sick cockatiels

Question
QUESTION: my aunts has had 4 cockatiels over the past 10 years. the first pair seemed ok, and after a few years, the male had developed a tumor and died. later the female, who was already distressed and feather pulling died shortly thereafter. she had 2 parakeets after this, one died in a fight, while the survivor died of a respiratory illness. now she has 2 more cockatiels, this time each is a male in separate cages. both were less than a year old when purchased, and bought about 3 months apart. the first one now has an outside tumor, has plucked the feathers off and cant whistle anymore, just barely sqeaks.(the tumor is on its side, dont know if that hurts his voice or not). she had went thru so many birds, i dont understand. her house is heated with an electric heat pump with attached humidifier. she also runs an air cleaner and an ionizer in the main room where the birds are kept. she does have located beside the floor model tv, where there is an open curtain for them to look outside. no known mold or mildew in the house. by the way, old age was not a factor with any of the mentioned birds. any suggestions on why she keeps losing her birds?

ANSWER: Hello,
I actually have never owned a bird with any of these behaviors. Reason for these sick birds only leads me to believe of one reason.


Where did you buy the birds from?





Once answered I will have a full page of answers for you. ;)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: the first 2 cockatiels were bought from individuals and those two did not get sick for about 2 years. the 2 parakeets were purchased from a licensed pet store locally and the 2nd one the survived the fight, got sick about a year later. the current set of cockatiels,she had now, one was bought from a local breeder, she breed them at her home. the second was bought from another individual she met at the hair salon, who bought the bird for her daughter and she did not want the bird. the one from the breeder is the one with the tumor now and cant whistle. the last, currently is not showing any problems as of yet. thanks for answering me back and i hope this addt'l info will help.

Answer
Ok,
I think I know the problem. These birds are probably sick from where you got them from. If you say you are taking perfect care of the birds, then you are. I don't see a reason for them to die. Breeders and pet stores are not always the best place to buy birds since pet stores get their animals from animal mills where they mass produce the birds or capture then from the wild. Anyone can be a breeder, alls you have to do is get a male and female together and you have a breeder.

Unless you send me pictures of the bird's cages, and objects around their cages, I might be able to spot something wrong. The only thing I can suspect is that these birds are getting sick from the people who had held them before. Or you are doing something wrong.

This is a hard situation to figure out.

-Carly