Cockatoo does NOT want me to sleep...

[laurend]

So Missy has been sleeping in a sleep cage next to my bed every night for about two months now... she's been great, no issues. She adapted quickly and it's helped lessen the problems that led me to get her the sleep cage (primarily her main cage being in a heavily trafficked area, so noise/interrupting her sleep was an issue).

However, over the past week, Missy has taken to relentlessly tapping her beak on the cage at all hours of the night............

One could imagine how thrilled I am considering I sleep right beside that cage.

Have any of you ever run into this or know what in the heck could be possessing her to rob me of my sleep all of a sudden? Or more importantly, HOW DO I GET HER TO STOP?!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Sorry to hear she's keeping you awake.
Rather than trying to stop her, try to find the reason why she is doing this. I cannot imagine she is happy staying awake at night tapping the cage Have you considered getting her checked out by a vet? Whenever the behavior changes strangely I always recommend that. Also become detective, try to figure out if anything has changed. Is there a new night on in the darkness? do car lights shine on the cieling at night and bother her? Parronts are the best detectives, examine everything closely the next couple days to a week to find out what's bothering her at night. If you can't figure it out, do a vet check up and see if she's not feeling well.

 

[MikeyTN]

Remove her out of your bed room! She's not gonna stop doing so. Plus by having her in your bed room isn't healthy either with the dust she produces and you breathing it in all night like that. Is there not another room that's pitch black where she can get some rest???

 

[laurend]

I understand the dust issue with her being in my bedroom, but my room is the most ideal spot for her, unfortunately. I have a few options for putting her elsewhere to sleep: living room (too much light, too much traffic, too much noise), kitchen/bathroom (obviously not up for consideration), and a "back room" (it's not temperature controlled and gets a lot of light). The only distraction I could think of would be my cats, but her cage is covered at night and my cats are older and aren't very active at night.

She's known to chatter to herself in the middle of the night, but that does not usually wake me in the night, so I haven't noticed that as much as I'm noticing the tapping. The tapping is very light, but it's enough to wake me and keep me up when she does it (which isn't constant; she does it here and there for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time). It's only been maybe a week since she started, so maybe it will go away - I initially thought she was doing it to get attention. She gets very excited if I respond to her at all, so maybe that is why she's doing it. I'm doing my best not to react so that I'm not encouraging the behavior. However, I've never heard of a bird doing that (not that I'm an expert or even close to one, but I've read a lot about birds and did a good amount of research on sleep cages/where to put them/how to set them up/etc. before I purchased hers), so I was/am curious to hear of any experiences/advice/input anyone else has on it.

 

[MikeyTN]

I hear my birds tap all the time....The U2 I had before, Java, he would tap just for fun. I'm just wondering how much interaction and exercise she had before going to bed to be so energized to be tapping throughout the night. I think you need to find ways to wear her out a bit before bed time.

 

[laurend]

I feel a little on the dumb side, but I hadn't really thought about the fact that I might not have been wearing her out enough before bedtime. It makes sense - especially recalling the past couple of days specifically. Her and I haven't gotten as much interaction as we normally do over the past few days.

Thanks, Mikey! I'll work on that with her and we'll see if that's what my problem is.

 

[MikeyTN]

I make Java tired before bed time to stop him from screaming up a storm. We do dancing, running around, flapping, etc. By bed time he's all worn out and ready for bed. NOT a peep from him at all. IF I didn't wear him out, especially when I'm not feeling well, he screams like no tomorrow even at bed time.

 

[MenomaMinx]

I know the taping as a cockatiel thing(which my started in with several yearss after the cockatiels death)

Here's what it means,"I need .Provide my need human"

As behaviors go,it's pretty simple....it's pretty much only used when the bird thinks it's not being understood.You've got to play detectiveliterally everytime it happens,or you'll never know why,because the meaning is so broad.

 

[Jewelz]

Could putting a toy or two in there for her to chew on be a good idea? Mine wakes up in his slleep cage sometimes and likes to chew on his bead & rope toy.....

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Both Rosie and Kenji live in my room, and African greys are VERY dusty. Having a good air filter is important for your health in the long run, without that you may develop "parrot fanciers lung". Basically asthma that develops after years of breathing in dust. I wouldn't think it would be as bad for you if he's only sleeping in your room, and not living in it 24/7

There's some great inexpensive air filters on amazon that also have UV lights to kill virus's and mold spores.

 

[laurend]

She has one toy in her sleep cage currently. She actually stayed relatively quiet all last night, go figure!

I worked from home today so she's been playing and running around all day. Hopefully she'll have another quiet night.

She's only in my room at night for sleep, but I'll check out filters. I had severe asthma as a kid but grew out of it by my late teens - I'd prefer I not have that again in my lifetime!

Thanks for the tips/suggestions, all!