Im a horrible budgie owner :(:(:(

[Bee]

Okay so Theo died...and now my poor Zee died. :'( Anyways so I brought Zee back to the petshop to get some moola back (Im cheap :)) Anyways so they gave me a new birdie. This one ive changed my tacktics. Im going to keep her in my room in a no cat zone and let her get used to me. I cleaned the cage out throughly. But I have one problem, I couldnt clean the cage the first day I got her, I had to leave for vacation so for one night. I clean it yesterday though. I hope if the other bird was sick she didnt catch it. (She was only in the non-cleaned cage for less than 24hrs)

Can budgies ever get used to having cats around? Mainly looking at them. Also do you think the cats could have been the problem of the other two birdies? Zee (the second bird) the night before. I was sitting beside him and watching a movie. Our smaller cat was looking at him, then began to chew on his tail feathers!

My new bird is really quiet and doesnt move around much. It took her forever to find the food dish. She looks so sad :( Any ideas on preventing the same fate?

[Amy]

I'd just sell the cats! Jk!

I can't really help you, and by the way, your not a horrible budgie owner, you try your very best and it's not your fault that they keep dieing.

All the best for you and your new budgie, I hope she settles in!

[ETAHoffman]

Budgies, like all animals, are subject to heart attacks. Having a predator stare you down, as the cat did, certainly didn't put the poor bird in a good state of mind. That may not have been the cause of the poor bird's death but it could have been. (I once had a beautiful male simply fall off his perch DEAD in front of my eyes. He was so beautiful and VERY expensive and I had not even had a chance to breed him once.

Keeping the cats away certainly won't hurt...........

Good luck.

Tom

[Budgiekin]

I would certainly recommend that you keep the cat out of site of your budgie. . . . at the very least, until your budgie has had a chance to settle in. After that, then you may be able to introduce the two of them to each other but I wouldn't leave them unsupervised. Cats instincts to get a bird are often too strong, so even when they apparently seem to get along, there is always a possibility that the cat may act instinctively and harm the bird.

Good luck with your new sweetie and let us know how she is doing! :p

[Freya]

My kitty is pretty good around my bird..when its in the cage O.o she tried to eat him once..O.o for an old cat I didn't think she'd be that agile.. To be on the safe side, you should put your bird in a place where a cat can't get it, or when your bird is out, lock your kitty in the bathroom or any other room..its only for a little while, the cat won't hate you for it, and your bird won't be lunch ^^
You should bleach your cage after a bird has died in it, just to be safe, for about three to five minutes, to get rid of any sickness. Also, throw away any wooden perches that the dead bird used, or any wooden toys and such ^^

[Amy]

I don't like cats, so I can't suggest anything!

[Mistyoriline]

Cat's don't like birds....try to keep one or the other....just my opinion though not a bad person though.

[Amy]

Definately not! If you joined this forum then you aren't!

[George101]

what percentage of birds get the heart attack? I know 1 out of my 2 birds dosent get it because today the back door was open and a cat snook in and took my budgie off the cage and out side and i wasen`t in the room or did I notice but the people who saved it said that it was fighting back and peaking at it. All that happened to my budgie (Bob) was that he lost his tail and several feathers. But the`ll grow back right?

[Mavish]

i dont think the nail will. But it's not a problem.

[Budgiekin]

You are certainly right about the tail feathers growing back; they will grow back!! Your sweetie just showed you one of his most prized predator responses which is to shoot all his tail feathers out when confronted with adversity. My budgie Kiwi did that one time when he was getting his wings clipped; the lady let go of him so Kiwi flew away and when she tried to grab him, she just barely nabbed the tips of his longest tail feathers. The result? He shot out all of his tail feathers and I had a stumpy budgie for several weeks.

As far as what percentage of budgies have heart attacks, that would be a very difficult statistic to gather. Budgies that have a predisposition for being nervous would be more likely to suffer a heart attack from an acute threat (like a cat chasing them!) than budgies who are inherently more mellow. So depending on how your budgie copes with stress, he will be more or less likely to have a heart attack during a fright. Genetics would play a large role in your budgie's inherent characteristics. :p

Hope this helps!!

[Crystal_Dawn]

hi :)

i can't remember who said it, and i could be wrong but i've always been told never to use bleach on anything a bird with come in contact with. I do agree that everything should be cleaned very well, but i would use diluted dish soap and rinse like crazy. but thats just me :)

...and is there any chance that the old spot for their cage was in a draft on and off? or too close to the kitchen (teflone fumes kill birds)? both of these are more likley to kill a bird than a cat looking at them. although it is possible for that to happen, so it could have been, but i would look around for other hasards personally. for it to have happened to both, it seems like it would be someting more concrete than stress.

good luck with your new budgie :)

[shawna]

Was your cat involved in both deaths?

It was risky to put the bird in the cage that wasn't cleaned if you don't what caused your birds deaths. Hopefully everything will be ok.

Your bird is probably quiet because it is new. All of my birds were quiet for up to a week. I hardly saw them eat, never saw them drink, hardly made a sound, etc. But after a week they came out of their shells and their true personalities come out.

Do you have any pictures???