Pi's falling off perch at night

[SecretlyRobots]

Hi ya'll! I have a 5-year-old maxi male and a white cap male who have been together since they were babies. They don't share a cage and mostly tolerate each other from afar. We have cameras set up to monitor motion and sound in their room and have noticed that once or twice a month one of them will have what looks like a night fright where something unknown scares them and they fall and flail around the bottom of their cage for about 10 minutes before returning to their perches. I've never been able to figure out what the trigger is or which bird spooks first.

've been debating if it's worth getting a nightlight even if it isn't a full spectrum bulb? The cages aren't covered at night (no feasible way of doing this). I know cockatiels are prone to night frights. Are pionuses too?

Any other advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[conurehrdr]

From my very brief search a la Google-fu skills (LOL!), I found that pi can and do have night fright, but rarely. They'r emor eocmmon in cockatiels, as you already mentioned . The solution is to set up a night light

 

[Mizzely]

Night lights do not need to be full spectrum. I would set one up and see if it helps. The worst that happens is it doesn't change anything

 

[sunnysmom]

I would get a night light and make sure they aren't seeing shadows or car lights or things like that from a window. I close the blinds at night for my cockatiels and use a night light. For my goffin, I also have a white noise machine.

 

[Dartman]

Nerd bird did that somewhat regularly and I THINK his foot would fall asleep and he'd wake up trying to use a dead foot and freak out for like 10 minutes then eventually calm down and start chirping and reacting normaly again. If I tried touch him he'd just act like he couldn't see and bite the crap outa me. I finally would just watch him and tell him I was there till he came back and climbed back to his perch to eat and go back to sleep.

 

[Mfonzi]

Nerd bird did that somewhat regularly and I THINK his foot would fall asleep and he'd wake up trying to use a dead foot and freak out for like 10 minutes then eventually calm down and start chirping and reacting normaly again. If I tried touch him he'd just act like he couldn't see and bite the crap outa me. I finally would just watch him and tell him I was there till he came back and climbed back to his perch to eat and go back to sleep.

Dartman, I am new to the forum. I am having this exact issue with my 25 year old Pionus. It seems like her foot falls asleep around 3 am about once a month. Vet treats were normal although they called it a seizure. It did not look like a seizure to me. Seemed much more like a foot had fallen asleep. Were you ever able to resolve it?

 

[Dartman]

No, I would just sit with him and talk to him till he came back to being himself again.
If I tried to touch him he would lash out and bite me. Once he was chirping to himself and acting normal I could touch him and scratch him.
He made it to at least 31 years old and always acted the same. I think if he was having seizures or strokes he would have changed his personality and way he acted.
I'd say set his area up so if he falls he can't hurt himself and he'll do his thing till the foot or whatever gets feeling better and back to his spot just like Nerd.

 

[12jewlz4u]

Hi ya'll! I have a 5-year-old maxi male and a white cap male who have been together since they were babies. They don't share a cage and mostly tolerate each other from afar. We have cameras set up to monitor motion and sound in their room and have noticed that once or twice a month one of them will have what looks like a night fright where something unknown scares them and they fall and flail around the bottom of their cage for about 10 minutes before returning to their perches. I've never been able to figure out what the trigger is or which bird spooks first.

've been debating if it's worth getting a nightlight even if it isn't a full spectrum bulb? The cages aren't covered at night (no feasible way of doing this). I know cockatiels are prone to night frights. Are pionuses too?

Any other advice is greatly appreciated!

Hi ya'll! I have a 5-year-old maxi male and a white cap male who have been together since they were babies. They don't share a cage and mostly tolerate each other from afar. We have cameras set up to monitor motion and sound in their room and have noticed that once or twice a month one of them will have what looks like a night fright where something unknown scares them and they fall and flail around the bottom of their cage for about 10 minutes before returning to their perches. I've never been able to figure out what the trigger is or which bird spooks first.

've been debating if it's worth getting a nightlight even if it isn't a full spectrum bulb? The cages aren't covered at night (no feasible way of doing this). I know cockatiels are prone to night frights. Are pionuses too?

Any other advice is greatly appreciated!

I do not have a cocktail I have a macaw that occasionally falls off her perch at night. I noticed that my macaw will hold onto the cage with her beak when sleeping. I realized her perch was a little too far from the cage bars where she likes too sleep. Which was causing her to lean too far forward and in deep sleep she would lose her balance! I moved the perch closer to the bars and since then she hasn't fallen. As a precaution I also took 2 pillows wrapped them in a garbage bag & taped it close (keeps the pillows clean). Of course your bird is a lot smaller so you'd need to use a smaller pillow! I put it on the bottom of her cage and covered with cage lining cardboard paper! That way if she was to fall her fall is cushioned. The paper on top of the pillows is so her nails do not puncture the plastic bag and get stuck in it. There's many reasons birds fall off their perch when sleeping. It may be because they're in such a deep sleep they lose their balance, it's too dark and they can't see, they could be dreaming/sleep walking or the perches are either too big or too small! There could also be a medical reason for it. If you're bird is overall healthy it's probably not a medical condition and one of the above reasons!

 

[Fuzzy]

Kobe gets night frights. He had one last night. I put him to bed with his own night light. Any lamp with a low light level will do - you don't want it too bright that they can't sleep. Bobbie (Amazon) sometimes gets night fright so she also has a dim light out side her cage. Kobe sleeps in my bedroom, so when I go to bed I switch off the light... which is why later he got the night fright. I leave him to stop flailing (I don't want to be paired with panic) then I gently lift the covers on one side of the cage and talk to him.