Hiding to Sleep

I have read over and over here about the danger of snuggle huts. I get it. We don't want to kick off hormonal changes which can lead to negative behaviors. But I have noticed that when it comes to sleeping in the cage at night, my conure looks for the best hiding spot. She found some fringe strings at the bottom of her hanging toy and buries herself in the strings.

I am thinking this is not a problem as this is different than a nesting behavior. But I do have a young juvenile and I want to be sure that hiding to sleep will not trigger any hormonal responses.

Do you cover the cage when they go to sleep? Or is at least two of the cage walls covered or against a wall? They can feel exposed if everything is left open.

charmedbyekkie said:

Do you cover the cage when they go to sleep? Or is at least two of the cage walls covered or against a wall? They can feel exposed if everything is left open.

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EXACTLY!!! Well-said. This is exactly the reason that people often cover their bird's cages at night. Give that a try, and your bird will be fine...

****And just to make a very important and crucial point, hormonal behavior being caused is not the only or the main reason why all of those "Happy Huts" and "Snuggle Huts" should not EVER be put inside of any bird's cage...They have quite literally killed thousands and thousands of pet birds/parrots all over the world, due to #1) The birds chewing off and swallowing tiny, little bits of the material they are made of, which over-time build up inside of their Crops and throughout their GI Tracts, eventually causing a total bowel, stomach, or crop obstruction, which kills them, and #2) Threads inside of them coming loose suddenly and the birds either getting their necks caught up in them and hanging themselves, or they get their legs or feet hung up in them and they hang upside down from them for hours, which can kill them due to blood loss or them chewing their feet or legs off to free themselves...

Birdie always snuggles down into my t-shirt at bedtime. I have to reach down there to put her to bed. They do like to hide away when they sleep. I cover the back and both sides of her cage at night and we leave a night light on so that she can see if she wakes up. The cage backs up to an inside wall.

Cover the cage and see what happens- as stated by the others.

I've experienced similar situation with my green cheek, by sunset he starts looking for my husband to get inside his shirt. An hour or so later I'd take him and put him in his night cage that only has a water bottle one perch and the bottom is covered with soft towel material that I cut and hemmed to fit the bottom grate of the cage and also add a big floppy pocket. He takes a drink and I cover the cage, 2 seconds after I cover the cage he goes inside the pocket and sleeps in there.
If we happen to be out by sunset he'll just hides in between the layers I keep in the bottom of his day cage.
Seems like covered or not he likes to be low and covered.

My green cheek will hide under the strings of his rope perch. This bothers me because he hangs on the side of the cage to do it. And I hear that's not healthy for them to sleep that way.

Update I just covered his cage 3/4 of the way and when I checked on him he was back on his normal sleeping spot... Phew hope that fixes his issue I guess leaving him totally exposed was causing him to sleep where he could hide.

Remember that as part of your cage layout, that certain hanging toys can be used to develop a place for them to hid at night and also while napping.

A horizontal perch is always the best choice as they can sleep deeper with greater rest.