tips on keeping birds safe and calm during a blackout?

[nicc]

Today we had a horrible and very violent storm that knocked out the power for our entire town for almost 4 hours-from 6 pm to 10 pm. It was already completely dark by 6 so I tried covering Sunny's cage as carefully as I possibly could to stop him from getting scared from anything that might be visible from outside which.... did not work to say the least and only made things worse. He is alright now but I sat with my phone flashlight on him for what felt like an eternity just to make sure he was safe and calm. He just preened himself for a while and really only seemed calm about 2 hours into the whole thing by which point he had his dinner and then I finally managed to get him to sleep about an hour or so later. He had some stress poops at first (stopped later) and did not grind his beak before sleep (very very unusual for him) so I worry that I didn't really do an adequate job at keeping him calm ;;
I am really wondering, what can I do to prepare myself for anything like this happening in the future again? Did I do anything wrong during this (aside from the initial attempt to cover the cage) that I should not repeat? What can I do, if anything, to keep Sunny comfortable during situations like these?? Is there a way to do it without sitting and watching over him for the entire duration of the outage??? The area we live in is very prone to outages anyway so any and all help and advice would be super appreciated :')

 

[Xoetix]

What about those little plug-in nightlight that have a sensor where they pop on when it gets dark enough?

 

[Toy]

I's suggest a battery operated light. There are many options out there. This one is soft light, you can dim it, it's small & USB rechargeable: https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Rec...ocphy=9006631&hvtargid=pla-1955549658155&th=1

You could set it near his cage & when needed just turn it on. Whatever light you chose to get I'd do trial runs, so he's used to it when the time comes.

 

[Shezbug]

What about those little plug-in nightlight that have a sensor where they pop on when it gets dark enough?

They are run by electricity no?

 

[Shezbug]

I have found when our power has gone out my birds actually stress less or worry less if I literally just leave them be- shut the curtains and go about my business like there is not a problem. They have not even freaked out when the power comes back on and lights up their room/area and it is the middle of the night, they shuffle and look about as I go switch whatever lights off that I may have forgotten to turn off earlier. I have also noticed the more panicked I am about things the more panicked they are.

If you really feel you need to light the area up then it is really handy to always have a recharging torch/lamp plugged in somewhere in the home so it is always charged, there are so many good lighting options now that are either battery operated or USB rechargable

 

[Xoetix]

They are run by electricity no?

Some are, some are battery powered. I probably should have specified

 

[Pixiebeak]

Birds and animals have the instinct to seek cover and hunker down. Tho tell that to my dogs!

I'm in hurricane a d tropical storm zone. My parrots , go to roost. I've not had them react to storm noise or power outages. With only exception is they do not want to come out of their cages during a day storm. I just leave them alone. I don't happen to practice covering cages. As my Penny hated that, and Pikachu I was told was prone to night fright, so wanted her to have ambiance light . Tho Pikachu has only had one night fright the first night with me , and never one again.

Much like Shez says, they do read us and pick up our energy. I too just go about Business.

But it sounds like a heck of a storm! And loosing power is stressful. I do get a little stressed with big storms myself.

 

[Greencheek Lee]

Try these, they collect a charge during normal use then will work for awhile when the power goes out...
https://www.amazon.com/Rechargeable...x=rechargable+light+bulbs,aps,163&sr=8-5&th=1

 

[Emma&pico]

They are run by electricity no?

Glad you stated this haha

 

[MommyBird]

there are nightlights that also function as automatic-on emergency lights when the power goes out.
I have one in every room my birds ever go in so if lights go out, they are not flying blind in panic, as happened to me once.
This is my favorite but there are many others: Capstone Eco-I-light

 

[Xoetix]

Glad you stated this haha

Some are battery powered!

 

[nicc]

it took me a hot second to get to read everyone's replies but thank you guys!!! i will definitely see if i can get some sort of battery powered nightlight sooner than later. it is very good and reassuring to know that he can also be okay without me holding the light on him the entire time though, i was just so unsure since we have never had to deal with something similar before. thank for all the advice

 

[Emma&pico]

Holding the light on your phone may have freaked him out also though I know I had to go in with my torch on my phone to get some out of cupboard and mine freaked I had to turn light on a chat to them to settle them back down
My bird room totally dark at night so I think little light freaked them

 

[nicc]

Holding the light on your phone may have freaked him out also though I know I had to go in with my torch on my phone to get some out of cupboard and mine freaked I had to turn light on a chat to them to settle them back down
My bird room totally dark at night so I think little light freaked them

I do keep the room as dark as possible when he's sleeping, but even then he is covered so there's no possibility of him getting scared--but he freaks out the worst when I try to cover him while it is dark so I really didn't have much of a choice sadly. Tho I'm sure you might be partially right that the light freaked him out initially - he doesn't like the flashlight at all normally at the time it seemed like I had no other option but in the case this sort of thing happens again before I'm able to get a battery powered lamp I'm gonna have to follow what you and others have said about just letting him do his own thing in the dark :')

 

[Emma&pico]

I do keep the room as dark as possible when he's sleeping, but even then he is covered so there's no possibility of him getting scared--but he freaks out the worst when I try to cover him while it is dark so I really didn't have much of a choice sadly. Tho I'm sure you might be partially right that the light freaked him out initially - he doesn't like the flashlight at all normally at the time it seemed like I had no other option but in the case this sort of thing happens again before I'm able to get a battery powered lamp I'm gonna have to follow what you and others have said about just letting him do his own thing in the dark :')

I get that must have been a worry no power and you did what you thought was right at time shows you care about your little friend
I would definitely leave him covered if it’s dark hopefully it never happens again

 

[nicc]

I get that must have been a worry no power and you did what you thought was right at time shows you care about your little friend
I would definitely leave him covered if it’s dark hopefully it never happens again

Yes, it was quite worrying haha;; Maybe it's time to get him used to having his cage covered up in the dark in case I need to do it again. Normally I'm only able to do it while the light is on and I can only turn it off after he's fully covered, otherwise he'll freak out