Noise for the Birds

[finchick]

I've always believed that you need to have lots of noise around the birds to desensitize them. Whether it's dogs barking, cars honking, jackhammers working on the asphalt, the birds are better off if they aren't skittish.
I keep a television on near my birds, even when I'm away at work, at moderate volume. From the time they are little pips on, they are accustomed to having this big old shop vac roaring through ~ and they remain unflappable.
I do most of my cleaning and feeding when they are fast asleep in the morning when all the lights are on ~ and they seem to sleep through that as well. It makes cleaning the cages easier as I can leave all the doors open, knowing that they are fast asleep.
Do others acclimatize their birds to noise as well? What types of noises do you use? Soft Mozart? Rap? Any special television channel? Do you find that your birds can sleep through your noise as well?

Thanks.

[sgolds]

Definitely lots of noise around here. They don't seem to care one way or another.

I'm really not much of a morning person though.... so I guess they're usually up and about during it all. They seem to be up peeping at the crack of dawn.

[finchmix22]

My finches are OK with the vacuum, but hate the broom! They're more distrubed by someone getting close to their cage, than the noise. Go figure.

[WrenNAustinTX]

We keep ours in the game room. Someone is always on the Xbox, blasting things into oblivion. They don't mind a vacuum either...but you get close to the cages and the zebras go roaring around like you lit them on fire lol

[Harley2013]

Our house is for the most part fairly quiet. No kids running around, just my hubby, son whos 18,myself and the dog. The dog barks at a mouse farting two towns over constantly! Not sure if he is hallucinating or what. Lol! My zebras and Gouldins are fine with it and people walking by the cage, vacuuming and such, the European goldfinches are the skittish ones.

[MiaCarter]

finchmix22 --- Ditto on the broom! My guys HATE it!

Our house is a noisy place, between the dogs and the TVs. I cannot stand silence. It makes my ears ring. So we have the TV on 24/7 -- literally. (I actually can't sleep without it! In fact, if it goes out for a couple minutes due to a storm while I'm asleep, the silence wakes me up!)

We have tile floors, so we don't really use the vacuum. Mostly sweeping and mopping.

[David]

When I vacuum around the house, my finches doesn't like it, and yelled out together loudly after I turn off the power as soon as the vacuum noise stopped. When I use anything such as broom, or even any long wood object near them, they all scared and complaint to me lol. I think they are so cute when not making loud noise at home, I love my birds!

[Sheather]

My guys all have to get used to the vacuum either from the moment they hatch or soon after coming home - when keeping up after 19 birds who live loose in a room, a daily shop vaccing of fallen... debris.... is a necessity. By now they're generally indifferent. The societies and the male Java generally just try and out-loud it with song when I vaccum! It's so funny, everyone starts singing their head off to try and compete with it.

Birds like ambiance, though with as many as I have, they create enough themselves. At night though I like to keep a small box fan running on medium to create a nice background noise. It keeps them from spooking from sudden noises at night and also from waking every time I walk down the creaky hall past their room since the fan drowns out all the little sudden noises with a steady one they sleep right through.

[MiaCarter]

Sheather -- Your mention of the creaky hall reminded me of how acute their hearing is, especially for those high pitch sounds!

Squeaky door hinges get my guys every time and I realized the other day that they can hear the master bathroom door squeaking on the opposite end of the house, through 2 closed doors.

Whenever possible, I'll put on some nature show, like Mutant Planet. They always love the bird sounds. Even the dogs and cats watch!