Cockatiel Haven

RIP Yoshi. 2014-2020. May your song live forever in my heart. http://nameriaa.tumblr.com/

[cockatielhaven]

I expected one day to come back here and maybe reopen this blog and share my sassy little man with all of you again like the old days.

But instead, I come here to be the bearer of sad news.

Yoshi sadly passed away this morning in my hands before my very own eyes. It was so sudden, and traumatic. It... wasn't easy to watch him die. I felt helpless because I couldn't stop it. And worst of all, I still don't know why it happened. There were no signs, nothing. He had been acting normally up until the moment I saw him struggling to breathe at the bottom of his cage. And only a few seconds after I grabbed him, he was gone.

I held him in my arms like a baby, and cried over him for a good while. He gave me so much joy in six years. I went outside to our backyard with my mom, dug out a little burial site and put him inside. I said my goodbyes and buried him, and I placed flowers on his grave.

The house already feels quiet and empty without him. His little chirps and wolf whistles were the highlight of my day. I loved him deeply and I forever will. Thank you all for the love and support you all showed me during all these years, even after I closed the blog. Thank you all for so many years of love and support. I'm eternally grateful...

I am glad I was able to give the little guy a good home. He made me laugh so much in 6 years and I couldn't have wished for a better bird. I'm glad I was able to share most of his life with you guys here... now I have a place where I can go back and remember the good times I had with him. I'm taking solace in the fact that I was with him during his last moments, and I held him until his last breath.

May your song live forever in my heart, little guy. Fly high in Heaven. I will light up a candle in your honor tonight.

[cockatielhaven]

Watch this. It’ll make you smile guaranteed. 💙

[cockatielhaven]

Soft.

[cockatielhaven]

Hey I want to apologize for the last message I sent. I not only 1) poorly and wrongly judged you for no reason whatsoever I also 2) wasn't correctly informed on what I was seeing as your blog loaded posts differently and I didn't realize the posts talking about the vet were from nearly a year ago. I really am so grossly sorry, and so sorry for your loss as I didn't even see that until a bit after I sent the message. I don't even know why I sent it, it reflects so badly on me as a person

Hey anon, don’t worry about it! Thank you so much for coming forward and apologizing. ❤️

[cockatielhaven]

So you asked for donations to pay for vet bills yet you have the money to go out and buy a whole new bird after one dies that's almost as expensive as how much you were asking for? Okay. So you have enough money for an expensive bird... but not bills???

.....???? You’re mistaking me for another person. 😳

[cockatielhaven]

A birb on high alert.

[cockatielhaven]

Yoshi’s current cage setup! I’m so sorry that I’ve been away for so long. Life has been super hectic for me these past couple of months. My new job, Neuropathy pains coming back, and the fact that I’m also involved in a couple of artistic projects plus church and married life has made it a little difficult for me to update here. I’ll try my best to bring this blog back from its hiatus! I love you guys so much. Thank you for sticking through thick and thin with me. ;-;

[cockatielhaven]

I am heartbroken to inform that Mario passed away suddenly last night. I found him in his cage this morning when I was going to check his food and water bowls. I am devastated. I will forever love you, Mario. We did everything we could to nurse you back to health. You were a survivor, a fighter, a warrior. I will never forget you and I will never stop loving you. Thank you all for your support with Mario. For the cage, for the donations, for everything. I am blessed and thankful beyond words. My heart is aching. May you Rest In Peace, Mario.😞🙏🏻

[cockatielhaven]

Dry birb, wet birb.

[cockatielhaven]

Slowly improving Mario’s cage! Will be making a few DIY’s in the future and buying some stuff to make it easier for him to move around.

[cockatielhaven]

Hello there! I’m sure you’ve seen a lack of updates, and honestly it’s due to lack of time to update this blog. The birbs are doing great! I hope to update as soon as I can. <3 Adulting is hard!

[charliebirddd]

Clarification on Bird Food Scare

UPDATE 11:53 AM: Thanks to @birdaholics-anonymous for reblogging with the Lafeber’s statement. https://www.facebook.com/LafeberCompanyNutriBerries/posts/1838557126155126

UPDATE 11:24 AM: Zupreem has made an official comment.

https://www.facebook.com/zupreem/posts/10156031001768599

Here is a recap and my take on a recent incident that involved Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab losing 11 birds.

Forewarning: The rescue wishes not to create mass hysteria. So far, food toxicity is only a suspicion, and it has not yet been proven as of 1-4-18. Please proceed with this in mind.

On January 3, 2018, Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab posted on Facebook explaining that they suddenly lost 11 birds. The birds reportedly passed within roughly 30 minutes of each other.

The rescue called the fire department, and they tested for carbon monoxide and noxious gases. The fire department found nothing out of order. Next, the rescue pulled the remaining birds’ food.

The foods fed include Zupreem, Higgins, and Lafeber’s. I will elaborate on this later in the post.

The rescue took the deceased birds to the vets for necropsies. The birds were in good health, except “their stomachs were inflamed, there was a green sludge in their GI tracts and their livers were rock hard.”

The rescue says, “Gross necropsies were submitted by our vet for 2 birds to determine official cause of death with food toxicity being the suspicion.” Food samples were also taken to Michigan State University for testing.

Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab has already contacted the food companies.

The detailed information about the food fed is as follows:

Zupreem, Large for macaws/cockatoos etc: 10287 865309107 Use By: 3/31/19 Zupreem, Large for macaws/cockatoos etc: 09137 862908047 Use by: 2/28/19 Higgin’s Vita Seed Parrot  Use By: 4/5/19 Lefeber’s Tropical Fruit Nutriberries: Use By Batch: 122218B

The symptoms experienced are:

“As digestion happens, about 4 hours in, the birds become wobbly, disoriented, weak, unable to stand up and still. Droopy wings. Vomiting a copper reddish substance, seizures begin and then death. The 3 remaining birds are still very wobbly and weak.”

Now, many people are worried and asking if they can still feed their birds the brand if their bag doesn’t match the batch reported. People want to know what to feed their birds if they DO stop feeding the reported brands. Overall, it seems like there is a lot of misunderstanding, misinformation, and arguing within the bird community. Food has always been a hot topic, and now it’s even more so with this incident.

My advice is: better safe than sorry.

I would advise everyone to stop feeding the reported brands until the rescue shares test results or the companies issue an official statement.

If you choose to continue feeding Zupreem, Higgins, or Lafeber’s, then that is your choice. Just be aware of the situation and the potential consequences.

If you decide to pull the brands and don’t know what to feed your bird, you can try Roudybush, Harrison’s, and fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables.

You can follow the post here. The rescue appears to be posting updates to the post, although you can always click onto their Facebook page and follow that in case of a new update post.

[tinysaurus-rex-deactivated20240]

So @ramseyringnecks often has to remind people that you can’t feed pigeons leafy greens, vegetables, or fruits, and this is why:

The cecum is an organ that’s responsible for breaking down leafy greens, vegetables, fruits, and fibrous plant material.

Chickens are omnivores that naturally eat bugs, fruits, small animals, grasses, leaves, and just about anything they can find. As you can see above, they’re so adept at grazing on plants that they have two caeca (cecum plural), and they’re BIG. Every so often they expel a brown slimy excrement that is them clearing out a cecum.

Pigeons on the other hand are pure grain and seed eaters. They have a cecum…but much like a dog it’s a little itty bitty blip of an organ near their rectum. They can’t extract hardly any nutrients from leaves or fruits, and attempting to is just hard on their body and wastes energy. They are designed to efficiently break down grains and seeds and shouldn’t eat anything else. A healthy diet for a pigeon consists of a variety of 5 or more seeds and grains, the more of a variety the better but ONLY seeds or grains (with grit and oyster/egg shell of course). In fact, pigeons aren’t grazers like chickens, so another big difference is that they shouldn’t have free choice of food; they should eat in meals unless they’re young and learning to eat on their own or sick.

[tinysaurus-rex-deactivated20240]

reblogging this to remind everyone not to feed your pigeon leafy greens, fruits, or veggies. They don’t need them, and they’re harmful! Other things to avoid but are commonly given are:

• dairy products

• parrots pellets/mixes (these are too high in sugar for what a pigeon needs…pigeons are not parrots!!!)

• basically any people food, bread, pasta, pizza…things like corn, peas, quinoa, rice, those are okay to share

• worms and bugs

[cockatielhaven]

Yoshi looks extremely pleased with himself after landing successfully on my head for the 10th time.

[cockatielhaven]

Here's Mario up close! Looking handsome already!

[cockatielhaven]

Hey guys! Another update on the beeb. But, before I go on, thanks to a generous and really sweet anonymous donor, the beebs have a new cage! They donated it for either of the beebs but after Mario fell down multiple times, I decided to give him Yoshi’s old one instead. The new one is the one on the right! I am really blown away with the help Mario received since day one. But I want to give a special shout out to that amazing anonymous donor who decided to send me this beautiful gift that the beebs have enjoyed so much. I’m eternally thankful…. I really am. They know who they are, this meant the world to me and your name, along with all of those who donated will be forever in my heart. 😭❤️

EDIT: He has to strengthen his feet, so he’s trying to climb. However I’ll fill out the cage and change the layout as soon as I can!

The vet found that Mario looked great! Took the bandage off, and gave me an coagulant* for his wing. He told me to continue giving him the medicine and spraying his wing until both run out. I’ll keep you all updated, and I’ll also post some Yoshi! Stay tuned! Thank you all ❤️

[cockatielhaven]

Hey guys! Here's the warrior birb'a update! I finally found an open vet, and it was an avian vet too! The birb has part of his wing that was ripped off, and it was still infected and swollen. Sadly since he has a part of his wing missing he'll never fly again, but that doesn't stop him from trying! He cleaned his wounds, applied a bandage (it will be removed after 7-10 days!) and also checked him out and he has pneumonia. He gave him some medicine and also gave me some medicine to take home and give it to him twice a day. Thank you SO much for all the attention he received, I'm so happy that he had a positive vet visit despite it all! He is such a strong little fella! I'll keep you all updated. He needs to go to the vet again, so let's hope things improve by then! I am still accepting donations just in case something else shows up since I need to bring him to the vet again soon, since he's still in bad shape, but I'm SO thankful for everything! Everything else will be saved for future vet funds and supplies for the beebs! I cried tears of joy to hear he'll be okay. Also! The vet suspects it's a male, so I think I'll call him Mario!! Let's pray for his quick recovery!!!! PayPal: [email protected]