An awesome reward

[zandische]

Many of you know about the difficult times Gryphon and I have been having. I am convinced some of that is due to hormones (which fluctuate REALLY high sometimes) and the rest is just due to the fact that he and I are still learning how to understand each other. He seems to have a lot of "wildness" in him and maybe that will never go away, I don't know. He is so completely different from his sister, who loves everyone and wants to cuddle with everyone, stranger or no. How can two birds from the same clutch, raised the same way, be so different?! I do love him for his wildness, but sometimes it really tests my patience

 

One thing about Gryph is that he has night terrors sometimes. Birds don't sleep like humans do - when they roost, they go into a sleep state that they are incredibly slow to wake from. When he gets spooked and falls off his perch, he falls like a rock because he is effectively, still asleep. And when he hits the bottom, well, his body reacts instinctively and he tends to bounce off the sides of his cage - an instinctive reaction that would be a last ditch effort in the wild to avoid a ground predator. I can only imagine this must be a horrific experience for our poor birds.

 

So when I woke up suddenly this morning due to a loud crash and bang in the living room, I knew without doubt that my bird had fallen off his perch. Usually I will wait to hear that he's moving around (and thus semi-awake) before I go check on him because occasionally I have run to the rescue and caused more stress by scaring him again when I draw back his cage cover. But this morning, after the initial crash, I didn't hear anything. So I jumped out of bed and went to rescue him.

 

I drew back the cover slowly and peeked at him. He wasn't on any of his perches. He was still at the bottom of his cage, stunned by his fall. He looked up at me though, and I reached in and without a word he stepped up. I put him on my shoulder and we went over to the couch (a safe place) to sit down and de-stress.

 

There are not many moments that happen where I can say Gryph and I are one and the same. I've had those moments with another bird, they are called "bonding moments" when you feel, without a doubt, that you and your bird seem to share the exact same wavelength. Normally when I rescue Gryph he sits on my shoulder until his heart stops racing and he gets sleepy again. He doesn't want more than that. But when I sat down with my poor, frightened bird this morning, I turned my face into his body and he leaned his head against me too. For half an hour we sat like that, human and bird, sharing a quiet connection of both mind and body. Eventually he drew back and fluffed his feathers and picked at my hair, and that's when I knew he was feeling better. I gave him a kiss and put him back on his perch in his cage and then I too went back to bed, feeling like I'd just gotten the best gift in the world!

 

When we woke up again at a more reasonable hour, he came right out and gave me kisses, then immediately wanted some scratches (which is not typical - usually he wants to run right over to his sister's cage and get her up, and THEN, maybe, he will deign to notice me.) Then it was back to normal Gryph, running off to empty his toy boxes and chase his sister and be, in general, an unruly teenager. But for a few moments today I had the best bird in the world

[aw64]

The way you wrote that brought a tear to my eye, wonderful moments like that make it all worth while, I'm new owner of wonderful African Gray Alfie, I think we have good bond but he is only 7 months and I have had him since he was 10 weeks, but like you said you get moments where the time spent together is price less, hope you get many more.

[Wingy]

Thank you for letting us be a part of your special moment.

[Ray P]

Enjoy that moment each time it happens and there will be many more to come.

[katana600]

Oh those precious moments. I am so sorry your guy Gryphon has these night terrors but also think how lucky he is to have you there to comfort and calm him. Your account is very well written, it feels like I was there with you and made my heart swell with the joy you must have felt at the closeness he permitted you. When he went back to sleep, I am guessing he was having sweet dreams of having the best companion in the whole world too.

[Zoom]

Thank you for sharing that. It was really inspiring, and interesting too.

 

Simon has fallen a couple of times during the night, too, and he seems quite frightened and disoriented afterwards. The most recent time was during an earthquake. It was a couple hundred miles away and most people here didn't feel it. It wasn't enough to wake me up, and my other birds didn't seem bothered by it. But Simon fell off his perch and was flapping around in a panic when I came running downstairs to help him. I picked him up and he was still panicky, and he started flying around the dark room, which didn't help. It was only after that I found out about the earthquake, and the timing coincided exactly.

[chezron]

I don't mean to upset you unnecessarily, but have you considered that he may be having a seizure? When Brutus was about a year old he started having seizures in has cage, and would be panting and startled when I found him. It sounded similar where i would hear him fall. We got his blood tested and he was deficient in calcium. Regular trips outside in the sun, and a cooked chicken drumstick bone once a week was the doctor's prescription. Since then he has never had another seizure.

http://www.avianweb.com/seizures.html

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/seizures.html

[zandische]

Zoom - It's a well-known phenomenon that sometimes animals seem to sense earthquakes before they happen. There is published research on this as well, although I don't think any of it yet proves a specific ability. However, I do know that my mother in law had a cat that could do this. They lived in the middle of the southern Nevada desert and the cat would predict earthquakes as far away as northern Cali. Usually 1-3 days before an earthquake the cat would go into hiding under the bed, and then would not come back out until after the earthquake happened. He was an otherwise sociable, lovable cat, and he never hid unless there was an earthquake.

 

Chezron - great info, thank you! I will definitely keep an eye on this now that you posted it...I do think he gets plenty of calcium in his diet and he has a "bird light" indoors, but it is really good to be reminded to pay attention to this.

[Greywings]

Upset in the middle of the night, who knew that could lead to a sweet moment with Griff. Sometimes I wonder how these guys survive in the wild. Though I am sure that greater exercise produces better balance and stronger feet and perhaps that life in our homes is so low threat they just don't hang on that well or sleep deeper than in the wild.

[birdhouse]

I don't want to take away from the greyt bonding time w/Gryph. I know you guys have been thru a bumpy patch & I'm glad to hear you're back together, so to speak. But that isn't probably the best way to get quality time. lol

 

Maybe it would be a good idea to rearrange the cage to give Gryphon a secure roost before something more dramatic happens. Something high w/many branches or maybe a platform?

http://www.perchfactory.com/bird_cage_perches/platform_shelf_corner_perches.htm

 

Kura used to fall off her perches at night. I got a couple of big pieces of dragonwood(?) w/several branches. She likes to sleep nestled in the crook of its super deep bends. Gives her more secure perching & a comforting sort of "hide away". Glad to say, we haven't had anymore drama.

 

[Jayd]

I don't mean to upset you unnecessarily, but have you considered that he may be having a seizure? When Brutus was about a year old he started having seizures in has cage, and would be panting and startled when I found him. It sounded similar where i would hear him fall. We got his blood tested and he was deficient in calcium. Regular trips outside in the sun, and a cooked chicken drumstick bone once a week was the doctor's prescription. Since then he has never had another seizure.

http://www.avianweb.com/seizures.html

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/seizures.html

 

Thanks all, please don't forget the dark green leafy veggies. When a parrot reacts to a outside stimulus, it's to fly, not fall....[night fright etc] Keep a eye on your baby and you might consider a vet visit...

[danmcq]

My thoughts in regards falling while sleeping are the same as Chezron's. A birds talons lock when perched, thus we do not see birds falling out of tree's at night when they sleep. It could be something neurological or an underlying illness. When birds get startled while sleeping, they awake immediately. They are not slow in waking up, it is almost instantaneous.

 

With night terrors, they go flapping all around their cage. They do not fall like a rock to the bottom of their cage and then wake up and flap around. Dayo and Jake have been frightened in the middle of the night while sleeping from an earthquake. They were instantly flapping all around the cage and did not fall to the bottom. This would be a normal display of a night fright or life threatening reason to awake and flee. Falling to the bottom of the cage is not normal, at least not without flapping all the way down if they have clipped wings for example.

 

This is something that should certainly warrant an avian vet visit to ruling out underlying causes.

 

Very touching moments you shared after this fall. Thanks for sharing it.