Expert: Roger Lederer - 11/9/2011

Question
I had to raise 2 sibling cardinals. I had them 8 months. I changed their water from the bathroom tap and gave them the seed I always did. They were both healthy and happy, one would sit on my head. They had free flight in the bathroom which is large.  The next evening I went into the bathroom and one was dead on the floor by the door and the other was dead in the bathtub. It sounds like they were poisoned, but by what? The water & seed was always the same. IF something was wrong with one I could see it dying and the other one following a few day later, but for both to dye about the same time is a mystery.  The water was clean, had no stuff in it, which shows that they did not sit in or around it. They could have drank some, but how did the water get poisoned all of a sudden?  I may have used a pump hair spray on myself, can't remember, but it wouldn't have been the first time. It is a total mystery how two healthy birds can die at nearly the same time.  Do you have any ideas? I read the list of things, but none fit in. I didn't do anything different around the house than I have done a lot of time,as far as cleaners go. I changed the water and gave them new food, the same they always ate.

Answer
Well, I can't give you an exact answer since I don't know all the facts, but if both died at about the same time, then there was certainly something wrong in the environment. It could very well have been the hairspray. Some sort of air pollution is almost certainly the cause. Were you cooking anything in a frying pan or was there any other smoke?
Question: if you had to raise sibling Cardinals, why were they not released when they were able to fly?