Sleep so important

[MySweetJess]

I was just reading that birds wake up when the sun comes up, that the right amount of 10 to 12 hours sleep for a parrot keeps their immunity healthy and gives their cells time to rejuvinate. Losing sleep can affect their immunity.

 

[Skarila]

I was just reading that birds wake up when the sun comes up, that the right amount of 10 to 12 hours sleep for a parrot keeps their immunity healthy and gives their cells time to rejuvinate. Losing sleep can affect their immunity.

Right you are! Just there is a thing, what we must keep in mind, where do certain parrot species come from. Those which come from the equatorium means they will always have 12h day and 12h night. For other birds from different parts of the world, there will be change of the day light exposure, and this often is connected with their breeding time and their hormones. More light in the spring and summer, perfect time to make some babies!

Because we want to curb hormones (unless we are aiming to breed them), it's best to set up the 10-12h undisturbed sleep, and we must mimic the "night", easiest way to let down the blinders and cover. While it shounds unnatural to a point, it isn't. We humans easily stay up late with lights on and such, which disturbs the bird. To help the bird get their 10-12h sleep, we cover (mind that some birds don't like to be covered, and some have a room of their own where you can just let down the blinders and darken the room) to help the bird to go "night night" and in the morning when it's time to uncover. Kind of like me - I know my blinders are always completely down when I want to sleep an extra hour in the morning, and when I want to get up real early, I make sure to leave the blinders up so I can wake up to the natural light if possible.

Thank you for mentioning this important piece of info that many overlook!

 

[SailBoat]

That was once upon a time considered cutting edge medical information. Then people starting asking simple questions. Like what happens when the length of the day varies based on the time of years. In the upper mid-West, early Summer sees near 18 hours of Sun light and in late December, we see near six hours of day light. But the Birds outside seem just find with that huge variation in the available Dark periods.

The answer was quick in coming; We are talking about Parrots!
Okay, if one wishes to say that most Parrots live with in 20 degrees North or South of the Equator. The variation is not that large. But, in those areas the normal day is longer than 10 to 12 hours! That implies that Parrots do not get enough sleep in their Natural Regions.

The point reality is that Parrots stuck living with Humans can experience near 18+ hours of both natural and created day time lighting as the Human family keep the lights on far into the evening.

There is no question that a healthy Parrots needs a solid nights sleep. But until Humans are willing to adjust their life style both the Humans and the Parrots with suffer the effects of limited sleep periods.

FYI: Most Parrots with nap after a meal.

Enjoy!!

 

[imouse1]

I was just reading that birds wake up when the sun comes up, that the right amount of 10 to 12 hours sleep for a parrot keeps their immunity healthy and gives their cells time to rejuvinate. Losing sleep can affect their immunity.

So, like, Sir Birb is waking up in the middle of the night to eat angrily. I'm not sure what to do. I'm trying to set a routine where we start laying down at night around 9 when it's well-dark and the rest of the house isn't going to wake him up. I start pulling down his blankets in stages so he knows it's time to start getting restful--yellow "who cares if you destroy this", warming blanket, then blue to cut out the last of the light. At the first two stages, he grabs food and brings it to where I can see it and just crunches the h### out of it. He doesn't want me to give him more food or sit with him. He wants to know that I know that he's eating it watching me. If I don't look at him, he'll sit there and wait until I do. At the last stage, he'll attack his food and eat until he falls asleep. After which time he'll periodically wake up and eat but once he's up, he's up.

Now he's doing it with his millet because I've taken his seeds and pellet mix¹ away. I'm thinking I am going to let it empty and maybe he'll stop being territorial over the dispenser because no matter how much I add he bites the bejesus out of me when I put it back in. He's always been crazy protective of his millet dispenser but now he's basically not even letting me fill it. The only thing he is more protective of is his hanging fan/bell toy we bought for him from PetSmart which I am patently no longer allowed to touch even if it is to get fruit off of it. We bought him a perch with the bell at the bottom as a decoy so I could wipe off the original toy when it gets dirty but he knew--he knows.

Like, do I leave the food? I have fresh broccoli, beet greens, a rosemary branch, and marigolds in his cage keeping fresh.² He likes fluffing them up and he eats the beet greens (albeit, mostly to pick up to show me his big boi strength before it tears and he drops it). Only the marigold flowers are sticking out of his little tree around the broccoli so I'm confident he hasn't eaten any of those. I've seen him eat a couple of bites of that but I'm not sure if they were seeds or the petals. He loves a couple bites of his rosemary a few times a day, and he's a massive fan of the broccoli both as a food and as something to climb

¹ Of which he, of course, only eats the seeds. I'm waiting for PetCo to deliver the Zupreem pellets since neither the Harrison's nor the Zupreem ones came in his Chewy order. But in the mean time he has fresh veggies (which he will only bite when I'm giving them to him as a pre-emptive alternative for biting me) and a veggie/fruit puree I have made him (which he will only eat if I stand there and hold it for him). I am sprouting the seeds from his bellpeppers and Chile's, so I'm hoping that will help him, as well.

² Which I take out and rinse when I'm cleaning the cage--they're in a hydroponic PVC pipe "system" so they stay watered but he can't get to the water in the bottom. I change out the water every day after a water-vinegar-water rinse for any potential grossness and switch it for tap water so the plants have something to grow off of, so that's why I don't want him getting to the water. No glue involved, bottom screws off for easy cleaning. I am waiting on the unoiled hemp rope to make it in so I can cover it and make it look more like a tree.

Any advice welcome lol

 

[Littleredbeak]

So, like, Sir Birb is waking up in the middle of the night to eat angrily. I'm not sure what to do. I'm trying to set a routine where we start laying down at night around 9 when it's well-dark and the rest of the house isn't going to wake him up. I start pulling down his blankets in stages so he knows it's time to start getting restful--yellow "who cares if you destroy this", warming blanket, then blue to cut out the last of the light. At the first two stages, he grabs food and brings it to where I can see it and just crunches the h### out of it. He doesn't want me to give him more food or sit with him. He wants to know that I know that he's eating it watching me. If I don't look at him, he'll sit there and wait until I do. At the last stage, he'll attack his food and eat until he falls asleep. After which time he'll periodically wake up and eat but once he's up, he's up.

Now he's doing it with his millet because I've taken his seeds and pellet mix¹ away. I'm thinking I am going to let it empty and maybe he'll stop being territorial over the dispenser because no matter how much I add he bites the bejesus out of me when I put it back in. He's always been crazy protective of his millet dispenser but now he's basically not even letting me fill it. The only thing he is more protective of is his hanging fan/bell toy we bought for him from PetSmart which I am patently no longer allowed to touch even if it is to get fruit off of it. We bought him a perch with the bell at the bottom as a decoy so I could wipe off the original toy when it gets dirty but he knew--he knows.

Like, do I leave the food? I have fresh broccoli, beet greens, a rosemary branch, and marigolds in his cage keeping fresh.² He likes fluffing them up and he eats the beet greens (albeit, mostly to pick up to show me his big boi strength before it tears and he drops it). Only the marigold flowers are sticking out of his little tree around the broccoli so I'm confident he hasn't eaten any of those. I've seen him eat a couple of bites of that but I'm not sure if they were seeds or the petals. He loves a couple bites of his rosemary a few times a day, and he's a massive fan of the broccoli both as a food and as something to climb

¹ Of which he, of course, only eats the seeds. I'm waiting for PetCo to deliver the Zupreem pellets since neither the Harrison's nor the Zupreem ones came in his Chewy order. But in the mean time he has fresh veggies (which he will only bite when I'm giving them to him as a pre-emptive alternative for biting me) and a veggie/fruit puree I have made him (which he will only eat if I stand there and hold it for him). I am sprouting the seeds from his bellpeppers and Chile's, so I'm hoping that will help him, as well.

² Which I take out and rinse when I'm cleaning the cage--they're in a hydroponic PVC pipe "system" so they stay watered but he can't get to the water in the bottom. I change out the water every day after a water-vinegar-water rinse for any potential grossness and switch it for tap water so the plants have something to grow off of, so that's why I don't want him getting to the water. No glue involved, bottom screws off for easy cleaning. I am waiting on the unoiled hemp rope to make it in so I can cover it and make it look more like a tree.

Any advice welcome lol

Could you post a picture of the hanging fan bell Roy where you put treats on? It'd sounds pretty nifty! I also give marigold to my birds but hanging some other food sounds like a great idea! I do have birds kabobs and only one will take anything off it.

 

[imouse1]

Could you post a picture of the hanging fan bell Roy where you put treats on? It'd sounds pretty nifty! I also give marigold to my birds but hanging some other food sounds like a great idea! I do have birds kabobs and only one will take anything off it.

I don't put the food on the toy, he goes up and wipes his beak on it so it gets dirty lol

I bet, though, that wouldn't be a hard toy to make... Gimme the weekend and let me see what I can come up with