Just say no to bedtime!

[FreckleFace]

Asked to delete

 

[Terry57]

My eclectus hates going into his cage at night. We put the treat for him inside his cage, and when he goes in to get it we close the door. Somehow the treat is always worth it to him

 

[burdman]

We have a similar issue with our eclectus. Its always too early for bed in his mind. We've had pretty good success with the treat bribe method.
Sometimes when he realizes he's been tricked he'll squawk angrily at us, but doesn't miss a beat devouring the treat!!

 

[MomtoPercy]

I used to have the same issues with Percy and at first, bribery (using half a pecan) worked. Then he decided the pecan wasn't enough :54:

Luckily, I recent ly tried my hand at birdy mash and he loooves it. So I serve warm birdy mash at dinner time. I spoonfeed him a few bites on his playgym and then make sure he sees me putting the bowl in his cage. After that he hotfoots it over to the cage to finish his dinner and I just close the cage behind him.

Sometimes, he will pretend that he can't see the food so that I must keep spoonfeeding him, the cutiepie! He goes to his sleeping perch and makes soft 'kirrrr' noises until I come feed him. It takes about 15 minutes but has become a wonderful bonding time for us. We chat softly all the time and by the time he wipes his beak on the perch and begs for his 'tickles' (that's me blowing his neck feathers up and down softly for a while), I can close him up without any resistance. I think the combo of soft loving attention and warm foodies makes him keen to go to bed.

 

[_LB]

I completely agree with MomtoPercy that loving attention and a food treat is the magic combo. Our macaw, Piper, used to HATE going to bed. He wouldn't bite but it was a struggle to get him in his cage. Now we have this ritual with him where he gets cuddled on his back on the couch for a little bit before bedtime, then we take him to his cage and when he crawls up onto his sleep perch he gets his favorite treat, a macadamia nut. As he eats we talk to him and give him our direct attention for a few minutes. I think this time is particularly special to him because it's the only time of day he gets: 1) cuddled on his back on the couch, 2) the macadamia nut OR 3) the direct attention of both me and my husband at the same time - it's like an overload of happiness for him and now the trouble is convincing him it's too EARLY for bedtime.

One other thing we did with him - during the day when goes into his cage on his own and climbs to his sleep perch, he gets a treat then too (just ONE time during the day). So he very much likes his sleep perch/sleep cage. He used to hate cages in general (trying to play with all of his toys from the *outside*), which is why I started doing that with him.

I think as long as you find a way to make bedtime fun or otherwise rewarding in whatever manner best suits your caique she'll come around!

 

[_LB]

That's funny! And perfect.