Frights in the night!

[casper]

As most of you regulars know my Charlie has always suffered with some kind of night fright which has sometimes ended up with him injuring himself or losing his flights.

 

He had a terrible oe last night and I have been awake since 3am with him.

 

Its affecting the rest of the family now as well as we all get woken up by the noise.

 

You will hear him thrashing frantically around his cage it is awful to hear.

 

When i got down last night, his breathing was heavy and he was shaking. I speak to him in a calm soothing voice to reassure him but last night it took over an hour just to settle him and calm him down.

 

I have night lights now in the bird room, the birds are covered and there are no other animals downstairs at night time.

I have had to get baby monitors so I can hear as soon as he has one, this makes it quicker for me to get to him and cause himself less injury.

 

The other two birds are pretty good and dont make a noise but if all three start flapping around its a job for 2 of us to settle them all down again.

 

Its affecting sleep for all of us know and i wish I could get to the bottom of it as I do worry what he could do to himself.

 

He is scared to go upstairs so a sleep cage would not work.

 

Does anyone else have problems like these? Or any ideas? They would be most welcome.

From a very tired sleep deprived bird mum of three:)

[judygram]

Poor Charlie for having night frights and poor Caroline for losing sleep because of it but no my Josey has never had a night fright but I can understand how nerve wracking it can be for you both. I don't know what else you can do besides what you have done already to keep him from having them, I guess some greys are just prone to them.

 

Maybe some of the other members will have some suggestions for you.

[danmcq]

I am sorry to hear this is still going on.

 

There is obviously something setting Charlie off. Perhaps you could setup a camcorder on low resolution and turn it on when you go to bed. Perhaps this sounds and film may shed some light on what the root cause of it is.

 

You may need to do this several nights to catch it.

[Luvparrots]

Oh so sorry Caroline. I agree with Dan, something may be frigthening him. A shadow or nightly sound that happens late at night that Charlie can see or hear. I like the idea of a motion camera to see if you can see and hear what is going on at night. Perhaps if you just move his cage to another area to see if things are different. I hope you can find the right solution very soon.

[JillyBeanz]

My cockatiel used to suffer night frights all of the time and like Charlie would nearly kill himself flapping around in the cage until I got there. We think we discovered that it was the cooling/heating of the central heating pipes/water pipes as one evening we were sitting whilst Spiky was covered for the evening and the pipe just "pinged" ever so slightly - and that was it - all hell broke loose. I only ever caught it "happening" once, but this is what seemed to trigger him on this occasion.

 

Hope you find what it is soon - poor you and Charlie.

[Poppy]

Just a thought Caroline . Could it be a secruity light outside that goes off and upsets him ? Mum has got them very near to her house and they make us jump occasionally ! Or even car headlights shining in the room ? Im really sorry canna help more but these are just thoughts for you xx

[she]

I am so very lucky,my two very rare have night frights,I have read tiels are very prone to them especialy the lutino tiels for some reason.I am at a loss what to suggest,I wonder if the other two greys are moving about and setting him off,thats all I can come up with at the moment.

[Dave007]

Slowly and gradually cover less of the cage. Let them all see the light. More than likely, the cover plus the lack of light caused frights. Some birds are very aware of the slightest sounds that go on. Even you can't hear those sounds and if the bird can't see where or what the sound is, there may be accidents

[Joolesgreyuk]

I do sympathise Caroline, it must be terrifying for you as well as Charlie. Dave's idea sounds a good one and the reasons could be any or all of the above, poor you. I'm not sure I'd even hear mine if they did this as I sleep heavy.