Question about covering my bird!

[Jessie]

So I just got a Nanday Conure today off craigslist and its my first time getting a bird that I didn't already have from little on. He is 18 months and my question is he doesn't get his cage covered at night, but I always covered my other birds in the past. So would it be okay if I covered him or should I introduce it to him slowly.

 

[Kiwibird]

I'm a BIG believer in cage covering. It gives them the darkness they need for good rest and establishes a clear distinction between (their) night and day (which is useful to control "light" hours during hormonal season). I don't know if our older adopted bird ever got covered in the past, but from his first night on in our home, he was covered at night. No issues adapting at all.

IF your bird is frightened, I wouldn't scare him by covering him "like it or not" but I would still work towards him being covered as a goal. Introduce it slowly, let him see the cover setting near his cage, then only a little on his cage, then work up to a fully covered cage

 

[thekarens]

I think you'll hear both sides. A lot of people do both ways. We've never covered any of our birds. I don't see any need to cover. I don't think either way is wrong.

 

[Jessie]

Thanks for the advice! I just picked him and it was horrible! He was outside in an old ferret cage with fire ants everywhere! As soon as I saw his condition I felt like crying. They gave me a little transport cage and the ferret cage and I'm driving it straight to the dump and buying a brand new cage. They gave me a huge bag of food and I put it in the trunk fully intending to throw it away as soon as I could. But to my surprise when I opened the trunk I had a bunch of little black bugs crawling EVERYWHERE! He's very shy and won't let me get to close so he's gonna need some time to trust me but I'm just glad I found him and can actually give him a good forever home.

 

[Kalidasa]

Since he's not used to it, you could cover 3 sides and top at first, leaving the front open so he can get used to the idea. I do that during the summer anyway for extra ventilation.

 

[Agapornis]

OMG, what a horrible situation that poor bird was in! Thank you for saving him!!!! I love all conures, and the Nandays are really cute. I can't wait to see a pic of him!

 

[Jessie]

So I got Rio's (his new name, they called him "conure west" but he doesn't know it.) new cage all set up and calmly coaxed him inside. Now he's exploring and pigging out! I bought him all new toys and new food that he seems to love. He won't eat fruit or veggies but I'm sure he will get used to them. I'm going to try to cover the whole cage tonight besides the front and next week I'll cover the whole cage and see how he's doing. Thank you all for the advice!

 

[Kiwibird]

Lovely new home with a most adorable resident! I'm sure he will like that MUCH better than a ferret cage. And as he settles in, looks roomy enough for some toys and foraging. Hopefully you'll make quick progress with him and he can come out and hang out too

 

[Jessie]

Oh I'm sure he will settle in wonderfully. He's climbing everywhere and some foraging toys are first on my list!

 

[veimar]

It depends on your schedule - if you go to bed and get up really early you might not need to cover. I always cover because I stay up very late, and my birds go to sleep around 10pm. They need to be able to sleep through the sunrise. We have a small house and I cannot let them make noise at sunrise around 5-6am. We get up around 8:30-9.

 

[Jessie]

Ya I'm usually up until 11-12pm so I'm going to cover him up. I just wanted to make sure that it wouldn't bother him to much since they never bothered to cover him.