Goofy bedtime behavior, what does it mean?

[India]

Hi everyone,

Two weeks ago I adopted a 6 year old pineapple GCC. He's a very sweet & calm fellow, except when I put him back in his cage to go to bed. Then he starts acting completely different with a combination of these behaviors: clambers around the top of the cage, hangs upside down, comes to the side of the cage and if I get my fingers too close he pinches them, runs around on his perches, scrapes the cage bars with his beak.

He doesn't act like he's mad except for the finger pinching. I think if I stuck my hand or more of my finger in the cage at this time that he'd clamp down pretty hard. Haven't tried it of course, just "feels" like he might.

Any ideas on what is going on in his head at those times?

Thanks!

 

[gemini84]

hi.

im not 100% why he could be doing this but i have had a similar situation with 2 of mine at different times.
With oxy we would put him away and he would do similar to what your mentioning, it wasnt all the time, was when i was having a late dinner. Worked out it was because he hadnt had dinner with me. once i fed him some of my dinner he settled right down and went to sleep. This was months ago, and has since stopped.

Just recently Prince started doing similar also, even pulling at the cage bars. His problem turned out to be he didnt have a bed. Him and bruno had destroyed the ladder swing that they would sleep together on, and my repairing there was no longer room for them both on it so prince was left to sleep on a perch. I have sibce put a new rope perch up high and now he is fine.

My guess is he is trying to tell you something is not right. Has his routine changed? Cage moved or reorganised? Just a few suggestions.

 

[Grenage]

If you put him to bed, how are you seeing this behaviour? Is the cage in a lit or occupied room?

 

[FreddyCheeks]

I thought night time chanter was a normal thing. Since day one with Fred everytime he goes to bed (whether I put him there or he goes on his own) he does his night time chatter(what we call it). He runs around the bottom for a min or two then climbs up and gets a little noisy for about 5-10 min before dosing off.

Does he calm down after a while or does he just keep going off while in the cage?

 

[India]

I put him in his cage and as I am talking to him and putting the cover over him he starts moving around. The first few times he did this I was surprised and watched him for a couple of minutes and checked to see if everything was ok. This is about the 5th night he has done it so I'm covering him up more quickly.

Once the cover is on he settles down and usually doesn't make another peep.

Since I've had him only 2 weeks, EVERYTHING is new to him! Haven't moved his cage but have moved perches around.

It's almost like a "I don't want to go to bed" fit but it's usually 9:30 to 10:00. He should be ready for bed.

Or maybe his previous owner gave him a bedtime snack & I don't know to do that?

 

[Grenage]

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

When the lights are out, and it's quiet, my gcc will just go straight to sleep. If there's any light, he'll probably not go to sleep for a while. If there's moderate sound, he'll make a low chatter, which basically means "shut the hell up".

 

[forbey]

Sounds like a combination of "Don't put me in here, I sill want to play", "don't leave me in here, I want to be with you" and the bites are temper tantrums telling you "I'm not happy you put me here."

Think like a kid ... if you were having fun, playing (or hanging out) with your favorite big person and they stuck you in a cage ... how would you react?

Luckily, Skittles has been told "nite-nite" at bedtime and sent to the cage. We have also never covered his cage, just turned off the lights and he settles down.

 

[Oopisy]

the funny thing about bedtime is that Sylvarie will be in the living room with my son on his perch there and will start to scream at 745 almost on the dot looking at the wall between his perch and his cage. and only stops when he is put in his cage not covered up just put in there. we cover him around 8pm every night so he knows bedtime.last night we had him out with us at a meeting until almost 1030 and at 745 he screamed once and i guess he realized he was not at home and snuggled down on my shoulder until we got home. i guess what i am saying is they know bedtime and will have their own routine in their minds for bedtime.

 

[MissTaz]

My little baby is also silly at night although we have about and hour of him sleeping on my chest or swaddled in my arms when it's time for me to go to be he goes limp and try's to make is so I don't want to get up and put him in his bed. And once he get's in his cage he kinda cry's but after I cover him up he squawks for about 5 min then goes to sleep.

 

[kellie]

Hey! My sun conure slept fine the first few nights with a cover, then decided he hated it. He didn't like that he couldn't see what was going on and wouldn't calm down until his cover was removed.

Now all I use is the dark as a cover! He loves it. He's always in on the action.

Doesn't sound like this is your problem, but it could be!

 

[legal_eagle]

He doesn't want to go to sleep! My middle-aged GCC still does it as if she's a baby. As long as she quiets down when I cover her cage and turn off the lights it's all good!