Utter neglection

[Meow]

Sam007 I'll probably get two clip lamps! They are cheap here too, very useful for attaching directly to the cages, and even though they don't last too long, they will be good enough for the recovery period of the birds. I have some 100W bulbs around here, hopefully they won't be too warm. Heat lamps here are like 50 euro, which is a bit too steep compared to the clip lamp + light bulb solution which results in about 5 euro tops, but if it doesn't help, I won't mind giving more for something that does
Thank you for the suggestions!!
@lovezebs I was thinking the same thing! I've cleaned the litter boxes as soon as I've arrived, so they stopped "littering" the hotspot. However, that will remain as it is until it starts bothering me personally.
@wildbird I would have committed her a long time ago, as mentioned, we have a very gruesome history, but her side of the family is larger than the other side of the family, and they support her 100% in everything (neglecting birds being on the list apparently).
I only wish my degree got me more or better jobs so that I could afford to move out alongside my mom and pets.
Oh well, I'll just... refuse vacations from now on.
@afinch I've checked his whole body once he departed, there were no open wounds and no bones felt broken to the touch, and the skin under the feathers wasn't bruised. But I'm no expert. I could've missed a dozen of signs.
As for the family, they have literally walked past a cage where dead birds paved the floor and other birds feasted on them. There was blood everywhere, even on the white walls and it smelled really bad. I mean, if the completely empty food and water dishes weren't obvious enough. Only one aunt called since I've arrived, and I've explained how I'm taking the blame for what happened since I was the one that decided to leave them when there was obviously nobody to look after them in the meantime. She said she thought the others refilled the food so she didn't. I'm guessing all will repeat the same story. This is terrible to say, but I really wish we weren't related.


Update:

- The old zebra male died about an hour ago in my palm. I would rather not think of it.
I will remember the good times. My attempts at hand-feeding him, his attempts at courting every single female when his beak was still half-black, his willingness to foster every egg I've put into his and his mate's nest... They are the amazing foster parents I've mentioned in my earlier thread. They raised the degenerate chick that even I didn't have hopes for. Both died during this week. Both will be sorely missed. Oh, and he is the one on my avatar. Beautiful bird.

- Cookie is very lively.
I've separated her into a cage and put the warmest lamp I have over it. And a towel too, just to be extra warm.
She really likes it! She's been under the lamp for the most time, but she's jumping from perch to perch a lot too. I've added some larger carrot pieces when she ate the grated ones, so that she would have something to do while in there. All alone. Poor baby.



- All other birds are recovering. I'm a bit concerned for Stubbs, my one-toe male, because he's still puffed up and other birds are snuggling against him, but he does seem much better than yesterday, and better now than a few hours ago, so I'm hoping it's just a phase of his recovery.

- Youngsters are taking a bath at this moment. They are fine.
Weird thing though, I think one's laying an egg right now. I'm not sure at what age they start doing that, but it's no wonder, since all they ate for a lot of days was a large piece of cuttlefish bone. Maybe they fed on the eggs and thus survived the food deprivation? That would be very neat.

[MiaCarter]

Meow -- Oh my goodness.

I really don't have any words at the moment. I'm just stunned that this could happen.

How could anyone be so careless??

How difficult is it to toss seed and water in a bowl?

It would have taken under a minute to do the bare minimum at least every other day.
Thank goodness you have survivors. I know how fast they can deteriorate. They have such zippy metabolisms.
A number of years ago, I pulled out the cage-mounted bowls one morning to soak them to get the poop off the perches, so I put seed and food on a paper plate instead. I had a busy day and didn't check up on them until the next morning at breakfast.
Seems someone tried to lift up the paper plate to use it as nesting? That's my best guess, as the plate had nibble marks and all of the food had gone through the grate.
So all they had was a small half-eaten millet spray.
I was horrified the next morning to see all of them sitting on the floor, all of them puffed up.
They all recovered within the hour once they had food, but it was close. Very scary. It's incredible how fast they go downhill.

So thankful that you've been able to save as many as you have!

I'm so sorry about your male who just passed. Fly free, little one.

ETA -- Smart kitties. Leave the pee as a thank you gift to granny.

[afinch]

Cookie is adorable

[Sally]

I can understand non-bird people not noticing one dead bird, or not noticing a seed dish full of empty hulls, but it is difficult to comprehend how anyone could not see that many dead birds nor totally empty seed dishes. It sounds like the cats were neglected as well. Unfortunately, there are some people in the world who have no empathy for any living thing other than themselves.

I am so sorry you have had to go through this. It is difficult enough to lose one bird, but so many is really devastating. Your young birds that are recovering should bounce back quickly now that they have food and water.

[Angela&Shalamar]

I"m so sorry this happened. I just don't even know what to say, some people really are just a waste of flesh. To have so little care for another living creature let alone your feelings is just....horrible.

[Meow]

MiaCarter you are right about finches being sensitive. In fact, I never thought of it this way, but maybe that's what ultimately ended them sooner. All of them were born here and grew up being extremely pampered. They have different plants on the menu every day, the water is changed twice per day and I have kept the cages squeaky clean. As it goes, someone with no exposure to bacteria can die of a common cold. It's been a blessing that my birds managed to recover in a matter of a day! They are very lively now and chirping like before. Though it's a lot less cheerful. Of the birds that passed away, only two were hens. The rest were males. It really sounds different now

@afinch thank you! If you've seen the path of her recovery, you'd know that I've adopted her in a much worse state than she is in now. If she managed to recover from that, this will be no problem at all! I've cleaned her back with iodine once more and I'll leave her alone for a day to see if there's any improvement.

@Sally while we're already on the topic of heartless humans, here's the cherry on this dreadful cake of a horror story - I've buried the finches in a bushy spot behind the parking lot. When I went to bury the last one, the old male zebra, I've noticed that the ground was severely disturbed (i've made a little pebble frame around each grave and left some grass on top), and the dirt trail ended at the recycling bin. A lot of bitter old people have windows overlooking that spot, and they've been known to call the pound for every stray that appears, so my guessing ends there. Imagine how someone's life is when they take the time to dig out dead birds in order to put them into the garbage bin.
But this ended with me taking the deceased male back home. I don't know how to dispose of him now.
Is it too horrible to bury him in a plant pot and then plant something there?

@Angela&Shalamar I guess the inconsiderate ones majorly come from the more difficult times when even human life was less valued, let alone something as "insignificant" as a 5cm noise maker. My grandma is a survivor of multiple wars and... well, even though she herself was never really exposed to any of it, I guess living through it must have been hard on the sanity. Not that I'm defending her. I'm still very angry.


Update:

- A fellow bird lover that I've found on the internet took two of my working pairs to his very large and very beautiful aviary. This is not only good for them, but also good for the remaining ones because now they have more space and don't have to fight over food. This is important for the weaker ones, since they were being pecked away from the food bowl. Yes, the whole flock got more aggressive over food, despite having more than enough for everyone.

- Stubbs, the one-fingered male is still puffed up, no change. His sister is keeping him warm. She pushed him very close to the millet branch so now he doesn't go down to the food bowls at all. Even the bf parrotfinch male (I will address him as "Bully" in further posts because that's the name he reeeally earned) has left him alone, while ordinarily he would at least push him around.

- I've bought some rumex patientia (no idea what's it's name in English) for my own dinner, but naturally cut up some leaves for the birds. Put a rice bowl with the youngsters first. While I went back for another one, they already emptied the one I left. In a matter of minutes! So I put another one and watched them eat. It was actually pretty scary how fast they cleaned up! Now I'm afraid to put more because it could be the cow+clover issue (they eat until their stomach blows up). Can someone confirm this? Or should I keep refilling? I mean, it's a great plant! Full of vitamins and iron and whatnot. Maybe their little bodies really need it?

Budgie came back home. He is already noticing that his singing buddy is missing. He sings his song but nobody sings back. He keeps singing though. Poor darling. Even if he could ask, I wouldn't tell him the truth.

[Angela&Shalamar]

Birds aren't ruminants like cows so you don't need to worry about their stomach blowing up (bloat) like that BUT...giving an animal that was in starvation mode a rich diet right away can actually be bad for them so I would NOT refill them with any more of the greens right now. As long as everyone is showing steady signs of improvement I'd leave things be. Look to rehab them over weeks not days.

[Meow]

Angela&Shalamar you have just opened my eyes to a terrible mistake I've made. Since returning, I've been showering the finches with various ingestibles in huge amounts. They cleaned up all bowls and dishes by the end of the day. I haven't even considered how it might affect their starved stomachs! How could I be so careless!! I'll keep an extra eye open in case there are any changes! Their stool seems fine at the moment, not rare or dense... but there was much more than usual, so I cleaned twice since yesterday.

Here's a video I've just made to show how Stubbs and his sister are acting, in case anyone can add something.
You won't be able to miss Bully, being extremely hyper when deprived of his flight time. I've decided not to let them out of the cages until they recover, and he is taking it very badly.

[Angela&Shalamar]

Stop being so hard on yourself, you weren't being careless most people actually don't know that giving food to a starved animal can actually be the WORST thing you can do.I probably wouldn't know either if I hadn't worked with a wildlife rehabber for several years. That's the whole point of the forum to share knowledge and help. Take a deep breathe they are improving and that's what really matters.

[Meow]

Hello, once again!
I've wanted to wait a bit before posting again in case anything drastic happens, but thankfully, it didn't!

Twelve zebras, two diamond firetails and two bf parrotfinches remain now. And his majesty, the budgie.

- I've transferred all zebras into one cage to be able to monitor them closely, but amazingly, they haven't been fighting or even pecking at each other, which is definitely a new thing in our flock. Probably because most that remain are females, and the males are either paired up or too young to care

- Two days ago, I've put one nest back in because some have been puffing up together on perches. From past experience I've learned that it's to keep an ill one warm, and they've mostly done the healing process in nests. But today I've noticed that two of them have actually been brooding over an egg rather than keeping each other warm.
I'm not sure if I should let them hatch it. They are an experienced pair but maybe they're still too weak to take care of a young one. What do you think?

@Angela&Shalamar thank you for the kind words. Luckily, the greens I've been overfeeding them were digested quickly and nobody exhibited any signs of overfeeding (at least to my googled knowledge). They are very happy now, nobody is puffed up, and they have already enjoyed several hours outside of the cage.
While some refused to move much from the bath, others flied like nothing was ever wrong!

- Cookie started growing back feathers once again, and her injuries have developed scabs. They itch her and she keeps picking them, but I'm sure she understands that she shouldn't be too rough with it.
I've been turning the lamp (heat source) off during the night, but I'm not sure if that's such a good thing since it started being much colder during the night. I'm afraid she wouldn't be able to sleep properly if it were on at all times. How should I proceed?


If there weren't for so many dead, I would actually be proud of the way I've handled the situation. May it never happen again. To anyone.

[MiaCarter]

Meow -- Well in all, that's a good update!
I was holding my breath when I saw there was an update!

Don't worry about the heat lamp causing sleep problems.
If she's using it, keep it on.
I have a heat lamp on one of my hens and she sleeps like a champ, despite the light -- that's the norm. It doesn't much matter (Just as you or I can sleep in daylight. It kind of sucks falling asleep but it's not a big deal and once you're asleep, it's no matter.)
If it bothers her, she can always sleep headless. <--- (My term for when they sleep with their head tucked under the wing. They look headless!) Their eyes are covered when they sleep headless.

The nests are a great idea for those who are cuddling to keep one warm.
The nests also hold the body heat better too.

I wouldn't let them do any clutches right now. No way.
They're weak and their reserves are tapped. I wouldn't dare put them through the stress and work of raising babies for at least 3-4 months. That will give their body systems time to normalize, their body fat and muscle mass to return to normal, etc.

Happy to hear everyone seems to be doing well!
It makes me so sad you've lost so many, all because your sitter was careless. (Almost called her a "caretaker", but that's not right. She didn't provide any care!! Nor did she care that they were suffering. Break my heart.)