Is it cruel to take bird out at night?

Hi guys,

I own a sun conure, and he usually goes into his happy hut to sleep right at sundown (usually around 6PM).I'm a night owl; I usually don't get home from work until 11:30PM in the evening. Most of my free time is between 11:30 and 3AM. (I usually go to bed at 3AM). Usually , I take my bird out for an hour or so during this time. When I come into the bird room, he always immediately climbs out of his hut and usually seems more than happy to accompany me, but all he ever wants to do is climb all the way into my shirt and chew on my shirt. I am concerned this might not be good for his health, and I should just let him be at night time. Any thoughts on this?

That is fine to do IMO cause I do it all the time. If they need to nap, they will do it during the day while your at work.

I do the same thing, I don't think there is anything wrong with spending time with your bird

I do this as well

Yep, I do it too. I work nights, so when I get home, they come out. They sleep in a bit late, everyday. I do take them out earlier on my days off.

I'm not quite such a night owl, but my bird's routine includes a lengthy afternoon nap followed by staying up until I go to bed around 10. I think birds do adapt to our schedules, and it's far better for her to be up when I'm around to socialize with and napping for some of the time when I'm at work.

Looking forward to what everyone's thoughts are on this topic. I also wonder if this is more harmful than beneficial to them?

Some days, I have to work till 7pm and my bird's sleepy time is at 9pm. In those days, because I want her to get more out of cage time and bonding time with me, I extend her sleepy time to 11pm.

Birdy likes to go to sleep much earlier then I do and yet he'd prefer to stay with me all night rather then go to bed. I've tried as much as I could to accommodate him as he slept, but most methods failed by being too uncomfortable for either one of us. After months of working out what does and doesn't work, we've come up with a nice compromise that should work well for other small parrots of the snuggly kind.
Each night I put on a beanie then wear a hoody over the top of it for Birdy to sleep in. He wriggles his way between the two layers into the small gap at the back of my head and wedges his body inside in such a way that he can't fall out unless he wriggles back out.

We've gotten really good at it; I can totally forget about him, move my head around and even walk around the house as I wish - he just stays in place for as long as I let him, sometimes popping his head out to see what's going on (if I'm being noisy).
Then when it's time for me to get some sleep, I can pull a groggy conure out from under the hoodie - almost like a party magic trick - and place him at the entrance of his happy hut where he moves in like a feathered zombie to resume his sleep.

I went to take a photo of it just now, but I realized that without any way to see through the hoodie it was just a picture of the back of my head! Anyway here's a picture to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

I know Mango is not super stoked when I disturb his sleep. He often times is reluctant to get out of his hut. I'm assuming each bird is pretty different I don't see anything wrong with it as long as he's getting his 10-12 hours somewhere.

Oh my god Mudkips, that is SO AWESOME!!!! My YCM Loki is a cuddle MONSTER, and she loves chilling out in the hood of my sweatshirt. I leave the hood down, and she just rides around back there!
We have crazy schedules as well, and sometimes I don't get home from work till 11pm. If my boyfriend is home, he will keep the birds out, so they get to see me, and I get to see them, for like an hour before bed. If he's at work, I will take them out for an hour, then put them to bed. I feel like the time together is so important to them, that they prefer it this way.

If you have a house full of people that are giving the bird attention and otherwise being noisy and active around the bird all day, it may not be a good idea to disturb them at night. But if the bird has plenty of peace and quiet time, there is no problem with giving him attention at late hours.
I've been doing it for over 20 years.

Mudkips said:

Birdy likes to go to sleep much earlier then I do and yet he'd prefer to stay with me all night rather then go to bed. I've tried as much as I could to accommodate him as he slept, but most methods failed by being too uncomfortable for either one of us. After months of working out what does and doesn't work, we've come up with a nice compromise that should work well for other small parrots of the snuggly kind.
Each night I put on a beanie then wear a hoody over the top of it for Birdy to sleep in. He wriggles his way between the two layers into the small gap at the back of my head and wedges his body inside in such a way that he can't fall out unless he wriggles back out.

We've gotten really good at it; I can totally forget about him, move my head around and even walk around the house as I wish - he just stays in place for as long as I let him, sometimes popping his head out to see what's going on (if I'm being noisy).
Then when it's time for me to get some sleep, I can pull a groggy conure out from under the hoodie - almost like a party magic trick - and place him at the entrance of his happy hut where he moves in like a feathered zombie to resume his sleep.

I went to take a photo of it just now, but I realized that without any way to see through the hoodie it was just a picture of the back of my head! Anyway here's a picture to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

Click to expand...

Wow. This is brilliant and cute at the same time!

Mudkips said:

Birdy likes to go to sleep much earlier then I do and yet he'd prefer to stay with me all night rather then go to bed. I've tried as much as I could to accommodate him as he slept, but most methods failed by being too uncomfortable for either one of us. After months of working out what does and doesn't work, we've come up with a nice compromise that should work well for other small parrots of the snuggly kind.
Each night I put on a beanie then wear a hoody over the top of it for Birdy to sleep in. He wriggles his way between the two layers into the small gap at the back of my head and wedges his body inside in such a way that he can't fall out unless he wriggles back out.

We've gotten really good at it; I can totally forget about him, move my head around and even walk around the house as I wish - he just stays in place for as long as I let him, sometimes popping his head out to see what's going on (if I'm being noisy).
Then when it's time for me to get some sleep, I can pull a groggy conure out from under the hoodie - almost like a party magic trick - and place him at the entrance of his happy hut where he moves in like a feathered zombie to resume his sleep.

I went to take a photo of it just now, but I realized that without any way to see through the hoodie it was just a picture of the back of my head! Anyway here's a picture to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

Click to expand...

Nice drawing! Are you an illustrator / graphic artist? That's a unique system you've got going with Birdy haha!

Around 7:30pm (or anytime he feels like a nap during the day), Boomer does something similar but more conventional compared to yours. He settles in the crook of my neck or shoulder and lays still as long as I have a blanket over my head and shoulders, like a tent lol.

As long as your bird seems happy and healthy, such a schedule would seem to be fine. I am also a night owl by choice, and my GCC puts herself to bed when the sun goes down (and I'm at work), and then comes out and spends a few hours with me when I come home. She seems to like it and has no health or behavioral issues.

I wondered about this too since my fiance comes home from work at around 6am, sleeps till about 2:30pm until he has to leave at 430pm for work at 5pm all over again ....and she stays quiet for him believe it or not when he sleeps and she's in our room. She sometimes whispers or plays with toys that have bells....ever so quietly...it's interesting to watch her. She's awake with me now at almost midnight. She talks a lot but it's almost like she knows she can't be loud when we're sleeping in here? Ideally when we move we don't want parrots in the room but I'm cramped with them and all my fish tanks atm.

Now Petri the little pcc loves to come out of his hidey hutt and night. I whisper to him if he wants to come out, I get a hiss hiss hiss and he comes out and flings himself into the palm of my hand and we watch TV together, snuggle under my pjs...play under the covers, try to convince me that he can sleep in bed too, etc etc, then back into the hidey hutt we go. Both of my conures put themselves to bed as soon as the sun goes down which is like 5pm now so that is so not cool to have them up at 6am sqwaking away!

They take naps, and it's usually not loud here unless the mailman comes, and the conures are the ones being loud if there is any noise or the Pomeranian.

It's midnight and Chloe is currently making her "Pretty Bird Pellet Soup" ....so gross. She's stirring it and pinning her eyes lololol. I just asked her what she was doing and I got "pffffffffffffffffffttttttttttttttt!!!"

Mudkips, I love your bird hat!~!! I think we should call it Bird Brain!!!!

Thanks guys.
BoomBoom I'm no artist. I just pulled a random head picture off Google and drew in the rest!

I decided to video my 'Bird-Brain' hat to show exactly how Birdy gets in and just how much he loves it!
Enjoy!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkW1UBflx_I"]Birdy's Bed Time - YouTube[/ame]

Mudkips said:

Thanks guys.
BoomBoom I'm no artist. I just pulled a random head picture off Google and drew in the rest!

I decided to video my 'Bird-Brain' hat to show exactly how Birdy gets in and just how much he loves it!
Enjoy!

Birdy's Bed Time - YouTube

Click to expand...

Okie dokie, that is perhaps the cutest thing i have ever witnessed

He... just.. climbs into the beanie...

Ahhh, honestly, that is amazing <3

I agree, that is too precious!

@Mudkips: awesome video! You both look like you enjoy the set up.

That is so cool!! I would love if my bird would do something like that! What I find interesting is the bird prefers to go straight for the hoodie when he could go straight for your shirt. No more ruined shirts would be awesome.