Your Pet Loss Stories

'The Loss of My Two Beautiful Cockatiels'

by Deborah Richards
(Sydney, NSW Australia)

On Saturday, March 15, 2008 I slept in, and woke up at 10am. When I woke up, I did my morning pet check and all was normal, so I started my day.

But... at 1.30pm when I went in the loungeroom to vacuum and feed my birds... I looked in my bird aviary & I found my gorgeous 8 year old cockatiel "Goldy" lying on the bottom of the cage dead.

This was most unexpected as Goldy showed no signs of being sick. Not a one. It hit me hard and I swore that I would not buy another bird.

But... 2 weeks later when I went to my local pet shop to by pet food my girls seen a very cute 3 month old baby cockatiel. I didn't buy him on this day, as I didn't want another bird. But as the week past something inside me changed and I decided to buy this baby.

On the 3rd of April 2008 I bought the baby bird home and all was fine. However, the baby had trouble flying... but I put this down to being young and possibly a calcium deficiency... so I bought some calcivet (calcium/vitamins) which is a liquid I put in the water.

He came good almost straight away and started flying... and for a week all was great... but on Monday (14/4) we had a really cold night and I woke up on Tuesday (15/4) to find my new bird half frozen, with glazed over eyes... but still alive.

So, I fought like hell to warm him up and I managed to do that... but the trauma was too great, and no matter what I tried helped... by 4pm Tuesday he was gone.