My bird start crying whenever i put her to sleep!!! What do i do?

Hello i need help in what im suppose to do when i place her to sleep. I'm new in taking care of a bird. Her name is Phoenix she's a green cheek conure and is three months old. During the day she's outside of her cage and hardly makes noise. She super friendly and cuddle, likes being around me almost at all times. The problem I'm having is when i place her to sleep in her cage. She doesn't let go of me when I'm placing her in, when i finally do and cover her cage she starts making noise like crying. I hear her and i want to let her just sleep next to me but i know that's not right. Just hurts a little to hear her cry out. So i was wondering if anyone has this problem or what am i suppose to do or what help her not cry out. Thank you

I don’t have any suggestions, but my reply should bump your post back up and someone helpful will likely come along soon.

It is heartbreaking when they cry for you, isn’t it?


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I am sorry you are having difficulties with your conure crying when put to bed. This isn't unheard of for a new or baby bird, as they live in flocks and all sleep, eat, bathe and play together.

How long has this been happening for, how long have you had Phoenix? (excellent name choice by the way). What does her cage look like? Does it have perches of differing widths and materials, are there toys in there, can she open and spread her wings out?

Does she do this when she's normally in the cage at all, or just at bedtime? How much time does she spend in the cage every day?

New parrots, just like kids, adjust better when they know what to expect and have a routine. So what you must do is keep to a routine that is consistent. Get up in the morning at the same time, uncover the cage. Let her out and serve breakfast. Then when bedtime approaches, start getting her prepared for bed by doing things that indicate its nearly time.

What I do is, when it's near bed time, I'll place the cover over half the cage (so top is all covered but sides still exposed) and my bird knows from me doing this every day, it's time to settle down as within an hour I will be putting the towel over the entire cage and it will be bedtime.

Perhaps she spends so much time out of the cage that she doesn't want to be confined. This is also a possibility, and unfortunately this is just something she'll have to get over. Humans sleep in their beds and so she must sleep in her cage as that's the way it is. You can help her get better adjusted to being in the cage by putting her inside the cage periodically throughout the day, rewarding her with a tasty treat inside, basically making the cage seem like a really cool place to be!

Thanks and she has enough room on the cage, she has toys and everything else she needs. In the day she's ok being in there. She hardly makes noises, eats and plays in there. She spends quite a time outside since we leave her cage open and well cause she follows me around the house. Just whenever we put her to sleep is the difficult part since she crys out even tho she is tired. We put her to sleep at the same time every night we have had her for four days. I'll try that out hopefully it works thanks.

Yoda does the same thing a lot. When he calls out to me I just approach his cage and speak softly and gently that I am here and good night. If he cries and cries, I'll take him out and hold him, soothe him, sing to him and put him gently away in his cage, leaving slowly as I continue speaking softly and soothingly. The point is to give him love and let him know he's safe and I'm here and also to calm him down.



Eventually though, she does need her sleep so you have to be careful to not end up keeping her awake all night with your 'comforting'. As much as you probably want to. Like me.

I’m not a big schedule person myself when it comes to the birds. They don’t really have set routine times or such.

My macaw is a whiner when it comes to bed and I ignore him. I just tell him goodnight while I flip the lights and shut the door. He yells for a second before he starts mumbling to himself. Usually he gives a ‘goodnight boss’ shortly before he stops making noise.

Our Quincy (he's 3 months now) doesn't want to get off my hand to get back in his cage at bed time either.
He will push away from his perch, as to say no I don't want to go in there... eventually he gives in

I've been just talking to him while he's covered...night night, it's time for night night.....he will whimper for about 5 mins, but then he stops.



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She just needs to realize that at bedtime she goes to sleep in her cage. You have to remember that she's still a very young baby bird, so she's going to have baby-like behavior.

Birds need 12 hours of sleep every night, so the best thing you can do is to talk to her gently and softly before bed, outside of her cage, telling her it's "bedtime", and then just put her in her cage, cover it, and let her be in there...if she cries a bit, and I know this is extremely difficult, but if she cries then you just have to let her cry until she finally falls asleep, because as already stated, if you keep going and waking her up or keeping her from falling asleep, she's not only going to not get enough sleep, but she's going to learn that "When I cry, they come get me", and then you're going to have a much larger all-around behavioral issue...

****VERY IMPORTANT*****
What I will warn you against....NEVER, EVER, EVER PUT YOUR BIRD IN YOUR BED WITH YOU AT NIGHT!!! I cannot tell you how many pet birds have been accidentally killed by people doing this, both purposely and accidentally, like they have their bird in their bed with them, watching TV, and they accidentally fall asleep and the bird goes under the covers...This happens all the time, every single day, with birds, bearded dragons, rodents/ferrets, rabbits, etc. Birds, especially little Green Cheeks, fall victim to this constantly...They typically suffocate underneath their person, as they tend to snuggle against their person and fall asleep, then their person moves in their sleep, and the bird suffocates against the mattress/sheets...it's terrible, not only does the person lose their bird, but they feel like they killed them...it's an awful, awful situation all the way around...