Are Conures Light Sleepers?

Hi everyone. We've had our 3 month old conure over a week now. He's doing great so far. He is good natured and playful. He screeches a little in the morning, a little when we come home from work, and screeches some when the day grows dark.

We put him to sleep around 7:30pm. We know it's time because he becomes more vocal. His cage is in the living room so we cover it with a thin, dark colored sheet, and another smaller sheet at the front of his cage to filter more light. He would crawl in his happy hut and quiet down soon after. We uncover his cage the next day at 7:10am on weekdays and 7:45am on weekends.

Sorry it took a while to get to my question, I just wanted to establish the scenario. My question is: Are conures light sleepers? The blanket helps with the light, perhaps not 100% because he has outside cage perches that poke out, so the blanket is not flush against the side of the cage walls. I think its sufficient though. My main concern is the noise. Me and my partner hang out in the living room where his cage is. We have both computers on but turn down all volume. We speak in hushed tones. But we move around, so floor boards would creek, we might be printing things, opening drawers, etc. There will be light from the monitors, at least one desk light if I'm drawing on my desk. We stay up till 9 or 10pm.

Through all of it, our conure stays quiet. Sometimes an occassional beak grind, low grunt/chirp. Now I know once he is in his hut, no amount of noise will cause him to get out and be awake. I know this because on his second night, his cage was close to my partner's computer desk and the desk shattered (it was made of glass) for no apparent reason. The noise was very loud but he didn't panic and looked at us sleepily from his hut when we looked under the cage cover.

We thought of sleep cages but no suitable room to put it in. We only have a bedroom which is probably worse because we snore a lot, and a kitchen which were not comfortable with because of possible fumes from the gas stove, bathroom not ideal and the echo might scare him.

Will all this activity in the same room despite us toning it down considerably, be considered a major disturbance to his sleep? Your input would be appreciated.

I think it depends on the bird. All our birds are in bed and covered at 8-9pm. Thought our CAG gets angry if we put him to bed that early, so he gets scratches and perches at the top of his cage to sleep while we watch tv and such. The noise doesn't seem to bother them at all, and our cag sleeps right through it all. If it doesn't seem to be affecting him, it sounds good to me.

My conures are not light sleepers at all. I am sure your baby is just fine. In fact my Sun and Jenday were cuddling with me last night and they fell asleep on me while I was scratching them. After I stopped scratching them, they were still asleep. They looked so funny. One of them was actually laying upside down asleep with her feet straight up. So I finally woke them up and put them to bed. Conures are great!!

I find mine conures to be fairly light sleepers. I used to have her cage (back when I had only one conure) in the living room and would do the same as you (cover the cage) when it was her bed time. However, if we turned the TV on or moved around in the kitchen, I could tell she was awake. She wasn't awake and screeching, but I could hear her move a bit. I don't think she slept hard when we were up past her bedtime.

For this reason I put a sleep cage in our bedroom for her. I think it's good for them to have a sleep area at night that is different from their daytime area. From what I understand, this is natural for them, and also it means they get to sleep with us as their flock (although I suppose one would have to be careful with birds that are good talkers, what with amorous sounds and all...). I also think that they if know we are awake, they feel they need to be awake too - as prey animals, they are more on the lookout for predators, especially if they perceive us to be, too. They are not as alert as they would be normally, but they are definitely awake. I believe this is probably the case with your bird.

So now I put them to bed in our room around 10pm or whenever they start to act tired (I have tried establishing an earlier bed time, but this schedule seems to be ingrained in them). They do wake up a bit when we go to bed, for about 20 minutes I suppose. They wake up on their own in the morning around 7:30 am (who needs an alarm clock?). If it's the weekend, we put them in their day cage and they can eat and drink and keep themselves occupied while we catch a few more Zs.

THAT SAID... if this current system is working for you and your bird, he's not appearing tired or crabby during the day, it's probably fine.

ZoeS said:

I find mine conures to be fairly light sleepers. I used to have her cage (back when I had only one conure) in the living room and would do the same as you (cover the cage) when it was her bed time. However, if we turned the TV on or moved around in the kitchen, I could tell she was awake. She wasn't awake and screeching, but I could hear her move a bit. I don't think she slept hard when we were up past her bedtime.

For this reason I put a sleep cage in our bedroom for her. I think it's good for them to have a sleep area at night that is different from their daytime area. From what I understand, this is natural for them, and also it means they get to sleep with us as their flock (although I suppose one would have to be careful with birds that are good talkers, what with amorous sounds and all...). I also think that they if know we are awake, they feel they need to be awake too - as prey animals, they are more on the lookout for predators, especially if they perceive us to be, too. They are not as alert as they would be normally, but they are definitely awake. I believe this is probably the case with your bird.

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I know what you mean about your conure moving around. Mine doesn't screech but would grunt sometimes or I can hear him adjust in his hut. He is not crabby in the morning as far as I can tell.

Maybe a sleep cage is a good idea. Problem is we both snore loudly.

Also thank you to everyone who responded. Anyone else care to share your opinions/experiences with your Conures and their sleep routine?

BoomBoom said:

I know what you mean about your conure moving around. Mine doesn't screech but would grunt sometimes or I can hear him adjust in his hut. He is not crabby in the morning as far as I can tell.

Maybe a sleep cage is a good idea. Problem is we both snore loudly.

Also thank you to everyone who responded. Anyone else care to share your opinions/experiences with your Conures and their sleep routine?

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Well I never met a bird who snored loudly

I am not sure whether that will keep him awake. I think that once he knows you are asleep he will think "okay, all is safe, I can sleep too".

Mine is incredibly a light sleeper, I make it a game to sneak up on him when he is trying to catch a few winks.