With budgies becoming increasingly popular as pets, we constantly see people reaching out with various questions on what they should be doing to offer their pet budgie the best care possible.
With so many people being brand new to keeping pet budgies, we have seen a large number of people who are being shocked by how common budgies can suffer from night fright.
With budgies being a relatively skittish bird, they can easily suffer from night fright with something as simple as a slight breeze or their own reflection or shadow often being enough to set them off.
Although budgies can be prone to suffering from night fright, you are also often able to easily treat the issue and prevent the more common causes from freaking your pet budgies out.
Due to seeing so many people reaching out with problems from their budgies having night fright as well as there being some very simple, easy to implement tricks that can prevent the issue, we wanted to publish our own article on the topic.
We will be going over how you are able to prevent night fright triggers in your budgie below but if you are brand new to keeping budgies, we would highly recommend you purchase the Budgies: A Guide to Caring for Your Parakeet book as it offers some excellent information for new budgie keepers.
Do Budgies Get Night Frights?
Budgies do get night fright and it can be surprisingly common, especially for the first few weeks or months that a budgie is in a new home.
It can take time for a budgie to get used to the normal sounds, smells, temperatures, and lighting in a new home, especially at night when visibility is limited.
A huge number of people who are either new to keeping budgies or are considering getting their first budgie are often not aware of night frights and this can be a very unwelcome surprise.
Once a budgie goes into a night fright frenzy they really can be difficult to calm down while also being very loud and active in the middle of the night.
This can make it difficult to sleep and can end up causing problems with your neighbours in some apartments if your budgie is loud during the night.
Thankfully, if you are aware of night fright in budgies then you are often able to take some easy precautions to drastically reduce the risk of your budgie suffering from night fright.
What Causes Night Fright In Budgies?
Due to the skittish nature of budgies, some very insignificant things can trigger a night fright outburst in budgies.
The more common ones are strange sounds, strange smells, random rapid movements, cold breezes, and even their own shadow or reflection.
The personality of your pet budgie will play into this though with many budgies being fine and not having problems with night fight or only having outbursts on rare occasions.
Younger budgies and budgies who have just had the location of their cages change can definitely be more prone to night fright though without bursts being frequent.
A common trigger for night fright in budgies that many people overlook is other pets in the household too.
Although you may know that your cat or dog is unable to get into your budgies cage, your budgie doesn’t know that and this can easily be enough to trigger a night fright outbreak in a budgie as they may think that your dog or cat is trying to eat them.
How Do You Stop Budgies From Getting Night Fright?
The two best ways to stop your budgie from getting night fright is to either try night lights to increase visibility at night with this usually being the most popular method.
A slightly more expensive but often better method is to get your budgie a bird cage cover as it can help your budgie feel safe and prevent night fright.
As we touched on earlier in the article though, your budgies personality will definitely come into play with this and due to a night light being such a cheap and easy thing to try, it is definitely the most popular.
You also have to try and factor in the trigger of your budgies night fright too though as a night light will just make it easier for your budgie to see your dog or cat if that is the trigger and potentially make the situation worse.
This is why we usually recommend that our readers look into getting a suitable bird cage cover as they block out the external view of the cage completely.
They also restrict the available light into the cage preventing your budgie from getting scared of its own shadow as well as protecting the budgie from cold breezes removing that potential trigger too.
Can Budgie Night Fright Result In Death?
Although rare, a budgie is able to get itself worked up so much during a night fright outburst that it can result in death.
This is why it is always important to work on finding out what is triggering your budgies night fright outbursts and removing it to prevent the night fright outbursts altogether.
Unfortunately, some budgies are so skittish that even the slightest thing can be enough to set them off when the lights are off making it difficult to keep your budgie calm.
The night light method can sometimes work as it is almost as if the darkness drastically amplifies the nervousness of some budgies making them extremely scared during the night.
The worst part is that one your budgie has managed to work itself up into a frenzy, you intervening to try and calm your budgie down can actually make the whole situation worse as your budgie may perceive you as a threat.
This is a common mistake that people new to keeping pet budgies often make as they think they are making the situation better when in actual fact, they are making it much worse.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how to stop budgie night fright to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand the common causes of night fright in budgies as well as how you are able to go about treating it. For the most part, preventative measures are the best route to take so you should be focusing on setting the night light up or covering the budgie cage before your budgie gets scared to prevent you from having to try and intervene and work your budgie up even more.
