having trouble with birdy bed time.

[BradGC]

Hey all,

My little Alex has been giving me a bit of a problem lately.
He's always well behaved and never ever bites... apart from when he knows that I'm about to put him to bed. I know why he gets upset as usually the evening seems the most exciting for him, both my partner and I are home, we're all chatty and have him out on our shoulder and playing around with him. But then it comes to the time when I have to put dinner on... so I go out to his cage and he knows what's going on, so he climbs round to my back, between my shoulder blades where I can't get to him. Then he starts to nip a little and will run to the opposite shoulder to the furtherest from the cage. He won't even take an almond as a treat and will keep up this " game" until he's somehow distracted by another noise or something.

What do I do? Any tricks?

 

[BirdSquawk]

Perhaps you could have dinner with him. Put his food on the table and eat with him, you could even share your birdie safe foods like pasta or vegetables with him, then he will get some more attention and hopefuly calm him down before bedtime. What is his sleep schedule like? When do you usually play with him?

 

[BradGC]

I play with him alot throughout the day, from 2 pm onwards, and his cage is outside the kitchen window, so sometimes if I'm busy cleaning or doing something inside, he can still see me and talk to me

 

[BirdSquawk]

What time does he go to sleep?

 

[Wulfgeist]

Tico will put himself to bed, he doesn't wait on me.Jasper on the other hand hates going to bed even if he's snoozing on top of the cage door. Right now what's working is to make bedtime a rewarding time so he doesn't think it's all bad. I give him a little extra attention before bedtime and then he gets a special treat in his food dish to coax him in. I shut the door and cover his cage while he's snacking so when he's done it's bedtime in his mind because his cage is covered.

And as Birdsquawk asked, what time to do you put him to bed? You mentioned fixing dinner, if you are trying to put him to bed at like 6 in the evening when there's alot of activity I can sort of see why he might not want to go.

 

[BradGC]

Usually around 6.30 to 8.30
It gets dark here at 5.30 so it's well after all the other wild birds have stopped doing their evening calls

 

[DebsFlock]

What time does he get up in the morning. If he's getting more than 10-12 hours of dark time, he may just not be ready for sleep. How soon does he quiet down after you get him to go to bed?

If the distraction technique works, milk it. Maybe jingle a bell in the cage, get him interested in going in to explore. And give him a special treat in there before lights out time. Ours go back in their cages at dinner time, but the lights go out a few hours later.

 

[budgie_man]

My bugie goes to bed at ten and wakes up around 8 and gets me up. I have had no probs with bed times.

 

[suebee]

having dinner with your bird is an excellent idea, and as mentioned calm down before sleeptime come around

nut will eat with us either by table or in her sleep cage when we eat our main meal

or i will put food into her cage (making sure she see's me) and she will wonder in and then i lock the door, i will stay by cage till she has eaten then take her up an cover her

its a fairly set routine now, even when we have our main meal early, she still falls for the fresh food in sleep cage thing, but if she is perched on my hand as soon as its near door she flies off lol

 

[ruffledfeathers]

Georgie used to do that--run around behind my head and nip at me when she knew i was going to put her back on/in her cage. She got better with age, but also i reserved her "bird candy" (dried fruit pieces) for really special rewards. I would say "want fruit? go home" and she flew back to her cage and got in the same "give me fruit" position every time.

 

[pityu]

To me it looks like he is not ready for sleep yet, my birds always deactivated themselves when bed time was around the corner and if you tried to make them sleep before they should they still ahd alot of energy and didn't like that at all.

 

[SpringCottageParrot]

I don't know if you've noticed but parrots like to eat when we are, probably part of their flock mentality. It is particularly noticeable when their cage is in the room where you eat. As for bed time, they are just like children.

 

[horsesculpter]

Feeding time is a huge part of flock activity and you are asking your parrot to be shut away just before it happens. No wonder he protests. We put Sunny on a tee stand beside us when we eat and she has some of whatever we are eating. Before eating she sits in the kitchen and "helps" with the cooking by sampling the goodies. She would protest mightily if she had to go to bed before this but is willing and sleepy after supper.

 

[SweetPeasFriend]

He wants to eat with you. When we bird sit, Sweet Pea doesn't want to go to bed either, but I know he needs to cause he starts shutting his eyes and burying his head into my husband's hair to block out the light. That's when we insist.

If there is a lot of activity, they will want to stay up. We were bad birdy sitters on New Year's Eve, and Sweet Pea the blue crowned conure stayed up past midnight with no indications that he was sleepy. We all slept in the next day though. I kept it dark around his cage the next day.

Usually with my parents bedtime is around 8:00 or 9:00 PM, but it's quiet in their house. When he is a guest at our house, it's around 9:00 PM, because we are still up and around before that.

If you want to use wild birds as an example I wouldn't say they all retire early. When it's winter roost time around my house I see thousands of crows quite active even at night. (There is a roost up on the hill above my house, and they flock like that in the winter.) I hear them cawing and see them flying around, cause the street lights are on, even as late as midnight. I have also noticed that the local pigeons in Pittsburgh hang out in the parking garages after the Penquins hockey games to forage for the fan's dropped food. They strut around all over the place, and this can be after 11:00 PM. Now mind you, I don't normally see pigeons out that late, just usually for the hockey games. They apparantly know when it's a hockey night in Pittsburgh.

Eat with yoru parrot, then put him to bed is what I would suggest. I see plenty of birds that will change their sleep schedules for a good meal and some social activity.

 

[GCC]

I think all this is cute!!! i am getting mine in about a week i cant wait!!

 

[lpolliard]

You could try dimming the lights and making an effort to quiet the household before you put him to bed. Stay consistent with his bed time. All animals have internal clocks. You just have to set them. Is his sleeping cage in a quiet area? I resorted to having a sleeping cage in my bedroom closet to quiet him down to sleep. He will call to me if he hears my voice. I don't think I have ever caught Chico sleeping.

 

[MeganMango]

We just got Mango, but he loves to eat with us. He has his own heavy ceramic dish, he perches on the edge and munches away. This is the only time we can get him to eat veggies, we have to give them to him from our plates. The vet suggested we not allow him to eat from our dishes but to give him his own, and put some of our food in it if we want. I worry about him being out while Im cooking in case he gets hurt. He has a cage in the kitchen so I put some foraging toys in there and he plays with them while I cook. This is usually after we've showered so he is usually in a good mood. He wants to come out, so he will peep at us and hang from the roof, but he can see us and I think he will get use to the routine. He plays with his shredding toys on top of his kitchen cage while we clean up (hes afraid of the running water so hes happy to stay there), and then he cuddles under my chin while we watch TV or work on our computers for a couple of hours. He rearranges my hair quite a bit, and if we have nachos he tries to steal them. This is enough to wear him out by 10:00-10:30 and he falls asleep on Dave or I and we put him to bed in his living room cage where we are. If we are still up he wants to come out again, so we open the door and he sleeps on the door of his cage until we go to bed. He doesnt like to be covered up until we go to bed, but once he is tired he sleeps on his cage or on the door until we go to bed. Sometimes he tries to come back over to us, but we try to make sure to put him in even with the door open by 10:30. This gives him some routine and he seems to really like it. He doesnt fly and so cant get off his cage without our help. He doesnt get upset as long as he can see us and he feels like he is still with us.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

I agree with the rest of the gang -- he's not ready for bed and is trying to tell you that he is part of all that's going on in your house / part of the flock just like u and your partner.

I very rarely put Pritti to sleep at a specific early time (not that my way is right), but it's how we've done it for at least 10 years - he puts himself to sleep, or if not near his cage, he just gets in the cute little 180 degree sleeping head position wherever he is and closes his eyes (which is my cue he's ready for cage sleep). Usually by around 10 pm, he's wanting to go sleep.

 

[Rana]

The diner thing is a good idea - diner is a flock activity and if you put him to bed before you start a flock activity he may feel left out, almost like a punishment

My fids stay out during diner time, eat with us, and about 20 minutes after diner or so they go to bed, with a full belly and no hassle