in coal mines, prior to modern monitors.
Old oil furnaces tend to burn inefficently, especially if not strictly maintained. Your ferrets and puppy are more at risk than you are. That said, even though the monitor didn’t beep, you could still be accumulating enough CO to hurt YOU! HAVE YOUR FURNACE CHECKED!
If your CO monitor is old, you need to check it with a know CO generator (like a kitchen match.) Also, CO is heavier than air, so be sure the monitor is on the lowest occupied level of your house.
Keep us informed.

If this former dining room was immediately next to the kitchen, you might consider this possibility too.

It is, but we don’t own any teflon. And I’m not aware of having used any strange cleaners, etc., in the room.

Hmm. It’s on the lowest occupied level of the house, and was, in fact, close to the floor (a good 2 feet closer to the floor than the birds). I’ll try the match test.

Do keep in mind, even if the CO level is safe for humans, it may not be for your pets.

Any recent cleaning in the kitchen or dining room that might have been new or unusual? I’ve heard that using cleaning products around them (mine are in the dining room, so I’m careful about the pledge on the dining room table) can kill a finch pretty quickly.

My finches are kept at room temperature in MY house, but I don’t do anything to keep them warmer at night or anything. They seem pretty hardy where temp is concerned, so we can probably rule that out.

Sorry to hear about your loss. I have six zebra finch fledglings right now…I wish they weren’t all spoken for, I’d replace your pets free of charge!

L

No odd cleaning … and I just bought a new CO detector (after doing researching and discovering the things only have like a 2-yr lifespan!). No alarms yet. I even took it and plugged it in down in the basement by the boiler, but nothing happened.

But I can’t intentionally set it off either (holding burning matches next to it). Any way to test the detector itself, not the noisemaker (which is what the button does)? Any other good CO sources (that won’t kill me)?

Don’t tempt me…