Your budgie has been part of your family for several years, so it is hard to deal with the death of your budgie. The death of your feathery member of your family can be a trying time for you and your family. Don’t know what to do with a dead budgie? Continue reading to learn what to do with the death of your bird.
What to Do With a Dead Budgie?
What can you do to your dead bird? You can perform a necropsy on your dead budgie, bury your dead budgie on your property, cremate your dead budgie, or preserve your dead budgie.
Here are some of the things you can do to your dead budgie.
Perform a Necropsy
Performing a necropsy on your dead budgie can give you closure and help you know the cause of the death. Once you know the cause of death, you will save your other budgies. Take the necessary actions to stop your budgies from dying from the same causes.
If you want to perform a necropsy, preserve your bird immediately it dies.
Preserve Your Dead Budgie
Sometimes, it is just difficult to forget our dead feathery friends. Budgies can live for more than 15 years, so you will build a strong bond with your budgie. Do not just get rid of the bird immediately it dies. It is possible to preserve a dead bird. If you want to preserve your dead budgie, send it to a professional taxidermy studio for preservation.
Bury Your Dead Budgie
Before burying your dead budgie on your property, call your local municipality. This is because the laws, regarding the burial of animals, vary from state to state.
If the law allows you to bury a dead bird on your property, choose the right location on your property, especially if you have cats or dogs. Dogs or cats can dig the bird up. Make sure your cats, dogs, or scavengers cannot access that location and dig a deep grave.
You can either bury your budgie with a container or without a container. If you decide to use a container, choose a container made of non-toxic material. You can even get a pet coffin. Do not use a container made of plastic to burry a dead bird.
Cremate Your Dead Budgie
Do you want to memorialize your budgie? Then, cremate your bird. There are several pet cremation services, so contact your local avian veterinarian for recommendations.
Cremating your dead bird helps you keep a remembrance of your budgie, and it offers you some comfort as you deal with the loss of your feathery friend.
It is cheap to cremate a dead bird.
How to Pick Up a Dead Budgie?
You have been playing with your budgie for several years, so you are used to touching it with your bare hands. If your budgie dies suddenly, you must take the necessary safety precautions, especially if you do not know the cause of death.
Pets, including birds, can spread diseases, so you must protect yourself from these diseases. Here is how to pick your dead budgie:
- Do not touch your dead budgie with your bare hands. Your budgie may have died of a disease. If you touch the dead bird with your bare hands, you might get the disease.
- Wear either washable gloves or disposable gloves when picking your dead budgie. The gloves protect your hands. Throw away the disposable gloves and thoroughly clean and disinfect your washable gloves.
- Clean up after handling your dead bird. You may pick germs from the budgie. Prevent spreading these germs by washing your hands thoroughly. Use warm water and soap to wash your hands thoroughly.
- Disinfect all the surfaces, which your budgie touched, in your home. If your budgie touched your clothes, wash them with water in the washing machine.
What to Do When One Budgie Died?
You may already know budgies are social animals, so they can build strong bonds with other budgies. However, one of your budgies might die suddenly. It is difficult for any bird owner to deal with the death of their bird.
Budgies can also mourn the loss of their close friend.
Here are some of the things you can do when one of your budgies dies.
1. Spend More Time With Your Remaining Budgie
Do not leave your remaining budgie alone. Spend more time together and encourage the bird to play with its favorite toys.
It takes time for a budgie to adjust to the loss of their friend. So, your bird needs your full attention during these difficult times.
2. Get a New Budgie
You have been keeping two budgies, so you can afford to take care of another budgie. It can take a couple of weeks for your new budgie to become friends with your morning budgie.
It is worth it because your remaining budgie will not feel lonely. Do not put new birds in the same cage. They can fight and injure. Read this article to learn how to introduce two budgies.
3. Entertain Your Budgie
Entertaining your budgie can help them cope up with the loss of their close friend, especially if you only had two budgies. So, play soothing music for your grieving budgie.
Playing soothing music is ideal if you have a busy schedule. Leave the music on when you are not with your budgie. Music is one of the easiest ways of keeping a single budgie happy.
4. Offer Favorite Foods
Your budgie may have favorite foods, so feed your budgie these foods. Every pet love eating their favorite food. They even get excited when they see or smell their favorite foods.
Offering your budgie their favorite foods can make the budgie happy. You will see your bird getting excited. Your budgie will stop worrying and enjoy the meal.
5. Get More Toys
Budgies love playing with toys, but they can get tired of some of these toys. Do not leave your budgie sitting there in the cage. Get new toys, especially like the ones your budgie loves.
You will see your budgie happy while playing with the toys. If the bird is not interested in the toys, play with the toys yourself. This helps the bird gets excited and it can make the bird want to play with the toys.
Do Budgies Die of Loneliness?
Budgies cannot die of loneliness. However, lonely budgies can have a poor quality of life. Having two budgies does not guarantee that your birds will not get lonely. They can get lonely if they spend the whole day inside the cage. Let your budgies play in or out of your home. Watch over your budgies as they play because they can get injure themselves while flying.
Why Do My Budgies Keep Dying?
Some bird owners usually report that their budgies keep dying every few months. As mentioned above, budgies can live for more than 15 years. If your budgies keep dying after a few months, know that there are several causes of death. As a pet bird owner, you must learn why do your budgies die.
The following are some of the reasons for the sudden death of budgies:
Heat Stroke
Budgies can suddenly die from heat stroke, so pay close attention to the current environment of your budgies.
In winter months, do not keep the external source of heat close to your birds. And in summer months, do not put the cage inside hot rooms or in direct sunlight.
Do not leave your budgie inside your car, especially during hot days.
Diseases
Budgies can die without symptoms from some diseases such as chlamydiosis or tumors. A budgie, with one of these diseases, may seem fine until it dies. To prevent your budgies from dying suddenly from some of these diseases, take your budgies regularly to your local avian veterinarian.
Water
Budgies can die if you deprive them of water. They die from fatal dehydration. If your budgies drink water from a water bowl, fill the water bowl daily.
However, your budgies can empty the water bowl. If this happens, you may assume your budgies drank the water. Do not assume anything, especially if you have not been around your birds. You do not know when your budgies will drink water, so ensure the water bowl is always filled with water.
If you use a water bottle to deliver the water, make sure the water bottle is working properly and there is nothing blocking it.
Switching Foods Abruptly
You can starve your budgies without realizing, especially when you are trying to feed new foods to your budgies. It takes time for budgies to get used to new foods. If you have several budgies, some of your budgies might love the new foods. But one of your budgies might not eat the foods.
If you want to give your budgies new foods, give them new foods gradually. Monitor your budgies when feeding them new foods. And do not change their foods suddenly. If some of your budgies do not eat the new foods, feed them their favorite foods.
Family Pets
Do not leave your budgies with your family pets unsupervised. Dogs and cats can become good friends with your pet birds. However, budgies can irritate your dogs or cats. If your dog or cat is irritated, it can bite the bird. And the bite can injure the bird, and the bird might die from the injury.
Budgies usually do not survive the strong bite of a big dog. Supervise your family pets when they are playing together.
Feeding Mistakes
You see your budgie is not eating. You get because the bird has not eaten anything for the whole day. You decide to hand feed your budgie or to use a syringe to feed your hand. Then, you make a mistake, killing your bird.
As an inexperience bird owner, do not hand feed your pet bird. You can make mistakes, such as forcing food into your bird, injuring the mouth of your bird with the feeding equipment, delivering the food improperly, and many more. Avoiding risky the life of your birds by letting an aviculturist feed your birds.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article has helped you know what to do with a dead budgie. I know it is difficult to cope with the loss of a budgie, especially if the bird has been in your family for several years and you spent a lot of time playing with your pet bird and teaching your budgie new tricks. I would like to wish you comfort and peace during this difficult time, and I encourage you to get a new budgie for your remaining budgie.
