I know Paul, I was so surprised. Two of my cockatiels died before him, but under different circumstances. I don't remember if I told the stories in this thread yet and I'm too lazy to look, so I'll just write it again!
We used to not clip their wings because we thought birds should be able to fly, and we'd let Arthur and Michaela out to fly around the house. One day, Michaela flew into a wall and when I ran to pick her up, I heard a grating sound in her chest. We rushed her to the vet and she stayed over night. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with her and sent her home. Sure enough, she acted completely normal- birds hide illness well, but she was doing things like singing happily and mating with Arthur, which sick birds don't do! The accident happened in April. In August, we decided to breed Arthur and Michaela since they were such lovely birds and I had homes lined up for them. First I took Michaela back to the vet to make sure she really was okay. He said she was fine. I was relieved!
I did a TON of research and was thrilled when 6 perfect eggs, ALL fertilized (which is unusual for the first try) were laid! They were wonderful parents to the eggs. Then one day when the eggs were about 2 weeks old, I went into my room and found Michaela sitting on the ledge of the nest box, looking a little tired. Arthur was on the eggs. I was worried she was sick so my mom came home from work early and we took her to the vet. He said she may have a calcium deficiency but should perk up and wanted to keep her overnight. So I left her there. The next morning as I was happily preparing to go pick her up and telling Arthur and the eggs to hang tight because Michaela would be home soon, the vet called and said she had died during the night. I was crushed! Later my brother said he thought one of our parents had been in a car accident or something because all he knew was the phone rang, then I was screaming and crying. My poor sweet Michaela, she was such a good girl and I never forgave myself for letting her die alone at the vet office. Anyway, the vet asked if he could do a necropsy and I said he could. When we went to pick her body up, he said he was very surprised to find her liver nearly separated into 2 pieces and a bright shade of green. Her liver had been severely injured when she flew into the wall, but she'd hid it for more than 4 months. He didn't know how she'd continued to live happily for so long in that condition. He said she would have died eventually but having the eggs probably made it happen sooner. I was so shocked and horrified. I still miss Michaela, she was a sweet and very smart bird. We had her cremated.
None of the eggs hatched. Arthur tried his best to sit on them, but after a couple days he was overcome with grief and called constantly to Michaela. He started scattering the eggs around the nest box in an attempt to cool them down. I tried to save them, used a heating pad under the nest box with a thermometer, and even carried them around in my shirt with a thermometer. After one day of trying to warm the eggs myself, I was able to get ahold of a breeder half an hour away who immediately dropped everything and drove to my house to get the eggs. She had an experienced pair of breeding tiels who recently laid a clutch of unfertilized eggs, and the plan was to swap them out. The new parents took great care of the eggs, but none hatched. Something could have gone wrong at so many points during the eggs "lives", but I was still disappointed as I'd been hoping so much for at least one baby to keep for myself- a little bit of Arthur and Michaela. Michaela was cremated and I buried some of her ashes with the eggs and a few of Arthur's feathers.
So at this point, poor Arthur was beside himself. I started spending all my time with him and he bonded very strongly to me. If he was on me or in my sight, he was fine, but if he couldn't see me, he shrieked incessantly for hours on end. I'm not kidding, once I pretended to leave the house but just stayed downstairs and he screamed for 3 hours before I went upstairs. He definitely needed another bird companion as he had never been alone in the 3 1/2 years he'd been alive. He and Michaela had been so closely bonded, they were so sweet and funny together. Arthur eventually was so upset that wouldn't eat. I took him to 4 vets (even a homeopathic vet) before finding an awesome vet a few miles away. The vet said to get him a bird friend ASAP. That's how we got Luca... He and Arthur hit it off immediately, they were best friends right away and Arthur was finally relieved off his sorrow. They were best friends for 6 years.
We got Little Bird a month after we got Luca. Before the little eggs didn't hatch, the breeder who took them invited us over to her house. We saw her wonderful breeding set up and her MANY birds. At the time, she was handfeeding a little cockatiel chick, the only survivor from his clutch. Only 3 of their 6 or 7 eggs had hatched, and the parents proceded to kill 2 of the babies. The breeder walked in when they were killing the last baby, but she saved him. He was 3 days old at the time. When I saw him first, he was 10 days old... a super ugly, gangly little baby with a huge scab on his back from where he'd been attacked. Seriously, on this tiny bird there was a scab the size of a quarter. I don't know how he survived! Anyway, the breeder let me hold him but I was so scared of hurting him (he'd just been fed) that I put him down quickly. Several weeks later, the breeder and I were still sending e-mails back and forth and she was telling me how sweet the little cockatiel who she'd named ET had become. I mean, he was hand raised for nearly his entire life and spent most of his time with her (she carried him around), so he was VERY used to being handled! My mom and I talked it over and we decided to buy him. I was immediately smitten with Little Bird, the breeder brought him over to our house and in spite of having been in the car for 15 minutes, as soon as I opened his cage he ran over and leaned his head down to get scratches. He was THE most amazing cockatiel ever. He loooooved everyone, especially me (even from the begining). He loved attention, being kissed and held, and would cuddle on my chest for hours. We bought him a little bird diaper so he could play without pooping on stuff. He loved zippers and shiny things and earrings and everything really. He happily went to anyone who wanted to hold him. Most cockatiels only want their heads to be petted, but he would lie on his back in my hand and get belly rubs. Very special, happy boy.
Unfortunately, he also had many problems. He was really tiny and had deformed feet. He only had feeling in 2 toes on each foot and had problems perching on things and walking without tripping. He suffered from a ton of health problems and was at the vet every couple weeks. I spent at least $2000 on vet bills for him during his 3 years. The vet told me to prepare for him to have a shortened life span because he was so delicate and probably had things wrong inside. The fact that his parents had tried to kill him made me worried, because birds can often tell if something's wrong with their chicks and will try to kill them at a young age. I'd heard of many other birds being rescued from their parents and handraised, only to die a couple years later of what turned out to be a congenital problem. Little Bird lived for 3 years though. He was my constant companion. He hated Arthur and Luca, and they hated him. They never hurt him (tiels are very gentle birds), but they shunned him, so he lived alone and was bonded to me. He never ever learned to chirp like a normal cockatiel, even with Arthur and Luca in the same room. He made this sound that was similar to the sound baby cockatiels make when they're hungry. He could also whistle and when he saw his reflection or the other birds, he produced quite the array of funny sounds. Anyway, I had to leave him to go to college in Alaska in September, and my mom took care of the birds. Poor Little Bird missed me, but the separation was going to be temporary and my mom gave him attention. When I went home in December, he was so happy to see me! I missed him a lot. At one point, I remember being worried because something seemed to be "off" with him. His weight was good and he was acting normally, but I could sense something wrong. My mom and friend who was visiting (she had cockatiels for years and was a vet tech) assured me he was FINE and I was just paranoid, so I let it go. The next day I left to visit my dad for a few days in Louisiana. A couple nights later I got a call from my mom who said one of the birds had died. My heart stopped as I waited for her to tell me who it was... Of course I loved Arthur and Luca, but Little Bird was my darling. Of course it was him. My brother found him dead on the floor of the cage. Unfortunately, we didn't have a necropsy done... It would have been good to know what was wrong with him, I can't remember why one wasn't done. I think my brother had already taken him to be cremated so it was too late.
So, that is the very long story of Michaela and Little Bird. Both of them were wonderful birds. They had such different personalities. Luca was pretty much untouchable, he hated humans but was Arthur's buddy. I worked with him for a looooong time and finally accepted that he didn't want to be friends with me. Michaela was Arthur's "wife", but still liked me. She would sit on my finger or shoulder and get her head scratched. Little Bird was the most hands on cockatiel I've ever met or even heard of, he took everything in stride and had such a huge personality for such a tiny bird. I miss all of my birdies and hope we can find a great tiel to be Arthur's new mate. I haven't heard back from the Craigslist tiels owner yet.
Sorry so long!
The one who died is Luca, my beautiful boy who I've had for 6 years. Luca never liked me (except for one time when he let me scratch his head), but he was Arthur's best buddy. I've had Arthur for 10 years, I originally got him and another 'tiel, Michaela, at the same time, but Michaela died 6 years ago after a freak accident. Arthur did NOT handle being by himself well, he barely ate and bonded to me so strongly that he screamed incessantly if he couldn't see me. We got Luca shortly after so Arthur wouldn't have to be alone, and they became instant best friends. 
