Change in Tiel’s sleeping schedule

[Safamirza🤍]

Hello 👋 I have a male cockatiel named Kiko who turns 2 in November

For the past 2-3 days, I have assume day that Kiko has started to sleep LESS during the night. He has a coconut bridge in his cage which he uses a bed, and I don’t see him go on it at night in front of me. He just stays on his perch. I usually wake up at around 5am and I always take a little peak at him, and usually he’s asleep but I have found him awake. I am not sure, but I have a feeling that he isn’t sleeping much at night. Also, he has suddenly become VERY active at night. His bedtime is usually 9:30 - 10:00pm, and during this time he gets very sleepy and cranky, but he has been whistling and being very playful till 11pm and later.

He has also been taking more naps in the day time which is why I feel that he isn’t sleeping much at night. Even though he’s active and playful during the day as well, he doesn’t take as many naps as he is now.

Should I be concerned? I tried to see what could be causing him to not sleep at night but nothing has changed in his surroundings.

 

[hiriki]

Do you cover his cage? Where is his cage? Your bedroom?

10pm is a late bedtime for birds as it is, most recommend a full 12 hrs of uninterrupted quiet. My birds go to sleep at 9pm or so because I'm a late sleeper and late riser but I know a lot of other members have earlier bird bedtimes.

Also, it should be 12 hrs of relative dark too, which means either you shut the door and go to some other room after your birds bedtime or you cover his cage. I have a curtain that I pull so that even if my living room lights are on, the bird cages are in darkness. A lot of people would advocate for even more darkness than that tho--by which I mean a blanket over the cage that you pull off in the morning.

I don't think you should worry necessarily but keep in mind that birds often become hormonal and sometimes even a bit mean if they don't get their beauty sleep. From your post, since you're frequently checking on him late at night, if he can see you then you're surely a distraction from his bedtime.

 

[Free as a bird]

I think it's better to keep it in a different room at night. Your a distraction for it.
I'm not a fan of totally covering the cage because tiels can have night frights and have poor vision in the dark. But if you can't have it in another room then I would use the cover.
I hope this helps

 

[Safamirza🤍]

I think it's better to keep it in a different room at night. Your a distraction for it.
I'm not a fan of totally covering the cage because tiels can have night frights and have poor vision in the dark. But if you can't have it in another room then I would use the cover.
I hope this helps

His cage is located in our living room and the lighting is very dim. We don’t have it fully dark because he gets very scared and we also do not cover his cage because that freaks him out. I am now concerned about the hours of sleep he should be getting because he usually goes to bed 9:30pm on average but he also wakes up at around 7:30am so we can feed him breakfast and change his water.

Another thing about lighting, he gets active as soon as it gets bright in the living room. Should we get thicker curtains or locate him someplace where it doesn’t get bright until later?

 

[SailBoat]

As ever more folks switch to LED daylight bulbs, we are seeing more issues with Parrots not getting enough sleep. Whatever light bulb you are using for background light you want to have that one be a standard old world light bulb.

Most folks have far more lighting at night than they need and I recommend that as the Sun goes down you begin reduce artificial lighting in your home. Those that have switched to LED Daylight Bulbs have commonly replaced the existing old bulbs with the same watt bulb, commonly 60 watts. Try saving even more electricity by down size those 60 watts to 40 watts.

FYI: That same effect we are seeing with Parrots is also showing up in Humans!!

Our DYH Amazon is commonly sleeping as the Sun goes down at his choice and greets the Sun as it rises. It is referred to as the Sun Schedule. It helps with the Hot Big Three Amazon's as it tends to follow their natural schedule during the year. A sleep deprived DYHA can be dangerous!!

 

[hiriki]

So, I don't know if this will be helpful for you or not, because it works for me primarily because of my weird floor plan. Buuuut, a curtain to keep artificial light away from his cage might work for you too? Blankets over the cage is about as close to complete darkness as you can get, but pulling a curtain around the cage allows for some light to enter--a tiny sliver from above the curtain, and potentially even some natural light through a window if your cages are by a window. Assuming you don't have obnoxiously bright street lights, some light from outside shouldn't be too much for your bird, I don't think!

This is what we use, idk what country you're in or whether you have an Ikea near enough to use the same but it's an idea: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vidga-corner-solution-white-s69428226/

You can probably find something similar on Amazon if needed. You could even try searching the Ikea product name (Vidga) and there's probably sellers of similar items that will appear.

You buy the track pieces, and there's L shaped corner pieces like the one I linked--that's the secret sauce . You mount to the ceiling and then you find a long enough curtain or curtains to pull around your cage(s). At 9PM or whatever, you pull the curtain--it blocks out light, as well as some sound depending on the thickness of your curtain (mine is really thick), and your bird can't see you, thus you're not keeping him up (as much). In the morning when you wake him up you just have to pull the curtain to the side.

Again this might not be possible for you at all, it might be too much work or just not practical for your floor plan or it might be too ugly to consider (lol--from a decorative/design standpoint, it took some convincing to get my wife to agree to adding a random curtain to our living room!) But, that said, the curtain has really been a game changer in my space.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

My birds always wake up if I check on them at night, so I rarely catch them actually sleeping. They're prey animals so they're much more alert and likely to wake up in the night.

I have a cover for my birds cage that I put over at about 8pm as they seem to settle down to sleep then. The cover scared mine at first but they're used to it now and like it (I hear them making chirping sounds when I put it on). I think a cover is your best bet to help him sleep.