Statistic collection attempt- causes of death in pet parrots and birds

[Beebleburb]

Something that I always find reassuring is statistics. while I know they can't tell me the exact path of my life I find comfort in the general trajectory they give me.
With this in mind, an area I can never find any data is common causes of mortality in pet parrots. I know the categories; illness, accident, injuries, toxicities, and age induced problems- but I dont have good information on how often each one occurs.
To those who have lost birds in the past, I know this is a sensitive topic, but what caused the passing of your parrot? Did you parrot reach its life expectancy? I think if we collect some data on this it might be helpful to those of us like myself who stay up worrying.

I will start in saying I have lost two birds in my time keeping birds, one as an adult and one as a young child. The bird I lost as an adult passed peacefully in her sleep of old age, she was multiple years above the average life expectancy. The bird I lost as a child was due to a situation out of my control as it was exposed to very cold temperatures for a long time because my parents lost the ability to heat our house. He was not able to recover.

I am adding a poll below to give simple answers but stories are also welcome.

 

[Shannan]

I have only had two birds that were officially mine. One is still with me (Walter) The other bird, Tuffstuff, who was a Nanday, passed away due to infection of an injury. She had been abused and neglected, left out in brutal cold weather and as a result she had very weak feet (before I rescued her). She fell from her cage onto a clip that I used to hold her food since she could not hold them herself (Thank goodness for the skewers now but back then...) She died of the resulting infection. We don't know how old she was when she passed.

 

[Mizzely]

I have lost a Hahns Macaw at age 13 to an accident with a toy (strangulation)
I have lost a Green Cheek conure at age 7 when she escaped through a tear in the window screen. Death not confirmed
I have lost a Quaker who ran into a window, age unknown

I have a 23 year old Jardine's who is healthy for his past
I have a Quaker that lives with family that is 11 and healthy

From what I have seen on this forum, accidents I am guessing are going to be the most likely cause, unfortunately.

 

[flyzipper]

I dont have good information on how often each one occurs.

I'll point out what you may already know -- selection and observer bias will skew these results.

An example that isn't in the list is neglect, and it's unlikely you'll find somebody who spends time on an avian enthusiast forum (the audience who will see this survey) responding they lost their bird through neglect. My 6 year old self wouldn't have responded, for example, but that's how I lost a budgie after my parents bought me one when I was far too young to care for it.

Another example of that bias would be asking the question on a Parrot 911 forum where people reach out only for emergencies. My perception is skewed by observer bias because these are the cases I pay most attention to.

My last observation is this may provide insights into how the numerator breaks down on a relative basis, but it doesn't provide an effective denominator to answer "how often" in the overall population (one example to estimate that overall population in the US is here) -- approximately 2.8% of households have 2.1 birds.

Clearly I like thinking about statistics too, and that includes looking for problems in their collection, interpretation and presentation

helpful to those of us like myself who stay up worrying.

Perhaps the numerator is all that matters for your stated purpose -- what's common among responsible avian enthusiasts.

 

[Shannan]

Another point is if you are trying to reassure yourself about the care of your pet, knowing the causes of people (who theoretically at least) take similar care and precautions then the information could be useful for that reason. For example, if I am looking at the average age of people during the colonial age and it is pretty low but I also know that most of the deaths occur within the first 2 years of life, then I can assure myself that if I make it past two, I have a much greater chance of successfully making it to an old age. So it is really asking what is the most likely cause of death for parrots with relatively responsible Parronts, so I can hopefully avoid it as much as possible.

I too love statistics.....

 

[Shezbug]

I have owned and rescued more birds in my life than I believe I can truly remember so sorry but I may have missed a few, also, I have not kept every bird that came into my care till their death but I have included in the poll some known results of death for pet chooks, rescued baby pigeons, rescued soft bills and some parrots I have bought and also those I rescued who died in my care.

 

[Winn]

I'm a relatively "new" bird owner. My family had budgies when I was a child. We had 4. The first two died young. The second two outlived them , but also died young. The first two were single birds.. the second two were a pair.
I'm convinced our ingnorance contributed to their short lives.
We were told "feed them seeds, water them, clean their (way too small) cage.."
( Think 1970s if you were alive then)
We didn't know budgies ate veggies and we had never heard of pellets.
I still feel guilty.

Maybe I'm trying to atone for the past.. IDK. It's so freaking cool to interact with my birds and have them interact with me. It's awesome to watch them dig into their chop, eat millet from my hand , or give me a kiss when I scritch their head.
They are delightful lil birdies and I missed out on so much having them as a kid.

 

[Sparkles99]

I've lost one young budgie (less than a year). Necropsy ruled out hereditary health issues & contagious parrot diseases. I suspect it was noxious fumes from the neighbours. RIP Moss.

 

[Pixiebeak]

I had a budgie with acute diarrhea, placed in hospital cage vet prescribed antibiotics. 48 hours fully recovered. But I kept caged still to observe and finish medication. 2 days later spooked by budgie friend flying over. Panic in cage and hit his head. Had seizure at time of head injury. Spent a few hours on bottom of cage. Then recovered some with sever balance issues head tilt, nystagmus. Over a few more days recovered more. Lost head tilts and shaking eyes. Had occasional seizures...seemed to move around cage weirdly. But eat drink started singing again. A week or more determined I could let him rejoin flock. Found out was blind now. So put back in cage and realized this had been why he only climbed around cage to food and water. Was a month or 2 in now and seizure activities increased to multiple times daily on some days. Discussed euthanasia with vet. He passed on his own that night. Rough stuff.....he was such a fighter..so unfair that a caged Panic attack led to death .


Green cheek conure of 17 years. History of intermittent sinus infections throughout her life. Due to hand feeding aspirations that scared a nostril closed as chick . Last one had been 6 years prior. Had one drop seen at nostril the day before. Working out if I should start treating. Behavior normally, eating normal, vocals normally, playing and took some treats from me. Went outside fir 2 hours came back she was gone. My looking over her determined this was indeed a sinus infection plus her age was why she passed. The sweetest most loving gentle girl .

 

[hrafn]

I have had many birds in my care, and thus far only one has died of old age. The rest have died as the result of various medical issues, including stroke, bacterial infection, trauma, and respiratory illness, as well as attacks from predators and prolonged neglect.

Granted, the majority came to me already injured or ill, but several deaths were my fault.

 

[faislaq]

Pistachio was taken from my shoulder by a hawk. Harley was filled with tumors; not sure what caused them & I don't know much about her history, but I think 10 is young for a green cheek so not old age.

 

[.........]

I am glad to say that it has been quite a few years since I lost a bird, but I have had many birds in the past, that I can somewhat remember the cause of death.
3 Zebra finches - escaped , cage blew over in the wind. I don't ever put birds outside in cages anymore.
1 budgie, 3 years old - had probable stroke, died of seizure a few days later.
1 budgie, 5 years old - dropped dead suddenly, cause unknown, likely diet induced
1 canary - age unknown but over 4 years old, found suddenly dead in cage
1 zebra finch, 1 canary - This one was a very, very long time ago. Had to leave on vacation, and parents insisted we leave the birds with enough food and water for a few days. We had not given them enough food, and the zebra finch was found dead. The canary was past the point of hunger and very likely had organs damaged from starvation, he somewhat recovered but had multiple episodes of general sickness, unable to fly, flipping over, heavy breathing, and 2 years later succumbed to it. This was a traumatic experience for me and I still feel absolutely awful for it to this day.
1 diamond dove - Succumbed to stress of being handled
1 young pigeon chick - died of unknown cause, likely not enough care by parents
The details here may not be perfect, most of there were almost 10 years ago when I was a young child. Being informed, and researching as much as you can whenever you get the chance, is key to keeping birds healthy and alive. Being both proactive and informed on illnesses, causes, when and what to do, ect has saved my birds more times than I can count on my hands.

 

[taxidermynerd]

Chirp had a large mass. We were unable to biopsy due to the risk involved but it was suspected to be cancer. This came after ingesting toxins, however the vet says it is unfortunately not uncommon for budgies to die young of cancers or other mystery tumors. Chirp was euthanized before he had a chance to die naturally, as his illness became extremely aggressive. I will not go into details as it was extremely graphic and upsetting. If you dig through my post history from 2019-2020, all the threads are still there.

 

[Beebleburb]

I'll point out what you may already know -- selection and observer bias will skew these results.
...
Perhaps the numerator is all that matters for your stated purpose -- what's common among responsible avian enthusiasts.

I do understand that an enthusiast forum will provide me a biased selection of results to people who will tend to take better care of their birds than the average owner, but in a way this is the data I am looking for. I do not plan on neglecting my animals and I do not worry about this being a cause of injury for them; I want to know what can go wrong when you still try to do everything right

 

[owlsthetic]

My budgie had a malignant tumor under her left wing and she deteriorated pretty quickly afterwards, I will always regret not making the decision to euthanize her when the vet told me there wasn't much that could be done for her because I feel she suffered unnecessarily and I was even at school when she passed away (at least if I had chosen to euthanize her I would have been able to say a proper good bye to her). She was almost 9 years old when she passed.

 

[~Drini~]

I had a green cheek conure that lived to 20. He had been diagnosed with liver cancer about 8 months prior. After he started some medications he was fully enjoying life despite the cancer, arthritis, and partial blindness. I hadn't seen him so active and playful in a while. One day I let them out in the living room to play (my grandma was in the room) while I took a shower. When I came out of the shower I found him dead on his back on the floor by a window.

I don't know exactly what happened. He had loved walking on the floor along the wall. The suddenness sometimes makes me wonder if he bonked into a window or a wall (he couldn't direct himself that well in flight) and it was too much for his ill body.

 

[Gigi’s Mom]

I had a green cheek conure that lived to 20. He had been diagnosed with liver cancer about 8 months prior. After he started some medications he was fully enjoying life despite the cancer, arthritis, and partial blindness. I hadn't seen him so active and playful in a while. One day I let them out in the living room to play (my grandma was in the room) while I took a shower. When I came out of the shower I found him dead on his back on the floor by a window.

I don't know exactly what happened. He had loved walking on the floor along the wall. The suddenness sometimes makes me wonder if he bonked into a window or a wall (he couldn't direct himself that well in flight) and it was too much for his ill body.

What medications did they give your GCC for his liver cancer? I have a 12 year old lovebird who is battling cancer.

 

[sunnysmom]

My tiel Sunny technically died of old age but my guess is it was a stroke. So not exactly sure how to answer. He had a stoke about 2 years before and the vet said he would likely eventually have another. The vet didn't want to do a neucropsy because he said he didn't know if it would really reveal anything other than he was old. He was 20. Which seemed old at the time but now that I am living with a soon to be 23 and 33 year old tiels, it doesn't seem that old.

 

[Gigi’s Mom]

My tiel Sunny technically died of old age but my guess is it was a stroke. So not exactly sure how to answer. He had a stoke about 2 years before and the vet said he would likely eventually have another. The vet didn't want to do a neucropsy because he said he didn't know if it would really reveal anything other than he was old. He was 20. Which seemed old at the time but now that I am living with a soon to be 23 and 33 year old tiels, it doesn't seem that old.

Wow a 33 year old Tiel? Would love to see him or her. I had a smilar experience with my tiel. SHe lived to 17 and shortly before she passed she had a few strokes or seizures. My vet did a necropsy and found some blockages in her heart. I think i could have had her much longer if on a better diet. Back in the 80s when I got her there werent as many resources on proper diet. Ugh the food choices. Plus she was super finicky.

 

[~Drini~]

What medications did they give your GCC for his liver cancer? I have a 12 year old lovebird who is battling cancer.

Just lactulose and milk thistle (liver support meds). We contemplated trying a chemotherapy, as his vet had read about a case of a cockatiel with cancer benefitting through an additional year of happy living, but I felt that my GCC was happy and I was worried about how he might tolerate chemotherapy. The cockatiel was the only case that she had read about and the cockatiel reportedly had no adverse affects, but it felt like a gamble to me. I am content with the choices I made.