cliff@cs.arizona.edu (Cliff Hathaway) (03/30/91)
Our family just had a minor tragedy -- the young lovebird which had
captivated us all in the 4 days we had it died mysteriously. We plan to
get another lovebird sometime soon, and I'd certainly appreciate any advice
anyone can offer for raising young birds.
A little info, first:
The bird was supposedly 5 weeks old. It seemed to be fully fledged, and
could fly across the room. We fed it with an eye dropper at 8 am, 3 pm,
and 8 pm with Lafeber's Nutri-Start baby bird food, on the advice of the
breeder that we bought the bird from. We kept it in a cage with a towel
for warmth, and a blanket over the cage at night. The room that it was
in may have gotten down to 60 degress Farenheit during the night. My
daughter stayed home with an intestinal flu the first 2 days that we had
it, and the cage was right next to her bed. The bird seemed to really
enjoy being around us, and we let it perch on our heads, shoulders, and
hands alot.
I know this is pretty sketchy, but I thought perhaps there are some
important points to raising these birds that we should know.
Some of the possible causes of death that we've thought of are:
-- the bird got too cold at night (but it seemed ok on its last morning,
and didn't seem sick until around noon, and expired around 2 pm)
-- birds can catch illnesses from humans (like the flu)
-- the eyedropper that we fed it with should have been sterilized between
feedings
-- we handled it too much
-- we didn't warm it enough after we washed it following its feeding (it
ate in a most voracious manner, and got the food all over itself, so we
washed it with warm water after it ate, as the breeder told us she had done)
-- we didn't prepare the food properly
Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.
Cliff Hathaway
Dept. of Computer Science (602)621-4291
University of Arizona cliff@cs.arizona.edu (internet)
Tucson, Ariz. 85721 {cmcl2,noao,uunet}!arizona!cliff (uucp)