# Random falling incidents



## CrazyBirdLady (Jun 24, 2014)

:grey tiel:Over the last couple of weeks Peanut has randomly fallen suddenly several times. It appears that she drifts off to sleep and a mysterious ghost pushes her and she falls like a stone to the floor or bottom of the jungle gym. She has a stunned and accusing look and climbs her way back up to her cage. The really odd thing is that now my sister in law has had her son Rocky do the same thing twice in two weeks in the middle of the night. Both suddenly fall to the floor with a thud and then are physically fine but unhappy. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?


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## Brandon2k14 (Nov 26, 2014)

Maybe they are sleepy but wanna stay awake and then they doze off and fall same as if you were sleepy and wanted to stay awake and say your sitting on a chair your head would fall back if you dozed off.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

That's not normal, how old is Peanut? She could be unwell.


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## CrazyBirdLady (Jun 24, 2014)

Thank you for the quick responses 
Brandon2k14…..
I had the same thought at first but …….. Generally birds don’t have to work at not falling off their perches when they sleep. Tendons on the bottom of their feet, called flexor tendons, respond to pressure from a branch or other perch by causing the toes to wrap around the perch automatically. - http://www.quora.com/Why-dont-birds-fall-off-trees-while-sleeping
Birds also sleep with one-half of their brain awake! It’s called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep and keeps birds alert to potential predators while still catching some Zs. Other animals sleep this way, but only birds have the ability to control it. A sleeping bird can adjust how much of its brain is asleep by how wide it opens or closes its eye. - http://www.audublog.org/?p=7841

CharVicki
Peanut is approximately 3 years old according to her vet.

My vet emailed me back earlier and stated....
It is hard to say. I noted that Peanut was overweight last year and that can contribute to falling particularly if some lameness. With sleeping- the pattern is sometimes a naptime or increasing frequency might be illness.

After much thought I think it could possibly be that when she falls she has been perching on a slightly sloped rail on her jungle gym that is square in shape. Unfortunately this doesn't really help Rocky although I think it could be possible he is getting slightly overweight


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