bedtime issue

I've only had my BF Amazon for a full week now. I understand it takes time for adjustments. He seemed to be going right to sleep without issue the first couple of nights but for the last 3 or 4 nights when the light goes off he flaps his wings for qhite a while and then settles down. Tonght he flapped his wings and ended up on the floor of the cage. Not sure if he is just afraid when lights go out? there is a night light in the room so he isn't in total darkness. Not sure what to do since he needs to be able to find his way around his cage at night. Should I try completely covering him? I have left a night light so he could see a little to get around if he needed to?

I give my birds as close to total dark as I can, sometimes they have night terrors for unexpected reasons, most of the time I have no earthly idea what upsets them, lights go on, they get reassured everything is ok, back on a perch and back to sleep they go. Not sure if that will work for an Amazon, but it does pretty well for my parakeets.

Has he decided on which perch is his sleep perch?
What's your nighttime routine like?

Normally, our little guy has a specific perch he prefers to sleep on; if I shift his cage around, it's hard for him to navigate in the dark. And if your Amazon is new to you and the cage layout, it might be tricky for him to get to his sleep perch.

I would try setting a routine of sorts, maybe with food cues and/or verbal cues. Some people sing a song to signal it's night time. I just put our little guy on his sleep perch directly (that's the only time I put him up on there - other times, he goes onto a lower perch), give him a goji berry, and tell him to "go night-night" as I cover up the side of his cage.

Covering up cages is entirely up to you and your parrot. Our little guy rests better with blackout curtains/blankets on 3-4 sides of his cage (just the layout of the house and his cage), but he was confused the first few times we started that.

Congrats on your new buddy. I recently just got my amazon also his old owner covered him at night but I chose not too. I have a fish tank that has moon lighting that gives Perry a little night light. I usually wait till he is on his perch that he sleeps on and then I turn the lights off.

We have a nightly routine. Amy and BB go to bed about 9:30pm. Both fid's houses are in the living room. First BB goes in his house and I say good night to him and cover him,then its Amy's time. When he sees BB getting covered Amy climbs down from his playpen and goes right in to his house,closing the door behind him. He usually goes to his basement,pulling/ripping the papers and mumbling. I get his "cozy cover" and tell him to go to his sleep perch as I cover him up. I can still hear him mumbling and playing with a toy. As I adjust the full length cover I tell him its ok,time for nite-nite and after only a few minutes both of them are settled in and quiet. The living room lights go out around 10pm and they don't make a peep until I uncover them around 8:30 in the morning. I have found that them being covered has greatly improved their general health and birdonality.



Jim

Maybe try lowering the perch so he doent hurt himself at night for a while. And yes I'd definitely try covering, sometimes that's the only thing that will calm them down. I'm working on sewing my Gracie girls cover so we use a blanket and it works just fine