Sleeping changes

[Nicolee]

Yogi has his own room with 3 cages with one of them being a "sleep cage" that is mostly covered with a blanket except for the very front so he can go in and out freely. Every night between 6:30 and 7 he says night night so I bring him up, turn the lights off and he goes right in his sleep cage and I don't hear from him until about 7 am. Last night I brought him up to go to bed and he was completely terrified of his sleep cage and wouldn't let me leave his room and kept flying after me. He's completely normal in his room on his other two cages, but terrified of his sleep cage which is on the floor, and wouldn't even let me hold him while sitting on the floor. I ended up being up most of the night because I had no other choice but to lay in the bed with him in my bedroom and let him sleep. Tonight he is doing the same thing. I took his sleep cage and brought it in to my room and he went right in it and is now sleeping in there. I don't know what happened for him to be this scared of something he has done the same every night for the past 6 years. Please help!

 

[Jen5200]

Wow, poor guy. In your description of the situation - the only common theme that I see is that his sleep cage on the floor and he was scared if you tried to hold him while sitting on the floor. When you moved his sleep cage into your room - is it off the floor now and he’s fine in it? Are his other cages off the floor? If so, could something on the floor have scared him? Any other pets that may have run past him and startled him in his sleep cage? Just throwing out ideas....sometimes it’s a small thing that happened that you don’t know about or didn’t see occur. I would make small adjustments, one at a time, to help you narrow down what he’s afraid of...the cage, the floor, the room, cage location, something that has access to his room while he’s sleeping, etc. I hope you are able to narrow it down and get Yogi back to sleeping peacefully.

 

[Nicolee]

When I moved his sleep cage to my room I set it up on a chair. I have no other pets and his door to the room is closed at night. His other cages are off the floor. His sleep cage has been on the floor forever and never had any issues. The morning before this happened (the last night he sleep in his sleep cage on the floor) he woke up completely normal and came out of his sleep cage normally so I have no idea. I feel so bad for him. Hopefully he's sleeping good in my room right now. No yelling or anything so I think he's good

 

[Jen5200]

Aw, poor little guy. Glad he seems to be sleeping better . Maybe try raising the sleep cage off the floor in his own room and see if that makes a difference tomorrow night? If it seems fine, then at least you know he was spooked by the floor for some strange reason....

 

[EllenD]

He saw something that scared him, either on the floor or in the cage itself, they see things we miss. Could have been anything, you'll probably not ever know what. You could try moving the sleep cage back to it's original spot and see if he's over it tonight, he may be fine if he can't see whatever it was, or he may never want to be on the floor in that room ever again. They're very intelligent and very observant, and they also have very good memories, so that's most-likely what it was. A bug, a mouse, a spider, or even something he thought that he saw, we do that too...

 

[LordTriggs]

Ellen I was thinking maybe a spider myself. It is the time of year for them to begin coming inside so one could have scurried in front of the cage and spooked the little guy.

see if he's okay with the floor without any 'trauma' if he decides against the floor try the sleep cage higher up again and see if the height is the issue. Birds do feel safer high up so potentially getting a table or hook or something to keep the cage high up is on the cards

 

[Nicolee]

I tried setting his sleep cage on something off of the floor in his room and he was still scared of it. But he ended up sleeping all through the night in my room.

 

[EllenD]

Yeah, it wasn't his "cage" that scared him, it was something that he saw on the floor in that specific room. Again, they're extremely intelligent and it's exactly the same as we would react if we saw something that scared us on the floor in a specific room. We would be hesitant to go back into that room and sit on the floor. The fact that he's sleeping in his cage with no issue but won't go back on the floor in that specific room is indication of exactly this...Like we said above, it could have been literally anything, an insect or spider, or some other "critter" that he saw on the floor in that room, or it could have simply been a shadow on the floor. It could have been something that he saw on the carpeting due to the light in the room. Something on that floor in that room frightened him, and now he's scared to go back into that room and be on the floor...If his other cages are in that same room but are off of the floor and he's fine being in them, then obviously it's not that "room" itself, but rather specifically the "floor" in that room...

Hopefully as time goes by he'll either forget all about whatever it was that scared him, or he'll just slowly lose his fright over whatever it was that he saw...What you might try is to forget the cage for right now, leave it in your bedroom, and simply take him into that room and YOU sit down on the floor in the room with him, and see how he reacts. If he's still noticeably scared/agitated by being on the floor in that room, even with you sitting on the floor, then just try to calm him, talk to him gently while you're sitting on the floor, give him his favorite treat while sitting on the floor with him, and try to get him to again feel comfortable on the floor in that room. It might take you doing that every day with him for a while, but eventually he'll again feel comfortable being on the floor in that room (their favorite treats work wonders, as they associate them with only good thoughts)...And after he's totally fine with being on the floor in that room with you, THEN again try bringing the sleeping-cage in and putting it on the floor, as it's not that cage that is the issue, it's the floor itself. So once you can get him over being afraid of the floor in that room, then having the sleep-cage on that floor won't be an issue at all anymore..

 

[Nicolee]

I actually went to his room yesterday and sat on the floor for about an hour and he would let me hold him for a few seconds then would get scared. I also tried putting his sleep cage up on something to be even with his other cages but he still won't go in it :/ If he ends up having to always sleep in our room it's no problem