FINCHforum

So about two weeks ago I purchased a very cute pair of orange cheek waxbills. Well... all my birds are on pellets and drink from a water bottle with an occasional bath put in.

My orange cheeks seemed to eat the pellets right away (as they saw all the other birds were eating them). But I don't think they caught on to drinking from the bottle.

Today I found one of them at the bottom of the cage (almost dead). I picked her up and immediately put her beak under some water in case she was dehydrated (as I don't think she knows how to drink from the water bottle, and I've been away for a couple days w/o putting a bath in). That got her up and alive again. I then stuck her in a hospital cage with milllet, wheatgrass, water and right in the window for some heat (and draped half to give her some shade). Well she was doing well, and then I had to go run earrands for a couple hours.

I came back later than I thought and she was dead! I thought she would recover. I was very sad. Now her OC mate is alone. Well not alone b/c they are in my big flight with lots of finches... but now he doesn't have someone to cuddle with at night.

I'm so mad, b/c I feel like this could have been prevented!

:( Sorry to hear about the loss of your little waxbill. It is especially frustrating when you feel it could have been prevented--but is it also possible that she did know how to drink and died from other reasons...? it's hard to say for sure.

Still sad though. My condolences.