My new 4 year old Blue and Gold

[Eppie]

My 4 year old macaw turns out to be 12 years old. Oh well I love him/her to death. He tries to stretch all the way out on his perch inside his cage to sleep several times a day. Does he need a bed of some sort? Or a shelf? Should I cover him at night?
Eppie

 

[willist]

Neither of my 2 Macaws have any kind of bed they both sleep on their perches. As far as covering the cage at night is concerned that would depend on what room he is in. If he's in a room that you stay in after its time for him to be a sleep (birds need lots more hours of sleep then most of us do) then you should cover him, if you leave the room he's in early enough say by 8:30 pm then just turning out the lights should be enough. None of my 3 birds cages ever get covered.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

They certainly don't need anything to sleep on/in other than a perch, but many parrots do enjoy having something.

There is another recent discussion about Happy Huts. In thinking about it I see this far more often with smaller birds, but they do make macaw sized huts as well.