Sadly last evening my Cockatiel Jonah passed away, he was a rescue so his exact age was unknown, but he was at least 15 1/2 years old. When I adopted Jonah I soon realized he didn’t like living alone & I tried to bond him with two other Cockatiels I had, but they weren’t really receptive to the idea. I caged them near each other & eventually after a good amount of supervised contact away from their cages they accepted him. Well honestly I’d say tolerated him, once the older of the two Noah passed then Issac was more open to Jonah. Both Noah & Issac were in their 20’s & had been together since they were young. Eventually I lost Issac as well & I looked for a cage mate for Jonah, but he wasn’t always open to the ones I found. I had adopted Spree (a White-face) but soon found out she was a female I didn’t want to cage together. As a rescue person I didn’t want to risk breeding or egg laying, but Jonah would squawk & scream & was so upset being alone. I gradually bonded Jonah & Spree, Jonah went in her cage any chance he had until she stopped protesting his visits, then they were able to be cage-mates.
Jonah was happy to have a cage-mate (roommate) & Spree had a bird to preen her & boss around. She wasn’t mean, but she wanted him to preen her feathers, but rarely saw her reciprocate, but Jonah seemed fine with that, he had company.
Jonah & Spree had their annual exams in Sept & my Veterinarian noticed that some of the stools looked abnormal & she thought it was Jonah. They go in together or Jonah would scream till she was back with him. Even when they take Spree out of the carrier to weigh her & do her examination Jonah would scream & let everyone there know he wasn’t happy about it. My Veterinarian said the color of the stool indicated liver failure. Many years prior I had a bird that had Silicosis prior to me adopting him & sadly it can eventually hurt the liver which it did. We had tried medicines but they made it worse(showed on blood-work) so we went with a natural remedy of Milk Thistle which helped & probably extended his life. I decided I wanted to do this for Jonah as well. I put Organic liquid Milk Thistle per my Vets dosage instructions into a water dish. Jonah was eating, moving around & acting pretty normal except he would sometimes move closer to the heat vent (which has a guard, so doesn’t blow directly on the cage).
Neither Jonah or Spree were good at eating fresh veggies & fruit & I know how important this is to living a healthy life. It is the same for humans, we need a balanced diet to be truly healthy inside & out. I would grow sprouts for them & mix them in with their fresh foods, so at least they would get some fresh foods, but I know they weren’t consuming as much as they should. This was evident when my Vet did their exams & looked at the roof of their mouths. The saying “you can push a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” applies to many things. If you have pets or kids that don’t eat healthy, please do all you can & research ways to incorporate healthy foods into their diet. I wrote a post about getting your birds to eat fruit & veggies it was #4. I never gave up trying to get them to eat fresh foods, & some days they did which every win helps. Starting this at a young age is so helpful to get them to eat fresh. When I got my Canary I found a breeder who fed fresh to all his birds & I plan to buy my next canary from him. Sadly I’ve never seen canaries in rescue in my area, or I would adopt.
Jonah was a Lutino (color mutation) Cockatiel & Spree is White-face (color mutation) & some research shows these are genetic mutations that can cause health issues or they can have more delicate health overall. Lutino Syndrome is what they call it in Jonah’s color mutation. I don’t think there is a lot of research into this, but I personally after being a Cockatiel owner since about 1986 & a breeder later. I have seen that many of the color mutations don’t appear to live as long as the natural wild grey colored Cockatiels. These appear to be underlying genetic factors that may affect healthy & longevity, but not a universal rule. I will do some more research about this & write a blog post about it in the future.
Goodbye Jonah, you were with me for a long time & brought many smiles to my face. You would come to the front of your cage to visit with me & wolf whistle to me. You will be missed by me & Spree, rest in peace.
Echoing Great Pet Care 