New Albino Parakeet and a parakeet that passed- questions?

[SkylerSue]

I just got a parakeet on Tuesday, she was doing great, she had real personality, and she seemed happy. I kept her in a separate room from my dogs and family in the house, so she could get used to seeing me and not be so stressed out. There wasn't any vacuuming done or incense or candles, etc... Long story short, she got stressed out because she had gotten water on herself. I'm assuming she wasn't cleaned at the pet store with water, and it made her really mad, so I left her in her cadge and I went to work. I come home and she is on the bottom of her cadge not perched. I take her out, and she would perch and she kind of just laid in my hand on her side curled up. She kept trying to fly and you could tell she was out of it. I tried to get her to move and she freaked out again, and started trying to fly, and her head was angled a really weird way and her eyes were HUGE, and she stopped flapping, then spread out and died right in my hands. I feel terrible, and helpless. I thought she had a seizure because of the stress that she felt earlier, because who knows how long she was sitting in her cadge like that while I was at work. She acted like it as a seizure, and I have seen an animal have a seizure, and it looked like that's what she looked like. I only had her for a few days, so I had to take her back to PetCo this morning, and they didn't know either, they said it was rare for someone to bring back a bird because it died. But they gave me another one (which I felt horrible for getting another one, horrible). She is an albino parakeet, and she seems very calm, even when they got her out of the cadge at the store, and apparently she was in a new shipment and she had just arrived an hour prior to me getting her. Anyways, I put her in the cadge (cleaned the cadge and sanitized it before hand) and now she hasn't moved around the cadge or anything she is just sitting there, puffed up and looks like she is sleeping. Whereas my other parakeet was hoping all around the cadge and exploring.
So my questions are have you ever had a parakeet die like that? And what do you think may have caused it? And is my new parakeet sick or is she okay-she just might be more calm than my other one?
Thanks so much, and thanks for taking the time to help me and read this long thing.

[Mum2rory]

I am in Australia and we dont have a Petco. But that name rings a bell (or was it Petsmart, cant remember) Sadly, many pet shops (this is a problem everywhere, even here) dont really "care" for their birds, especially the smaller ones. There is not a lot of money to be made from budgies. Many are cramped into small enclosures. They do not vet them, they can carry diseases. Unfortunately you may have brought home a sick one the first time. You may have even got a sick one the second time around. Can you take you new little friend to an avian vet and have him checked out? Its always a good idea to do this with any new bird. If Petco sold you a sick bird first time, they would not have changed anything there and any bird that goes into that store may get what you first bird had. One thing I have learned is, never believe anything they tell you in these shops, they tell you what they think you want to hear. Do you know for sure that your new bird arrived an hour earlier? Of course you dont but they want you to believe them.
Hopefully your new bird is healthy. Let him settle for a few days, dont push him to be friendly or try and train him. He is probably a little lost right now. He has gone from a cage with birdy friends to a new envrinment, all alone with a stranger. Hopefully you will see a different birdy in a few days after he has made himself at home. Good luck

[rebeccaturpeinen]

thats a real sad story im afraid i cant help you with your questions, just wanted to wish you luck with your new birdy. he probably just needs a few days to get use to his new suroundings.

[Cage Cleaner]

Petsmart/co are probably two of the worst places to buy pets of any kind. Especially birds.

The employees do not know what they're talking about. They get paid by the hour--probably something close to minimum wage-- and don't care at all about their job. How can you expect them to? Most of them are high school teenagers working there for some pocket cash, who plan to move on basically as soon as they can. Queue deer in headlights as soon as a question is asked. Or a load of bullshit.

The point I'm trying to make is the employees haven't dedicated any time at all to learning about what they are selling. They only know the right things to say to make the sale, because that's what they've been told to say to people by the store. That's their job, nothing else.

I've seen a Petco employee tell a mother of two very young kids (less than 6 years of age) that buying a Nanday Conure is a good idea because "birds don't really bite." The same employee also said that the conure wouldn't be too loud. It's a Nanday Conure. Really? Come on.

These same stores will keep their parrots with PINE PELLET bedding without knowing that pine is damaging to birds' sensitive respiratory systems. When you ask them what a bird needs, they will tell you that you just do a paper change every day, and give them food/water. They will then try to sell you said food. No mention about their mental happiness or needs.

These stores don't care at all who they sell the bird to, either. A good pet store will ask you about your living situation, and will actually refuse to sell you a bird if you answer some of the questions wrong. E.g. one of my neighborhood bird stores will ask a customer, upon said customer wishing to purchase a sun conure, if the customer has migraines. Because there is no way you are going to enjoy a sun conure's screaming if you're a regular sufferer of migraines. They will also educate you on cage size, socialization, care, handling, ETC ETC ETC. Get me?

Petco, Petsmart will not. On top of that, since they are big chain stores with high overhead, you end up paying at least twice the amount you would be paying if you were to buy the same animal from a breeder, or an all bird store who actually could educate you properly about how to care of a parrot.

In the future, don't buy any live animals from Petsmartco. It's inhumane (don't even get me started on their methods of euthanization if an animal doesn't sell), and you are not supporting a local breeder/all bird store that better deserves your cash.

With that said though, I wish you luck.