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I have a 13 week old cockatiel, Bart, that has had a few night frights so i placed a night light directally on his cage but he still seems to be having them. I cover his cage so that the light is on the inside of the cover.
I have tried light music and even some noise from the fan ( <--- which helps better) and still he gets them. (the fan is not blowing on him, but rather blowing out the window across the room)
Does any one know why he gets them and what more can i do to keep this from happening?
He thrashes so violently in his cage that i am afraid that he will break a blood feather or worse! When i take him out to reassure him and calm him down he is so upset and shaky.
I usually lay him in bed with me under the warm blankets and he will climb to the top of my head bord and fall back asleep. i will find him in the morning chirping at me and preening the top of my head. lol
This isnt an every night occurance. But at least once a week.
Any suggestions on what i can do to help him?
He has a vet appointment tomorrow and i will also ask the vet.
thanks
angela

Note to self: do not try to take a thrashing tiel out of his cage during a night fright with the only light beng the night light! This causes bird who never bites, to bite VERY hard and cause mom to scream in pain and dad to fall out of bed from a slumber in a panic of not knowing what is going on, to trip over what ever happens to be in the way of the light switch on the wall, and when the lights finally come on everyone is so upset and confused at what the heck just happened that you never seem to forget again to TURN THE LIGHT ON FIRST.

I did like your note to self


Poor little Bart
Noah has never had one and I hope he never will
I can't think of what would set him off except for perhaps noises he hears outside??
Dogs, cats, traffic????
Perhaps try and move his cage to a different spot?
Good luck anyway, hope he will "grow out of them"

My two never have them either and our house is close up to the road, noisy vehicles have gone by, and the dog getting up in the night doesn't seem to bother them either, and he is kinda noisy cause we have a hardwood floor in living room and his claws make noise on it. They say lutinos are more prone to them, but even my lutino doesn't seem to have them. The only time was when we had only woody and his cage cover fell off during the night---which only covered the back part of the cage, and seemed to scare the hell out of him! Woke me right up when I heard the thrashing and poor thing seemed so scared when I went to him.
Have you tried NOT covering his cage?? some birds don't like to be covered, and some love it. Woody only had a cover on the back of cage, but now boss likes it covered so we cover it.

I've only had to deal with that twice, and I found by not completly covering the cage, and leaving one side open helped in my case. I also have a night light in the room.

I hope you can figure out a solution. Cause I remember how scared I was when Angel had her first one and I woke up to blood all over the cage. She had broken a blood feather. Scared the crap out of me.

If you have only had him for a little while he may still be trying to get use to noises in your home. Good luck to you.

I've been lucky that Rosie has never had one. But they sound so horrible poor baby having to go thru that once a week. I hope that they stop soon and that you can find a cure for this.. Good luck

thank you all for the advice.
unfortunitally, bart had yet another night fright this early morning and did manage to break a blood feather. He also set off my other tiel, whisper, which i had just adopted this past two weeks, to flapping violently in her cage as well due to bart's noise.
fortunatally i had a vets appointment today at noon so that he could look over Bart's wing.
I have not ever had to pull a blood feather before and so i applied quick stop to the sight and let the vet show me how to pull it.
I felt so bad! It was like a mommy watching her new baby get its first shots at the doctors office!
I did ask the vet about the night frights and he thought that maybe there was something outside that may have been setting him off like that.
There have been some cats fighting outside before that have made very loud noises and he didnt even budge that night. who knows.
As far as the cover of the cage goes... first it was no cover. then it was all the cage covered, now i only have the cage partially covered. I get the same results.
well, bart is recovering well from his pulled feather. He has not wanted much to do with me today however.
The funniest thing did happen though.
my boyfriend had a small bag of doritoes that he had put on the headbord and bart was sitting with him on the bed like he usually does.
next thing we know, i turned around to find only barts tail sticking out of the dorritoe bag and he was singing to himself eating away! I swear it looked like he was wagging his tail feathers like a puppy! I wish i had had a camera!

Awww, poor thing! It's really too bad that we sometimes never really know for sure what causes those night frights sometimes. My parents tiel charlie used to get them too------if you walked out into the kitchen at night (yes, his cage was in the kitchen! they have a HUGE kitchen!) it would startle him and he would thrash like crazy! All the times he had night frights and he never broke a blood feather----he was lucky! He did one time have a bloody spot on his head though from it, but it was nothing major and the bleeding was small. If anyone got up in the night at my parents house and had to go in the kitchen, you had to turn the light on and say"hi char" to prevent him from having a fright.
I hope that you figure out why bart is having night frights---good luck to you!

My tiels get them too. usually if their cage is not covered completely and they see shadows.it is usually my lutinos that get the night frights started.
i know many of you recommend night lights and it probably helps but mine do better when their cages are completely covered and no movement in the bird room.
If mine is having a spastic fright I grab them with a towel until they calm down. if not, they crash into things blindly in the house.

Twinkie-Dink has had night frights a few times (she's 2 years old). I go in the room, talk softly but loud enough for her to hear me, tell her I'm going to turn on the light, turn the light on and then I talk softly to her thru her cage. If she doesn't calm down right away then I'll open the cage and get her. Even if she DOES calm down in the cage I'll open the door and get her because she needs to be held and comforted. That's the only time she'll let me hold her. I'll hold her for anywhere from 15 minutes to half hour............however long she needs to be held.
Gloria

I'm so lucky that Mandi doesn't have night frights. There are 2 sets of train tracks right behind my house. When the trains stop and start up again it can scare the $*it out of me, and that's after 6 years of living in my house, but it doesn't phase Mandi. Let us know how it goes with the different things you've tried.

I'm also glad you had the vet show you how to pull a feather. Not too long ago I had to do that. It was sooo scary for me. But Mandi seemed to be really greatful after and was surprisingly very affectionate.

Thank you all so much for the advise you gave.
Well bart is doing well and i have started to only cover the cage with the front open. I have also started using a thicker blanket that is lighter in color. So far he has not had a fright. i think this is going to work.
Maybe, he just wanted to watch me sleep? or make sure that i had not left him. who knows.