My female cockateil just droped dead.

Question
My female cockateil just droped dead. I was in the room when it happened she was fine and then she actually fell off her perch boom gone. I am stuned . I grabed her and gently blew in her face and lighty tapped on both side of the breast bone with with fingers .I guess my instinct was for resuitation .Its work for dogs and gerbils, people ,but not this poor bird. now of course ,i am thinking as an afterthought, two things .Did she have something the male can get ? did she have something I can get?.If there were symtoms ,I don't know what i should have been looking for . . The house keeper just cleaned my floors with a cleaner that she always uses . i know some of that stuff is bad but we thought this one was safe . Its called swiffer wet jet open window fresh . could it hurt one bird and not the other?  

Answer
Hi, Rise.  I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your cockatiel.

If you want to know why your cockatiel passed away, you will need to have an avian veterinarian perform a necropsy.  This is the animal form of an autopsy.  An avian vet can perform this procedure for around $25-$50 (depending on the vet).  If you plan on doing this, you will need to put your cockatiel in the refrigerator ASAP and take the bird to the bird vet within 2 days.  

She could have been suffering from something your male tiel can get, but I couldn't tell you this for sure...an avian vet would have to be the one to tell you this as a result of a necropsy.  No need to worry about you catching something from your birds, as nearly all parrot disease/illness can't be transmitted to humans (I don't know anything that can be transmitted from parrots to humans).  Usually, illness caused from bacterial infection takes days/weeks to result in death (definite signs of illness will be seen), whereas, a virus can kill a bird within hours.  Birds hide illness until they can't hide their illness any longer, so it's possible your tiel did not show signs of being sick, but perhaps she showed signs that you didn't recognize.

Birds have very sensitive respiratory systems and no 2 birds are exactly alike.  Therefore, the cleaner used on your floors could have been the culprit, but I can't confirm this.  And it could have affected one and not the other, depending on the individual birds.  A product isn't safe for birds (animals) if it doesn't specifically say so on the labeling.  I'm not saying that everything you might use in your home for cleaning/refreshing, etc., can harm your birds, but you must use extreme caution when using around birds.  Definitely products like Carpet Fresh and such that you sprinkle on carpeting is very harmful to birds.  Hair spray, perfume/cologne, products like Lysol, Frebreze, etc., should not be used around birds.  I'm not saying you can't use these products in your home, just don't use anything that could cause any type of respiratory distress in the vicinity of your birds, e.g., use hair spray in the bathroom with the door shut, don't spray Frebreze or other products like this in the air where the air could circulate through your heating/cooling system and reach your birds.  Even overheating cookware coated with Teflon can kill birds (or a Teflon-coated iron).  Recommend using natural products, such as baking soda on carpeting versus Carpet Fresh, and products safe for animals (will be identified on the product label).  These type products aren't difficult to find...it's a matter of reading labels.  Also, if you have to use an unsafe-for-animals product in your home, make sure there is plenty of outside air circulation and/or remove your bird from the area (take bird outside in cage, etc.) and/or cut off air circulation to the area where the bird lives.  Even dust from cleaning can have an adverse affect on a bird's respiratory system.

I'm sorry I couldn't be more specific for you about why your tiel passed away.

Chrys