Bedtime Blues.

Whenever I put Hiroshi in his cage for bedtime he starts crying...and crying and crying... It's the most heartbreaking sounds I've ever heard! I end up getting worried that somethings wrong and go to check on him then after he sees me again it gets worse...

I don't know what to do. I have just been letting him have his cry because I don't want him to think every time he goes to bed all he has to do is cry and "mum" will come get him...Yet I can't help but go check on him when I get worried...:5_sad:

Am I doing the right thing here?? Is there anything I could do to comfort him at bedtime???

Do you cover him at night? Some birds are comforted by being coved, others don't like to be covered. My U2 cries some at bed time. It stops after about 10 minuts at the most. Try not to check him as you are doing what he wants. If he was truly in trouble most birds make a high pitched almost screaming noise. As long as his cage is safe he should be fine.

lol as cute as it is, I think GC is right, try not to encourage the beaviour. lol what a cute little sook

I know conures like little bed tents or sacks for comfort. Do you have one of those?

Remember, parrots are as smart as human toddlers. How many parents of 2 year olds have dealt with this sort of thing? Going in to check on him is probably exactly what he wants you to do. He doesn't want to go to bed, he wants to be up with you. It sounds heartless, but you may have to just let him cry for a bit.

I second the advice of Spiritbird, alot of conures seem to like cuddleing in those soft plush tent beds,all the other advise is good as well, covering at night, tough love on not keep checking ect.

That's kind of adorable and sad at the same time. I agree with most posts up there. You might have to go tough love on Hiroshi.

If you keep him to a solar schedule, he will be fast asleep by the time it's dark. The sunset makes them drowsy, that's the way nature made it work. It's when you take a bird from an artificially lit room and put him in a cage and tell him it's time to go to sleep that the problems start.

And, although I don't mean to argue, you can't really compare a human baby or toddler to a parrot. Humans have photosensors only in the eyes while birds have them also deep inside their brains so, when there is light in the environment, we can eliminate it by closing our eyes and that will start our melatonin flowing (the hormone that makes you sleepy) but parrots need twilight for that because their brains still perceive light even when their eyes are closed and their melatonin starts flowing once the light spectrum changes as the sun goes down.

The best solution is for you to keep him to a solar schedule as nature intended. This will not only ensure a good night sleep with no crying but also a healthy endocrine system which also translates into a good working immune system. If you cannot do this, you will have to work on creating a fake sunset, keeping track of the number of hours he sleeps during the different seasons and switching his diet around them. It's a lot of work but parrots are not domesticated animals and I believe they need to follow the seasons to keep healthy and stress-free. Just like they do in the wild.

This is what we did to our human baby. Buy a baby monitor so you can see him crying and know he's not in danger...

As hard as it might be, do not go back to check up on him. Tough having the motherly instinct. As GC mentioned, if they are in trouble, vocally their pitch would change. When Mishka is on her playpen, and I leave the room she often cries. When she carries on and on, I totally ignore her, soon enough she stops.
Good luck

Thank you for the advice everyone.

I do keep him on a solar schedule. The room he is in rarely has artificial lighting. There is a big window that leads to the balcony that provides tons of natural light. I put him to sleep when the sun goes down and cover his cage so he can get 12 hours of sleep. (I cover the cage since there are only about 7-8 hours of darkness here right now.)

He has a snuggy hut in his cage that he was never using so I made him one out of my shirt which he is also not using. For some reason he sleeps on top of his food bowl. I'm going to try buying him a different style snuggy hut and see if he will use it.

I do believe tough love may be the only way to go. It's just so hard! lol And I realize maybe you can't compare a parrot to a 2 year old human but he sure is acting like one!

I don't mean to be argumentative but if you are giving him 12 hours of sleep when there are only 8 hours of night this time of the year, you couldn't possibly be keeping him to a solar schedule because that means up with the sunrise and to bed with the sunset so you are either putting him to bed earlier than the sunset or uncovering his cage after the sun is already high and that might be the problem.

Sorry I guess what I meant when I said solar schedule was I put him to bed when it gets dark (I'm dumb lol)

Yes I uncover his cage after the sun comes up in the morning. You could be right that may be the problem, but the "blues" occurs at bedtime not in the morning.

As hard as it might be, do not go back to check up on him. Tough having the motherly instinct. As GC mentioned, if they are in trouble, vocally their pitch would change. When Mishka is on her playpen, and I leave the room she often cries. When she carries on and on, I totally ignore her, soon enough she stops.
Good luck

antoinette said:

As hard as it might be, do not go back to check up on him. Tough having the motherly instinct. As GC mentioned, if they are in trouble, vocally their pitch would change. When Mishka is on her playpen, and I leave the room she often cries. When she carries on and on, I totally ignore her, soon enough she stops.
Good luck

Click to expand...

Thanks It's definitely hard not to check on him but I used this technique last night and eventually he was quiet and fast asleep