aging cockatiel

[kferrisqcs]

Pepi is a cockatiel. 27 years old. He lives in stages like humans. Sprite and curious as a youngster but now in a senior citizen kind of life. Harder to climb in his cage. Taken for check-ups once a year and always in good health. Yes, I dote on that bird but it is worth it. Recently, he has been falling off his perch and to me it seems like a long drop to the bottom of the cage. I put down layers of padding to help. His one wing droops and the vet said it is most likely arthritis. The wing tips were trimmed to help him balance on his perch and lessen the times of falling off. Poor little thing. A few days before Easter, I found a cage that was smaller and what I felt would be easier to navigate by my little companion. The day before Easter, Pepi had an episode; of what I am not quite sure. With my bird, any little mishap, I keep my calm for the sake of the bird while inside I am screaming and crying like a child. I held Pepi and his head was really turned around where I could not tell his back from front save for his legs. All I could do was let him grip my finger while supporting his limp neck and telling my husband nearby that this was it. Pepi was dying. In my calm, I talked to him. Pepi started to perk up a bit and then he started getting better. We placed him on his little birdie zone on our recliner (pepi's chair) and he slowly gained himself. He is now in the smaller cage with again, padding at the bottom. It is all new for him after at least 13 years in a bigger cage with his perfect sleeping perch and his food and drink cups a certain size and easy on the feet. Of course, being a Saturday, my vet would not be in. I did not trust other vet hospitals that one, did not specialize in birds and two, did not know the history of my bird. Last time with a cockateil to the vet hospital, they over exposed it to x-rays and killed it. So tomorrow is a pre scheduled vet visit. I want to say that Pepi either had a stroke or a head trauma. I don't think it was a seizure as my other 20 year old cockatiel has them when at the vet's office and he drools. Pepi did not drool. I have to say, from this whole experience and watching my bird age, I can't seem to find a good bird cage. It is almost like the companies that design bird cages have never had a bird for a long time. My ideal would be a cage that has the rungs going side to side on all four sides instead of front and back being rungs up and down. It would be ideal if there was a selection of cages of special needs birds. Alas, birds are not the popular pets like dogs or cats. Does anyone know of any cage for birds that are easy on the really old birds?

[critters]

Personally, I don't know anything about 'tiels in particular, but you might look on the "Bird/Exotic" board here at HP viewforum.php?f=19 . Can you adapt his cage with stuff, like, say, a stick, board, ladder, or whatever? If you find what works, you might even invent a new business, selling to others. There are quite a few businesses dealing with various aspects of critters with disabilities that got their start as necessity being the mother of invention.

[CarolC]

I don't know anything about it either, but I tried searching eBay with the words "bird cage ladders" for an example and got 447 results. Some of them are super cheap. I'll bet you could set something up yourself with rungs the right direction that would work for him, and it wouldn't have to be expensive. If you do, maybe you could post a picture to give other people ideas, too.