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Hi,
I have had cockatiels for about 5 years now. We have been living in the same house the past 2 years and have the same cage in same spot. My adult pair have raised 3 successful clutches. I am watching one from the 2nd clutch...she has been here for a month now. I have four 6 week old babies...who have been in this "new" cage for about two weeks and every bird cage is in the same spot in my livingroom as they have been. (Mom and Dad in one cage. "Snowball" in a second cage. Four babies in a third cage.)
I woke up this morning around 5:15 am to a "BLOOD BATH"....There were feather's everywhere in all three cages and blood all over two cages. They seemed to have beat their wings until they bled. One baby has no tail left. (Mom and Dad seem to only have lost some feathers.)
Does anyone have any idea what could have happened. I don't have cat's. The dogs were all up in bed with humans. They were down in the livingroom by themselves like every night.
I have never had anything like this happen before... I have not had any excessive flapping during the day....most of what happens is the babies excercising their wings.
I am VERY CONCERNED!! And I don't want this to happen again....ugh!
Everyone seems to be fine and babies ate breakfast well. Little one who lost tail seems to be staying in a corner. No one is "yelling" just normal chitter chat.
I cleaned up the blood from everyone best I could, and cleaned cages. Trying to get to the bottom of this. Please help with anything you can think of. I can't figure out what could have caused this.

It's possible that something else scared them... perhaps a mouse, or something outside. These episodes are known as 'night frights'. Without knowing what caused the night fright there is no way you can solve the issue... however, it *may* help to add a nightlight to their room in case something does happen they will be able to see a little. Try keeping the cages covered, or uncovered.

I will make sure the light is on.
I have not seen any sign of a "critter" and when my dogs came down they did not sniff anything.
And they always know when something new is in the house.
Night Frights....wow...never heard of them.
I know it happend between 1 am and 5:30 because people were up and about before and after these times.
I was mortified this morning. They all seem settled down...matter of fact the babies are preening and eating as we speak. And Snowball is putting her head under "her stick" like she usually does when she is "Chillin". Mom and dad are preening and sleeping.
Even my husband who really does not care for the birds....was concerned.
Thank you for your info.....man this is weird.
I'm so glad my littlest baby who no longer has a tail is eating and relaxed right now. Not sitting in the corner any more...YEAH!!
THANK YOU again!

applerdkennels wrote:And Snowball is putting her head under "her stick" like she usually does when she is "Chillin".

What's a "stick"??

Definitely a night fright...
One bird could get spooked and then the rest follow.
My bird if they are not covered get night frights because they see shadows. Another thing that gives them night frights is of course, a mouse (or spider)on the floor or a earth tremor.

Pesto has had night frights because of mozzies. He would be in his deepest sleep and then a mozzie wakes him up and he has such a fright, the poor boy goes balistic. That of course sets Elvis, my house-rabbit, off on a thumping episode that can last for hours. So we all get up, I take Pesto out of his cage for a bit of relaxation with me and we sit in semi-darkness until both of them have calmed down. (I have an LED light that gives soft white light.) Pesto goes back into his cage, I cover him and he goes to sleep. I have noticed that the morning after the fright, he tends to sleep later and sometimes is more subdued for that day. It is the equivelant of a small child having a nightmare and waking up screaming. You know it is ok, but how do you bring it across to them? It is just that birds respond by trying to get away fom whatever is frightening them. So, they fly and that is when the blood feathers break and that is when you have what looks like carnage. One thing, always ensure that the bleeding has stopped. If it doesn't, get your bird to a vet A.S.A.P!
Everytime Pesto has a NF (thank the Lord that it has been months), my heart stops for a couple of seconds and I have to remind myself that I can calm him down with soft words, a bit of TLC and by letting him know that he is safe.

Hey Pesto what is a "mozzie"?
I know my birds have a nutty when they see a crow, seagull or a hawk outside too..

My guess is that mozzie means a mosquito or small bug...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozzie

Although I can't imagine a mosquito causing a bird a night fright, I could say see a moth causing that issue.

I'm guessing Pesto's owner is an Ozzie cause everything gets abbreviated over here Mozzie is indeed a Mosquito lol

The nightfright could have been caused by perhaps a book falling over, a cup that was left in the sink might have shifted, a breeze coming through a window and perhaps moving a curtain, one of the birds falling of it's perch who then startled all of the others, etc etc etc anything really

I can always tell when it's a night fright because Boss is always clung to the front door of the cage when I uncover them! Mine don't tend to have night frights very often, but one thing I found that causes them is if after all the birdies have gone to sleep for the night, in the summer, I will sometimes put on the ceiling fan, since it's the only time I can do it safely since birds are always out here. Well, I found that the breeze of the fan blows the newspaper in the bottom of their cage and causes a night fright....so much for ever having the ceiling fan on!

Pesto wrote:I have noticed that the morning after the fright, he tends to sleep later and sometimes is more subdued for that day.

Rosie has only had 2 night frights thank goodness. But I see the same thing with her she sleeps all day the next day and one time I even noticed that she was still freaked out half of the next day she was really standoffish and she would spook easily she sat on top of her house looking scared like it was gonna happen again. poor baby

Ahhh, so sorry about that! Gosh, that must have been terrible for you to wake up to. Casper has only had a few night frights, luckily, none recently. I do cover her, but leave an opening for her to sit on her ladder at her door and look out.

I have a night light right next to her cage. I also put on a small lamp on in the center of the room which has a night light kind of light.

I used to put a night light for Rosie too but her Dr said that she needs complete darkness at night (something to do with hormones and egglaying, I forget exactly what he said) so since I am deathly afraid of egg binding I took her night light away from her..

Luna never had a night fright, and I kept her covered with no light on. Her sleep cage was in a back bedroom. I use the same set up for Dino and he hasn't either. What has happened is I have bumped into the cage while they were sleeping and that has caused them to flip out. So I opened the cage door and let them flip out outside the cage. The floor in the bedroom is carpeted and there is a good amount of floor space for flapping and hopping. When calmed down after a minute or two they got some cuddle time.

Jo