Dead baby lovebird after two days at our home - please help diagnose

Hello all.

I'm new to the forum - but unfortunately my first post is a sad one as you have seen.

We picked up our baby peach-faced lovebird on Saturday. He was 2 months old and just fledging. The breeder said that he was eating seed mix and a little eggfood each day (around a teaspoon). True enough when I got him home he had a few little flies and was eating happily - finishing off his eggfood and eating his seedmix. He was very active, climbing around the cage and chirping to us and himself.

This morning before I went to work, I changed his water and food - he seemed a little groggy - sleeping on the bottom of the cage, but he did the night before and I read that it was ok. My girlfriend was here throughout the day, and said he was sleeping in the morning but in the afternoon he was eating and up and about. By mid afternoon he was sleeping again, and then in around 2 hours he deteriorated, couldn't lift his head, - was kind of lying on his belly, shallow breathing, and then just died. It was the fastest I've ever seen an animal die, it has been totally shocking. I include some photos to this message so that experts among you can see if I've missed anything

I know that it's probably impossible to diagnose what's gone on here - the breeder says that all of his birds are fine - so I'm worried we're doing something wrong. We really looked forward to having this bird for so long, and I think it would be a shame for this to put us off bird ownership forever, but we are very reluctant to get another unless we are confident that we aren't doing anything wrong. Therefore I would be very appreciative if you could help me with a couple of questions to make sure that we are doing everything correctly

1. Does everything I've said so far - and the photos included, look ok, or does anything sound wildly wrong?

2. I've obviously read around how sensitive birds are to fumes etc so I've been careful to keep the air clean in the room around him - though today we were drying something on the radiator in the same room as him and it was washed with fabric conditioner - this sounds pretty ridiculous as I'm typing it right now, but are they as sensitive as to be poisoned by the odour of comfort fabric conditioner drying 15 feet away...?

3. Temperature - the cage was kept near a window, with no noticeable draft, but they aren't double glazed and temperatures in London (where I live) were around 10 degrees C (50 degrees F) last night.

4. He was a bit clumsy, occasionally flying but occasionally crash landing around the cage - do you think it is possible that he could have fatally injured himself?

Thanks for any help you can offer. I'm hoping we haven't done anything wrong but if we have then we've made an emotionally expensive mistake that we definitely won't make again.

Tom

the small black droppings look like he may have been starving. when the feces are dark like that and small, it's often an indication that a bird is not eating enough

the bird also looked to be just too young to be fully weaned, he may not have been eating enough to be on his own. sometimes new baby birds regress back to needing to be handfed when they first go to a new home as the stress of the move can affect them. he did look a tad young to be weaned fully and it's possible though he was eating a little bit at home that it was just not enough. he may not have been fully weaned. that's observation. but without a necropsy done at a vet, you won't know for sure how he died. those are just my suspicions.

birds have such a high metabolism that even not eating for a day can starve them to death. it's very likely he just wasn't eating as much as he should have been. this unfortunately, should have been addressed by the breeder (that some birds might regress when sent to a new home). also, the breeder should have held on to him for a week or two after "weaning" to be sure he was consistently eating enough.

i'm really sorry for your loss.

I agree with the above post. The breeder should replace it with a fully weaned baby. also I am very sorry for your loss but I don't think it is your fault

I agree with Dallytsaku, but make sure to think of everything that has happened. Did you use any cleaners, or anything with a smell(candles, incense, new carpet, anything), cook with non stick cookware or a self cleaning/non stick oven?

I strongly suggest getting a autopsy. Be absolutely positive before you get another bird!!!!

I agree, if you still have the bird, place it in a zip-lock type bag, place it in your refrigerator...Not Freezer...and take it to a veterinarian for a necropsy.....if you don't have an avian vet, I would call around to find one who could do the necropsy...I would also talk to the breeder.....for a couple of reasons...in case there was a health problem and in case they might be willing to replace the bird, but if the necropsy shows a health problem, they should know, especially in the instance of a communicable illness.....

Sorry to hear about your new bird, but am glad you found the group.....

sorry for your loss, how sad!!
it's good practice for any breeder to ensure that a baby lovebird or any bird for that matter is well on their way to eating on their own, not for just a few days, for minimum 7 days.
a new environment can revert them back to wanting to be hand fed if not fully weaned.
I always wait 7-14 days before I sell my babies, it would break my heart knowing one of my babies died.
the first picture shows he's not feeling the greatest. see around his eyes, he looks tired, and is a little puffed. it is not normal for a bird to tuck their head in and sleep during the day. at night time it's perfectly normal, some birds do some don't. that is a warning sign something was not quite right.
your breeder should replace the bird, if they have one, or refund your money, no questions asked.....what a shame

I also thought the bird appeared "too sleepy" and puffy in the first pics. When i bought my first bird, i didn't realize this was abnormal and about a day later, he was sitting on the floor "napping". I asked people with more experience and they told me to get to an avian vet--and he ended up having a bacterial infection, and probably the stress of changing homes stressed him enough to not be able to fight the infection. He did fully recover, but it was shaky for a few days. It is also possible that it was a bacterial infection, also not your 'fault', as they sometimes come to you with something. Having the bird examined is really the only way to know for sure.

Also, nothing against the breeder you got the bird from, but babies often end up with a little relatively minor infection from the day you get them. I think highly of the breeder i got my Gilbert from, but he did test positive for yeast and gram negative bacteria in his initial exam, which we treated with meds to prevent it turning into something nasty.

So really, it could be a combination of things like that--bacterial infection, stress of new home, not eating quite enough, etc.

T. Harper so sorry for your loss. I am sorry the poor little bird went so young. I agree it sounds like the bird wasn't fully weaned and it wasn't eating enough and then again maybe the stress of the move to a new home. Did you contact the breeder? They should replace the bird for you. Please make sure it is fullly weaned and eating on it's own. Good luck!

Thanks all for your replies. The breeder said that the rest of his birds are fine and said that the bird might have been cold.

I did think that he was a bit puffy, but put it down to his newish feathers.

I didn't know about his droppings indicating that he may have been starving. There was always food in his bowl, even egg food, but as many have said, if he wasn't weaned properly then perhaps he was still dependent on being fed.

I thought he may have been a little young when I saw that he didn't have all his feathers around his neck - but thought that this was just normal.

Glad that it doesn't sound like I've done anything too wrong - gives me confidence to get another now, making sure that it is fully weaned.

Maybe you could get a necropsy done to diagnose the reason why she died.

Go to a avain certified vet and ask to get one done.

unfortunately, babies that are under weaning or just weaned can revert. they may eat a little or maybe even look like they are eating--but they could be just playing with the food.


if you do get another, for lovebirds, i'd make sure the bird is a minimum of 8-9 weeks before bringing it home, and i'd have a gram scale to track its weight to be sure it's maintaining a healthy weight. if it starts dropping, you can catch problems sooner.

this collage here shows you normal droppings as well




its normal for birds in a new environment to show some watery droppings, watery droppings are often caused by stress, and these normally go away with a day or two. however, diarrhea is not normal. diarrhea droppings are very distinctive--once you see it, its hard to mistake it for something else. they're like tar but more liquid. watery droppings have solid feces but more urine to them.


but small black droppings indicate a bird not eating enough. lack of feces entirely means the bird is not eating at all.

Hi guys.

Thanks for all the help. I didn't do a necropsy on the bird because before I posted I was concerned that it may be a contagious disease so already got rid of the corpse and had the cage soaking in antiseptic solution! Everything was rinsed and permeable things were oven baked to dry them off - I'm not taking any chances.

I bought a new lovebird from a reputable breeder yesterday. I'm really pleased with him so far - he's a lot bigger than the previous bird, has all of his feathers, fully weaned (12weeks old) he's regularly visiting the food bowl and gorging on millet and I've seen him drinking too. His droppings are very similar to the picture above which is encouraging.

He has bursts of activity and is sleeping a bit in the day, not as ruffled as the pics of the old bird but puffs out occasionally on the perch as he takes a nap - is this cause for concern?

Thanks, Tom

Here's another

he's a beautiful fischer lovebird!!, glad you got another one

He's he's a Fischer lutino pied. Here are some droppings.

droppings look pretty good!

and he is just a pied fischer's lovebird, lutinos lack the green hues completely and have red eyes.

you can see here:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mEbJkBSMOPk/TBTvtmjXomI/AAAAAAAAAzo/-Kx5jv3MMrk/s1600/lutino+fischer.jpg


he sure is adorable! i am glad you got another

most birds will fluff a bit when they nap, as long as it isnt all day or for extended periods of time, it's nothing to worry about.

Ive never had lovebirds [so know how fragle they are] Just please be up on everything that can harm them in your house [ you would be suprised ] A friend last year -Her son burnt something in the oven [and wanted to cover up the smell] He sprayed air fresh and killed their Senegal. I always clean with vinagear , no sprays,candles anysort of chemcal [no parchment paper] lots of stuff, Your birds droppngs look good . As for puffy feathers ,they puff up when their sleeping ,relaxing ,streching just so long as you see a good amount of them with their tight feathers [sign of health] Im so sorry about your first guy. Im sure this one will be great

dats a terrible loss. :-(

Such a stark difference between this bird and the last. He/she is eating well, though hand taming is going to be a toughie. Here's as far as I've got - it'll only do this with millet, turning its beak up at anything else!

millet is your best friend when you want to tame a bird good luck! taming lovebirds sure is a challenge, but it can be done keep working with the millet and let him set the pace. let every interaction with him be positive and he will associate you with positive things