Huh... Not sure what *that* was about

[KatherineI]

So, last night, we had the weirdest thing happen with Sugar. It's only happened once before, at the old place and we chalked it up to us moving and all the boxing up of everything, etc.

Anyway, last night we put Sugar to bed as usual, following our routine. About an hour later, she started SCREAMING. That's not our Sugar. She doesn't do the screamies like other Too's. Her calls of "I'm done, come get me please" or "There's someone in my yard and I don't want them there, go away!!" are very very different from what we were hearing last night. She sounded afraid

Hubs and I both heard her and waited a few minutes but when she didn't settle down, we both immediately went to her. Her cage is covered at night, and she's in a room with just Loki (and eventually Sam), everything except the red reptile light is turned off, blinds closed, etc. Nothing was different from previous nights. We brought her out and she was trembling!!

So we took her back to our bedroom with us to try and calm her down. Hubs checked her cage over and couldn't find anything to cause it. We waited a bit and then tried to take her back to her cage and she FREAKED out!

This was not my Sugar! So after some discussion and the night getting later, we finally decided to bring in the small portable stand we made for her, and have her sleep in our room (the travel cage is out in our storage shed, we weren't going to try and get that at that time of night). It worked; she slept, we slept, the trembling stopped, etc.

I'm honestly not sure what that was all about. This morning she woke me up at the crack of dawn, but I didn't want to get out of bed, so I brought her over to me and we had some cuddle time (during which she fell back to sleep for a bit on me). Finally, I got her up and I took her back to her cage to feed her breakfast. She balked at first, until I took the cover off her cage, and then she went in with no issues.

I don't think it's the cage cover, as she has been covered with it since she came to live with us. Not to mention, I've tried leaving the cover off a few times, and she just yells the entire time. So to suddenly, out of nowhere, develop a fear of it doesn't seem likely. I'm definitely confused as to what happened, what she's afraid of suddenly. She is, however, an easily frightened bird. A new stand, a new toy, anything being introduced is fanned tail and crest-up worthy. She's scared of her own shadow, of the dark (unless it's her cage at night, usually), of the laundry basket until she realizes what it is (and then she loves it).

Any suggestions??

 

[Boysmom]

Maybe you could try cutting a small peek hole in the cage cover. My son's U2 chews her own peek holes in cage covers. It allows Marshmallow to see out if she hears a bump in the night, but she is covered for the dark and warmth. Maybe put the peek hole near the perch she sleeps on, so she can easily peek out if she is frightened.

 

[aliray]

It could be something simple like a noise she heard or a bug or spider in her cage which by the time you went to get it might have crawled away. Sorry don't mean to give you the hebegebees. But thst would expain it and I have also heard of birds having night terrors. and being intellegent creatures I don't see why they couldn't the occasional bad dream

 

[Mudkips]

I think we can rule out that she saw anything if she was covered in a dark room, as we know how bad their eyes are in the dark.

It leaves a few other things; she felt a bump in the night, she heard something close to her or she had a bad dream. As Aliray says, I think it was a bad dream.

 

[kc_y0]

She may of had a nightmare. My bird does this as well, and refuses to go back into her cage until she gets a longggg cuddle at 4am lol. But she shakes like crazy too. Could even be something like a little ant or something in her cage that has spooked her and you can't see.

 

[KatherineI]

I'm thinking it was a fly We have had a few small gnats flying around (not fruit flies, but they're tiny like them, I've never seen them before) and I'm not sure where they're coming from or why, as I keep a pretty darn clean house! We grabbed a fruit fly trap and some fly paper today, but I'm not sure if that's going to help. We'll see.

Thanks guys.

 

[Thingamagigs]

My Galah Mana is BRAVE and BOLD and SASSY... but when it comes to a FLY she will SCREAM her guts out at it. Asthough this tiny little harmless flying insect will seal her doom. Crest up, wings out, mouth wide open SCREEEEEEAAAAAMMMM lol
I wouldn't be surprised if a little moth was attracted to the reptile light and happened to flutter over to Sugar's cage
I imagine goffins are very much like a galah or corella might be. And while they are happy to attempt a full on assault of the local wild birds (who would beat them senseless! lol) they run in terror from itty bitty little flies. Ants are a different story, apparently they are snacks. LOL

 

[KatherineI]

My Galah Mana is BRAVE and BOLD and SASSY... but when it comes to a FLY she will SCREAM her guts out at it. Asthough this tiny little harmless flying insect will seal her doom. Crest up, wings out, mouth wide open SCREEEEEEAAAAAMMMM lol
I wouldn't be surprised if a little moth was attracted to the reptile light and happened to flutter over to Sugar's cage
I imagine goffins are very much like a galah or corella might be. And while they are happy to attempt a full on assault of the local wild birds (who would beat them senseless! lol) they run in terror from itty bitty little flies. Ants are a different story, apparently they are snacks. LOL

Yeah, Goffins are very similar to Corrella's and Galah's. I've never seen her with a fly but once, last summer, and it's exactly as you described; crest up, wings out, SCREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!!!!!! So yeah, that's what I'm thinking it was.

 

[Thingamagigs]

Oh, if you have those tiny little flies, they breed very fast and need very little to do so!
House flies need quite a bit of old rubbish, more than a week, before you have a fly/maggot problem (old share houses experience... oh. my. god. Never trust a college aged male to take out the rubbish! lol)... but the little tiny fruit fly type things only need a few drops of water on dropped pellets or if your bird sits in one location during the evening, a pile of pellet or fruit based poop will do it as well. It only takes about three days if the weather is right!
I have noticed if the weather is humid they pop up. I normally change cages once a week, which is just the right amount of time for the little flies to pop up if they are around. So if it has been raining or humid I change it every two days to keep them at bay. They are a real nuisance and seem to be highly attracted to damp pellets or poop from parrots that are fed pellets. They are attracted to fresh foods as well, but dont seem to grow as rapidly. Where we live they are unavoidable, there is a swampy creek across the road.

 

[Peeker]

Sounds like a bad dream or a night fright but even a car driving by casting shadows could be scary. What about the "reptile"? Could it possibly be a slithery sound or movement highlighted by the red light? I know that would scare me!

 

[Akraya]

I've never thought about birds having dreams and nightmares, explains the weird sounds coming from the GCC cage at night, soooo funny.

 

[Parro]

I'm not sure but I agree with all posters, I think it was a bad dream, since I don't have cockatoos I dont know much about them, but I have cockatiels.

 

[KatherineI]

Oh, if you have those tiny little flies, they breed very fast and need very little to do so!
House flies need quite a bit of old rubbish, more than a week, before you have a fly/maggot problem (old share houses experience... oh. my. god. Never trust a college aged male to take out the rubbish! lol)... but the little tiny fruit fly type things only need a few drops of water on dropped pellets or if your bird sits in one location during the evening, a pile of pellet or fruit based poop will do it as well. It only takes about three days if the weather is right!
I have noticed if the weather is humid they pop up. I normally change cages once a week, which is just the right amount of time for the little flies to pop up if they are around. So if it has been raining or humid I change it every two days to keep them at bay. They are a real nuisance and seem to be highly attracted to damp pellets or poop from parrots that are fed pellets. They are attracted to fresh foods as well, but dont seem to grow as rapidly. Where we live they are unavoidable, there is a swampy creek across the road.

We live just north of Seattle, so it's not really the correct weather for them here. I've never seen them before. Unfortunately, shortly after we moved in, we discovered a bunch of dead, tiny fly-like things on the top of a 3/4 wall (hard to explain) between the kitchen and the living room, so I'm thinking that the issue was already here and not something we brought in or developed because of the birds. We're talking with Housing (we live in Military Housing) and working a game-plan out on how to combat them.

Sounds like a bad dream or a night fright but even a car driving by casting shadows could be scary. What about the "reptile"? Could it possibly be a slithery sound or movement highlighted by the red light? I know that would scare me!

Norbert (bearded dragon, no slithering, lol) has always been in the same room as Sugar at night, so his moving around, whether highlighted by the red light or not, shouldn't have caused this. Otherwise, she'd be screaming like this every single night since she was brought home. Not to mention, she's covered at night, the shades are closed and the blinds pulled shut in the bird room, and her window doesn't face a road or even a driveway. It faces our yard and the neighbors 2 acre blackberry patch. So, not a car driving by either.

She's slept in her cage for 2 nights again, so whatever it was, it's passed. Still frustrating, I think mostly because I want to fix whatever the issue is so my baby isn't frightened anymore