I am so sorry for your loss. I know how awful you feel, having been there myself. Of course I'm not going to be able to tell you exactly what caused her death. However, you can find out if you have done nothing with her body yet. You can put her in a zip lock bag, in the fridge. Not the freezer. Then get her to a well qualified avian vet first thing tomorrow for a necropsy. That is, of course, a very personal decision you must make. I would not presume to tell you what you should do. Other than a person wanting closure and wanting to fully understand what happened, the only reason I see for necropsy is if you have other birds and are in fear of something possibly contagious. What I can tell you, based on what you say about the fluffing of feathers and becoming quiet, (actually any change in normal behavior) is an indication that she has been sick for some time. In case you are not aware, birds will hide their symptoms from us until they are too weak to continue with the pretense. All too often by the time we detect symptoms, it can be too late. The symptoms seem to point to possible exposure to a toxin of some sort. Just a few possibilities that come to mind are a piece of new furniture that has been Scotch Guarded, new carpet, having a carpet cleaned, using carpet "sprinkles", new paint, spraying of any kind of aerosol around her, burning candles, use of any kind of air freshener, using the self cleaning cycle on the oven, cooking with non stick cookware and letting it get too hot, (actually any kind of non stick surface as ironing board covers, etc. can be deadly if they over heat.) cigarette smoke, absorption of nicotine through her feet from sitting on a smokers hand, insecticides, most cleaning products, chewing on painted surfaces or on surfaces which contain either lead or zinc, chewing on a toxic house plant, on and on. The list is very long but those are the ones that come to mind right away as they are the most common ones we hear about. If none of these sounds like a possibility and if you want the closure of knowing for certain, I suggest you think about the necropsy. For me at least, it would be a very hard decision to make and if you are reluctant, I certainly understand. It's entirely up to you. I hope this information is helpful to you but if you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask. Patricia
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