My parrot wants to be an owl!

[Jayyj]

Ok, so she's not hooting or chasing mice in the dark. But she does seem to have a strange attitude to bedtime. Generally when I've been home for the whole day I'll notice her taking quite a few naps during the day, then she perks up at tea time and turns into a nervous ball of energy around 9 O'clock, which is the time I turn off the full spectrum light by her cage.

I generally go to bed at 10, at which point I'll close up the cage, put the main light out and close the door. It's not too hard getting her into the cage but once the door's shut she'll hang from the door or upside down from the top and throw a bit of a tantrum. I'm being firm about saying goodnight a few times, then light goes off and the door is closed for the night, and so far the tantrum burns out in under a minute. So it's not a major issue but I'd like to try to understand why she gets keyed up when she should naturally be winding down.

I'm not covering the cage as yet, and she's getting 9-10 hours a night plus an hour or so in nap time.

I wonder is she getting stressed because she doesn't want to be on her own when I go to bed or if this is a conditioned sleep pattern she learned with her previous guardian and she expects to be up late? Am I doing the right thing darkening the room to try to convince her it's dusk time? Also, since she's still rocketing about the cage in a paddy when I put the light out, might a night light help? I'd hate her to fall trying to get back to her roost perch in the dark, and I can't leave the door open as I need 10-15 minutes to do a few jobs before turning in myself and I don't think she'll settle if she can hear me moving about.

 

[Kalidasa]

I would definately cover the cage with a light thin cloth while the lights are still on, so she can get her bearings, then lights out. I'm betting her previous owners did....and even if they didn't, they seem to feel more secure with at least some cover.

 

[SandyBee]

one thing I do with my amazon is when I put him in the cage forvthe night I just sit with him for a bit. If he is in a hyper mood he quitens quickly.

 

[Jayyj]

I'll try a cotton bed sheet over the cage tonight, and see how she reacts. I brought it into the room this morning so she could see it before it comes close to the cage and she was a bit freaked out by it, so I might have to introduce it over a few days if she gets upset when I try to put it over.

 

[Jayyj]

I can also close up the cage a bit before bedtime, see how that goes, but it worries me if she's in tantrum mode (squawking, crest popped and skuttling about the bars of the cage) she's just winding herself further into a knot. I guess I need to see if it burns out whilst I'm sat with her? She's generally a very quiet bird, so she obviously is determined to make a point with this display.

 

[suebee]

try a bed time routine??

nuts, is family meal
comes to drink my bath water
then its downstairs, into her sleep cage, which is taken into the main TV room with her super, so she can chill with us, before she is taken up to her room and covered, with a dark cloth.
the new part of routine is the coming into TV room with us for a chill out time, where before she would stay in kitchen, eat an then taken up, we still get the look of amazement when we take her up, but with sleep cage going into main room with us, she sometimes gets in it herself? so its a good sign.

a little harder getting her to believe its bed time as its not getting dark till gone 10, but nut is in bed and covered by 9 and up for about half 7

if your birdies tantrums last less then a minute, i'd be tempted to ignore the protests

if her cage is in main room you can close the cage early, and put in a fresh food bowl for her an sit with her a little while she has her super, you can snack some as well, fresh fruit etc something that can be shared before covering an lights out??

 

[Jayyj]

If only she'd share fresh fruit with me! Diet is another issue I'm working on: she's a rehomed bird who's very timid and afraid of anything new, so we're still taking baby steps with everything. If I'm eating junk, then she overcomes her fear enough to come over and investigate, but at the moment if it's healthy it goes on the cage floor.

Bedtime routine is certainly something I'm trying to work on, just need to fill in the details!

 

[Jayyj]

Last night went a bit better - I put the sheet over the sides of the cage (she wasn't keen on being completely covered) and sat with her for 20 minutes before putting the light out and she didn't appear to be as stressed as previous evenings. I also called into the store she came from to ask about a few issues and apparently their birds are in a dark room from 6 at night to 8 in the morning, and she'd been there at least 5 months so she's probably completely disoriented by the new routine. I'll try to stick with last night's routine, so how it goes over a couple of weeks.

 

[suebee]

thats good, but take care setting up routines, try to keep it flexible enough to adapt to changes, like say, if your going to go out one night etc

and also it takes awhile for them to settle, even though at times it all seems to be going so well

as for food, if they are hungry, they will eat it! especially if they see us eating it, regularly