Scary Silence

[Birdnut]

Just had a little crisis here and a reminder of some important bird psychology.

 

It started when I burned some toast in the oven (being the klutz that I am). When I opened the oven door to discover the carnage, it set off the smoke alarms. Moussa was in the kitchen (nowhere near the oven). I immediately returned him to his cage, contained all birds, opened all the doors and turned on the ceiling fans. The alarms subsided after about 30 seconds, but I continued to air out the house for a while just to be sure.

 

After a while, and the house closed up again, I brought Moussa back out of his cage. I was a little worried about him from the burning toast, fright from the alarms, etc. He was being very still and quiet, and I was intently watching him, wondering if he was okay. He continued to be quiet, subdued, and looking around guardedly.

 

Then I realized how very, very quiet it was in the room. I realized that the quiet, itself, could be alarming him. I got up and put on some reggae and started dancing around and talking. Moussa immediately popped back into his normal playing around and chirping and chattering self.

 

This was a good reminder to me that birds are made anxious by silence. I know when we got our first bird, we always left the TV or radio on when there was nobody home. I hadn't thought about it in a long time, since we now have a bird room with several birds that always have lots of sounds and activity around them. I have also never seen it so clearly demonstrated with such clear reactions as it was with Moussa today.

[danmcq]

Great reaction and thoughts on how to relieve the stress our birds experience when an alarming situation like this takes place.

 

Thanks for sharing your actions in what you did to keep your birds safe, clear the air and then putting on some Reggae and changing the atmosphere to one of joy and fun.

[chezron]

I am so glad everything turned out okay! I know it must have been scary for awhile.