We Lost Our Little Black Capped Conure - Please read to save your bird

Feel free to cut and paste Posh's story and send it to your friends with birds so that they will know what can happen in even a brief amount of time with these tents


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Hi, I just joined the board today because I wanted to tell the story of how we lost our little black capped conure Posh last night in the hopes that something good will come of her unfortunate death.

My little sweetie was playing with her toys when my daughters and I got home last nite. Posh's cage sits between my kitchen and family room so she is always surrounded by the family. This, of course, gives us plenty of opportunities to stop by her cage, talk with her and to watch her take baths in her water dish and play with her favorite toys. She of course had plenty of out-of-cage time too and I have to believe that she had a happy life while she was with us. We've only had her since June. She was a few months old when we got her and she has definitely been taken away from us way too soon.

Anyway, all was great with Posh while the kids and I made dinner, did homework and fed the rest of the critters in our zoo. However, when I got to Posh's cage to change her water and food, to my horror, I saw her standing toward the end of her birdie tent still as can be with her eyes closed and a loop of thread off the top of the tent wrapped around her little neck. I don't know how this happened. I was hysterical and calm all at the same time as I yelled for my daughter to get the scissors. I cut the loop and grabbed Posh out of the tent and out of cage. We took her into the bathroom and toweled her, although she wasn't moving much anyway. We were able to cut the loop free since she was still, but she lay there on the towel for some time with one eye open and one eye closed. About a minute later, she jumped up and began to panic. She bit me hard on the finger several times as I tried to get her back in the towel. I could tell that even though she was "awake" there was something very wrong. She was very unsteady on her feet and seemed disoriented. Once I toweled her again, she became very still and calmed down. I'm sure you can understand that my girls (they are 8 and 11) and I were all on the edge of hysterics as we tried to talk to her, telling her to try and stay with us. At that point, I honestly still thought that she would pull out of this and since she now seemed more alert, we put her back into the cage while I went to call my husband at work. Once in the cage, she climbed to her favorite sleeping spot and hung onto the bars (we had removed the tent). As she climbed though, I could tell that every move had considerable thought put into it before the move was made. Everything seemed very slow and deliberate. My thoughts now are that she was without oxygen long enough that she had disturbed some of her motor functions. She stayed in her sleeping spot for a little while and everything seemed to be okay. But then she fell off the bars to the bottom of the cage. I picked her up and gently toweled her again and sat with her at the kitchen table. She was just lying on her side with her eyes closed, but I could still see her breathing. She even opened her eyes several times while we talked to her and held her. My husband was rushing home, but she passed away before he got there.

Fortunately, I put my 8 year old to bed before she passed so she didn't have to see her go. As it was, it was unbearable for my other daughter and I and we held each other as we both stroked her tiny head and back and said our goodbyes and told her how much we loved her. My husband buried Posh in our back yard last nite along with her favorite toy. I know she is safe and healthy and not in any pain where she is now, but I am hurting so much because I would much rather have her here with us.

I wrote this partly to be in the comfort of others who have lost their beloved pets, but also to suggest that anyone that uses this type of tent (ours was the plush kind that you can buy at PETCO) to get rid of it immediately! Posh was not a chewer and there were never any loose threads on the tent before this. The tent itself was right above the water and food dish so I saw it many times a day and I had never seen a single pulled thread. I don't know how quickly she caught the fuzzy plush and pulled the fibers out or how she became tangled in it, but I can only imagine how horrible it was for her to be caught like she was. I can't even describe how responsible I feel or how much my heart hurts at the loss of our baby.

I know that all toys are only supposed to be given to animals under supervision, but this tent is intended to be slept in and we are not watching the birds all night while they sleep. The manufacturer's imply its safety during sleep or nesting simply because it's supposed to be a place for the bird to nest. I want as many people to know about this accident as possible so that they can take proper precautions for the safety of their bird. It seems that Posh only had to chew at it a little bit, or maybe her foot was caught and pulled the fibers on the top of the tent when she was lying on her back (like she often did). In any case, what should have been a safe place for her wasn't once that thread became loose.

Feel free to cut and paste Posh's story and send it to your friends with birds so that they will know what can happen in even a brief amount of time with these tents.

Thanks for listening.
r,
Heidi

__________________
Cindy

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
- Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks for posting this Cindy. I have heard of thie same thing happening before. I had always thought of getting those tents...glad I didn't now.

Isn't that so sad. When I got Piper CamelotCrazee sold me alot of stuff specifically Parrotlet safe which is a whole 'nother problem....but she really stressed the safety elements and how to select a safe hut. The one she recommended had no stitching at all. It was just fleece and one really really small loop elastic tie up top. I think from the company that makes Bird Buddies. But I ended up removing it even though Pipe loved it. Now she roosts under a Pima (Supreme) cotton boing's pom pom. Unfortunately that'll have to do. That stuff shreds with one pull.

I wanted a hut and when I could not find, I gave them cardboard boxes. The worst that happens to a box, is they home renovate so much the bottom or side collapses and they fall to the cage floor. Time to give them a new box.

That's so sad. Neither Ollie nor Dakota have ever liked any of those cloth tent-things.

that is such a sad story i have heard so many bad things about those tents, this just confirms it. glad artemis was never interested in his when i bought him one.

That's terribly sad. A great warning for people who have those types of tents though. I've always been hesitant about the tents for a number of reasons.

I have heard so many horror stories about these huts... especially with Linnies... they tend to have fast growing nails and they round off so they get caught in a lot of stringy or ropey toys... I love to use the petstages cuddler.. it is a tent with no bottom... the perch is the floor
Here is a pic:



I tie it to the top of the cage... and they love it... you can find them on the internet

My previous bird died from injesting fibers from one of those huts just after christmas, as I have said before, DO NOT BUY THEM!!!!.....currently I have something like it, but it has no fibers in it he can get caught in and it's cardboard filled with fabric stretched over it.

I don't have a tent but Rio loves my hand made drapes - more of a pull-up window shade. He sits on the wooden dowel that helps them hang & raise up - but he also likes to 'nest' in the folds. He climbs up them like a mountain goat & we hide the tassels & ropes.

I inspect the fabric seams a lot. I have used polyester blend thread I'm sure of it. Getting tangled like that seems like very poor luck. I agree that the story will help us all think about our bird's environment. I hope it will help but strange things can happen even when we do our best.