My parakeet died, now what?

Question

I appologise for reposting this question, I had a problem adding details.

Last week I became the proud parent of two beautiful parakeets. I fell in love right away. In less than four days, without any warning, the male died. I was devastated. I quickly brought him back to the pet store and asked for any explanation as to why he might have died. I was very concerned that he was sick and very worried that he may have passed something to the female. I was told by the manager that he didn't appear to be sick and that he had no idea what could have happened. He told me to watch the female for a few days and if she was ok, he would replace the male parakeet. I left feeling very sad and confused. That night I sat and held the female, "Emmie" all night until I went to sleep. She seemed fine. I was distraught when I woke up the next morning to find her laying in the bottom of the cage. She had passed at some time that night. I went back to the pet store, at this point extremely upset. I went over every variable trying to find the cause of their deaths. They offered me no explanation. I was in tears the entire day. I told everyone I ran into what had happened. They all referred me to an independent couple who solely raises birds. The woman said to bring the cage and all of the contents to their store and they would help me figure out what happened. As soon as I got there they took one look at the cage and looked and me and said "They starved to death."

Apparently the food the pet store recommended, pellets, can only be consumed by birds that have been trained to eat them. Most young parakeets don't recognize this as food and can starve.

And now I will forever have to live with the fact that I starved two defenseless animals to death. I called the corporate office of this pet store. I made a formal complaint. I said that I was instructed by the store sales person as well as the written literature provided by them to feed them pellets and because of this they died. I was offered a quick apology and nothing else. I am disgusted. This will keep happening if they fail to train their employees correctly. A lot of hearts will be broken because of their neglect. I know to them, it's just a couple of birds. How can I make them realize this is a serious problem?

Answer 1

Get goldfish or something easy to look after

Answer 2

IM SORRY HUN!

i know how u feel. I WOULD BE HEART BROKEN..

the only advice i can give you is DONT BUY PETS FROM THE PETS STORE.. GO TO A BREEDER. i watched videos on you tube how they miss treat their animals.. its just sad.

GOOD LUCK and I WISH YOU THE BEST ;)

Answer 3

Buy a new parakeet!!

Answer 4

my avian vet told me how to wean my birds into a pellet diet. there is a risk a seed only diet bird will refuse to eat a new diet for quite some time.....the birds for one had a major change of enviroment, and two had another change of enviroment via the food supply. keets are ultra sensitive to changes. changes should be done slowly....

birds are a difficult animal and i do not think the employee had any true knowledge of the birds. if the store is giving them seed only diets then the birds should continue to get that until pellets have been properly intorduced & you know and see the birds eating it. i have 2 avian vets and also a lady who does animal rescue work to support from when i need it. all 3 have told me the same thing, and my own personal experiences with seed and pellet diets has helped.

all 5 of my boys get 50% seed and 40% pellets all mixed together then i add tropical egg food on top of the mix 10% and that is my mix they all get. due to the economy i have had to keep seeds in their diets but they do eat the pellets provided. they are all tropicals so they get tropical egg food. they love it. it was tricky. i had to ease them into it because they did protest when the weird pellets came into their diet. i got the fruity pellets and within a few days they were eating them. i could tell simply because of their pooh on the papers. watching the fecal mater for signs of trouble is important.

it's more of an introduction rather than being trained. it depends on the bird and how picky they are, one change at a time for some birds is best.

i have spent hours watching my boys dig through the new food, i had to add some seed per the vets advice. she told me if they were just beaking their food to give them some seeds regardless of what she thought of seeds she would rather them eat than starve because it can happen. sadly in your case it did happen. some birds don't care and eat whatever is given to them some birds are ultra picky. i have both types.

the pet store employee should be repromanded by management for giving bad advice, his training most likely came from a training book in the store.....and has no idea about birds in general. i would advise getting a lawyer that deal with animal issues and if you feel that they do not care to correct their employees or be much more sympathetic for causing you greif.....sue their rumps!!! people like this make me angry. you have read everything. you have called the home office you have done everything to make things right. the best way to show them you are serious is to get a lawyer. you not only will get your money back you can get them for a lot of other stuff and your court fees too. if you want to prevent this from happeneing to someone else and to save the birds from the people that work there a lawsuit may be the answer.

you can also file a compliant with the BBB. that is excellent to do.

you need to keep your recipts, and have the birds will need an autopsy to be evidence in court. the breeder can be a witness in court as well. keep everything documented on paper and document who you talked to and when via phone records.

i am in no way lashing out on you, you have my sympathy and sorry you had to go through this. i am always stressing that new birds and the new owners always see an avian vet before bringing them home  due to issues like this. it's a good rule of thumb.

how sad you are the one stuck with the loss of the birds and do know this is NOT YOUR FAULT rather the guilt lays with the employee and pet store for setting up the situation you got put into. this so not your fault on many levels....some people should not be allowed to sell birds and those people are the poster childeren for such a claim.

pellets can help improve health and give birds a longer life. i have experienced this first hand and how much better my birds are now. but it should be approached with the advice from a breeder or an avian vet.  sorry it's been such a hard way for you to learn about it. Ugh.

always keep the nice lady's number in your pocket incase you get more birds, get her advice first. matter of fact get your birds from her if possible.

i am so sorry i send my sympathy for you. i normally do not carry on but it seems as if you truely need the help and advice. you also have done your own reading and sought advice from a bird lady. you are doing everthing right. i encourage you to get birds because i think you will be a well educated bird owner willing to continue and grow to learn about them. if you get another female-male set make sure to read up on the basics of breeding and potential issues so you are not set up for more heartache because often the young have problems or the parents are "bad".

i hope you have success in whatever you do, the advice given is just that.....advice and it's okay if you don't agree. please don't feel like you have to do anything....this is completely up to you what you want to take from it....

i am so very sorry hun and i hope you have a good day.