Parakeet afraid of the dark?

I love Chipper, but he definitely has some....birdie issues.

I've had him for 8 days now. I was able to tame him pretty easily. He's very gentle, and he seems to like to be held and petted. And he even eats spray millet from my hand. But I've noticed something really strange...it seems like he's afraid of the dark!

His cage is in my bedroom. I do sometimes stay up pretty late playing on my computer or watching tv, and I realize that sometimes I'm probably keeping him up too late. I'm working on that. But whenever I turn off the lights to go to bed, he panics. He'll move around on his perches nervously and then jump and cling to the side of the cage. He does it every time, as soon as I turn off the lights. I pet him and talk to him to try to calm him down, and he'll perch on my finger and it seems like he is hesitant to get off. Like he just wants me to be there. In some way, that makes me feel good that he trusts me and wants me to reassure him, but on the other hand I feel bad that he seems to get so scared of the dark for some reason. After I pet him for a little while and sit by his cage where he can see me, he seems to calm down. When I talk to him and he can see that I'm right by his cage, he goes back on a perch and calms down.

He really does not like a cover on his cage at night either.

What's going on with Chipper? Has anyone ever heard of a parakeet being afraid of the dark? I wonder if I'm going to have to get him a night light or something. I've always read that birds need a quiet, dark room to sleep...but Chipper seems to get so nervous when I turn off the lights.

And I'm wondering if he might be having trouble sleeping because of this. Maybe that's why he's not very active in his cage and sleeps a lot during the day.

Am I going to have to get a birdie psychologist?

I think that's pretty normal behavior.... birds want to be at the highest perch when it gets dark...

What about leaving the cover off and having a night light on? That may help.


Unless its cloudy, a no moonlit night or a bird is under deep foliage, it's not completely dark outside at night. Parrots also do not have good night vision, so anything moving in the dark can freak them out.

I just brought a new English budgie. Bridgette had her wings clipped for easier training purposes. The Second night that she was home apparently she fell off her swing. It scared her half to death. She was very nervous the next evening at bed time. I turned a night light on for her, she quit pacing on her perch her breathing settled. I left the corner of the cover up so that I could keep an eye on her. We have had no problems with her since then.

Yeah, I think I'm definitely going to have to get Chipper a night light. It happened again last night. I actually left his cage uncovered (we have central heat in the house and it stays around 74 degrees). As soon as I turned off the light in my room, he started moving around on his perch and jumped on to the side of the cage. He clung to the bars, looking nervous. I opened the cage and pet him, and he climbed onto my hand. I pet him for a while and talked to him. He perched on my finger and didn't want to get off at first. But after a few minutes or so, he went back on a perch and he was quiet after that. I didn't know if he was starting to bond with me yet, but it definitely seems like he wants me to be with him at night to reassure him. I like staying up late, so I was putting him to bed, and then going to another room to play on my laptop computer and let him sleep. But that's not going to work! He wants me with him at night! His cage is right by my bed.

When I had budgies, many of them slept clinging to the cage bars... one hen in particular loved to hang upside down with one foot on the cage wall and the other on the cage top... then she'd flip over and sleep like that for the night!

It may help to put a perch up higher in the cage so Chipper has a high place to sit when he's sleep time.