Interesting tiel night fright observation

Hello Everyone...

If you have cockatiels, there's no doubt you've been frantically awakened in the night to your cockatiel flapping and falling all over the cage. You turn on the light, run to your bird and find him or her, clinging to the bars of the cage, breathing heavily with a confused look on their face, wondering what the heck just happened.

You did some reasearch and found out this is a rather common occurence with cockatiels especially, and there is no rhyme or reason for it. Perhaps your tiel was frightenend in the night by a light that flashed by your window, or a sound startled your bird awake, you find that no one really knows...why these night frights happen. So you take the advice of the research and you keep a night light on in the room, or you cover their cages to complete darkness...anything to stop this horrible occurence from happening again.

Well, last night I couldn't sleep. I was reading, had a little light on in our room. I don't cover my birds at night and I put my book down to look at my happily snoozing babies.

Sweet Pea was on her swing. Her most favorite place. She swings and swings for hours during the day. I think she really finds it soothing.

Now, granted...had I not been awake and looking at her this moment, I wouldn't have witnessed this happen.

As I said, Sweet Pea was on her swing, she was definitely soundly sleeping. I glanced toward our other tiel Charlie in the cage next to her and he too was soundly sleeping, and Chiquita was on the twisty perch toward the back of the cage, also soundly sleeping. I looked back to Sweet Pea and noticed her position had changed slightly, she was leaning foward a little more. I continued to watch her and just as I was going to look away...she fell!

Absolutely NO warning what so ever, she just fell forward hit the perch below her, and just like that...all 3 of our tiels were in the night fright panic...because Sweetpea startled them awake with her commotion.

I quickly turned on the light, ran to their cages and started whispering to them to calm them down. They all 3 stopped and looked horribly confused, like what the heck??? After about 10 minutes they all got their senses about them and went back to bed...Sweet Pea, back up on her swing.

I honestly think this is the cause of the tiel night fright. I don't think it has anything to do with say...a light flashing out side, or a sound startling them (although, yes, they can be startled awake)...I think that there is something with cockatiels...ther "locking mechanism" that keeps them on their perches at night is somehow faulty and they must go into some kind of super deep sleep and fall.

Each of our tiels have had a night fright at one time or another and always it's a crashing sound first and then the frantic flapping to find their bearings.

Just thought I'd share this observation. And like I said, had I not been awake to witness this, I would have again wondered...what the heck set that off??? Now I know...and I truly believe this is happening to other tiels who experience night frights.

Toni

Oh and FYI...I've tried both covering our tiels cages to complete darkness and experienced a night fright...and I also left a night light on and been awoke in the night to the horrible crash flapping panic.

This happens with my budgies, having all 6 in the same cage... if one of them slips or kinda rocks a bit too far in their sleep, they fall, startle the others and we have a huge commotion going on with lots of loud frightened flappy budgies.

Couldn't say for sure if the locking fails for cockatiels (although I know they're more prone to night frights) but for sure my more... clumsier budgie's are usually teh cause for our frights here.

I only know of it happening to Bob once and I felt very sorry for her when it happened. She lost half her flight feathers.

Yes, it can be very scary.

One morning I woke up and there was blood spatter all over Charlie's cage. He'd broken a blood feather during a night terror.

My tiels don't have them often, but each of our 4 tiels has experienced at least one.

Toni

Does anyone think that it could be due to the fact that cockatiels and budgies are bred quite often by more inexperienced breeders, often in colony settings? Is it possible that over years and years of "unscripted" breeding the birds are becoming less healthy as a result, including this perching problem? Who knows how many cockatiels and budgies have been inbred over the years. I'm not saying this is a problem caused by inbreeding persay, but maybe this started as a genetic defect and it has just been bred into the majority of them at this point? I was actually just venting to my SO while looking on our local craigslist, there are probably close to 10 cockatiels posted every day and almost all of them are "breeding pairs". It would be interesting to find out if this ever occurs in wild cockatiels or if it is something that strictly happens in captivity. You would think that if this happened to a bird in the wild it wouldn't be long until that bird fell prey to another animal. If you think about it, if a bird falls out of a tree in the dead of night, there is no one to just flip a light switch on and allow the bird to go back to it's perch. That bird would be disoriented, possibly injured from a large fall, and unable to see to get back into the tree and there are a lot of animals that hunt at night. It only makes sense that if this is a genetic problem in certain birds causing them to be unable to hold their position while they are sleeping that these birds probably wouldn't live very long and therefore wouldn't have the opportunity to breed and pass on this flaw, but in a cage setting, it's pretty rare for a bird to actually die from a night fright, although I have heard of birds falling and breaking blood feathers and bleeding to death. This of course is all just a theory but what are your thoughts?

IcyWolf said:

Does anyone think that it could be due to the fact that cockatiels and budgies are bred quite often by more inexperienced breeders, often in colony settings? Is it possible that over years and years of "unscripted" breeding the birds are becoming less healthy as a result, including this perching problem? Who knows how many cockatiels and budgies have been inbred over the years. I'm not saying this is a problem caused by inbreeding persay, but maybe this started as a genetic defect and it has just been bred into the majority of them at this point? I was actually just venting to my SO while looking on our local craigslist, there are probably close to 10 cockatiels posted every day and almost all of them are "breeding pairs". It would be interesting to find out if this ever occurs in wild cockatiels or if it is something that strictly happens in captivity. You would think that if this happened to a bird in the wild it wouldn't be long until that bird fell prey to another animal. If you think about it, if a bird falls out of a tree in the dead of night, there is no one to just flip a light switch on and allow the bird to go back to it's perch. That bird would be disoriented, possibly injured from a large fall, and unable to see to get back into the tree and there are a lot of animals that hunt at night. It only makes sense that if this is a genetic problem in certain birds causing them to be unable to hold their position while they are sleeping that these birds probably wouldn't live very long and therefore wouldn't have the opportunity to breed and pass on this flaw, but in a cage setting, it's pretty rare for a bird to actually die from a night fright, although I have heard of birds falling and breaking blood feathers and bleeding to death. This of course is all just a theory but what are your thoughts?

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Wow! Very interesting theory indeed!

I'm sure tons of "inbreeding" goes on with these easy to breed birds. I know that the 2 tiels I rescued are from the same clutch, so are brother and sister. As soon as I found out, I separated them as I don't have them to breed them.

I don't have any clue as to where my other 2 tiels came from prior to the pet store, probably some tiel breeding farm, they were young and wild and appear healthy for all intents and purposes...however both of them experienced at least 1 night fright each over the past year that they've owned us.

The very first tiel I ever got, Chaco bird...he was given to me by my father in law whom found him outside in his yard. He appeared to have been living outside for a while (several months at least) before he took him in and gave him to me. Chaco never experienced a night fright to my knowledge, in the year that I had him.

I have to say, I was shocked to see her just face plant it off her perch like that. She needs to learn to sleep in a happy hut for her safety

Toni

My BCC had a few night frights during her life. I don't have any idea of what the cause was. Some interesting theories here though.

Merlin had one as well the first night she was here, about 2 minutes after I went to bed. I've been keeping her cage only half covered and have a night light on for her as well. She's been fine now for 2 weeks. I knew from her former owner that she had them once in awhile. She also experimented over the years with covering/not covering the cage and night lights. Now that we know she has very little vision, the vet thinks I should keep the night light on and not cover the cage all the way, so I will continue with that. I'm sure it helps, too, that she is now used to her new home.

I don't think there is any particular reason for night frights. I have seen my tiels start flapping around if a moth or cockroach flies onto their cage. Sometimes one falls & they all get a fright. I also think for the most part that their wild instincts to stay alert at night in case of predators. It just doesn't happen with companion parrots caged indoors, my aviary bird also have unsettled nights from time to time.