Working full time?

[Greenhouseparrots]

I work full time 9-5 mon-fri and I was wondering what kind of a routine other people who work full time have? I'm also busy outside of work and I'm not always home in the evenings to spend time with the birds. On top of that, I have 8 of them and it can get very messy to let them out multiple times a day and manage their feeding times so they're fed but get their meals in their cage. Plus ensuring they get enough sleep can be difficult so I generally let them out for just a few hours in the morning and they seem to like it enough.

I get up at 4am and let them out, putting them back in their cages at 7.30 so they get around 3.5hrs out of the cage on workdays. They get an avian lamp switched on for this time in the morning and then just a normal lamp through the day which turns off at 4.30, but begins to dim around 4. I do some training in the mornings with treats and generally hang out with them and then at 7 I go for my breakfast and get their food for the day ready. They get frozen chop so it lasts all day, and seeds in foraging toys so they stay busy. They can also see outside the window and on the weekends or my days off they go outside in the aviary from around 8 in the morning till early-mid afternoon depending on what I'm doing that day. They get pellets outside, and can nibble at the parrot safe plants I grow out there. I have to work some half Saturdays and I get time off for that so they can still go outside, and I also have more time off which I can spend with them. If I worked two Saturdays a month then I'd end up with 12 extra days off over the year.

 

[GaleriaGila]

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! An excuse to tell the Rickeybird's story again!!!

My story...
I got him in 1984. I was fearing getting evicted due to his noise, and my family at the time HATED him. I recall struggling to make a decision, sitting on the floor of my townhouse, watching him race and skip and frolic around on the tile floor, and then run to me GRINNING, so proud to be showing off for me. I would just stare at him and be amazed: imagine --- a real parrot in my house, and it loved me! I felt so guilty and inadequate and afraid at one point that I had him in his travel cage and was planning to take him back to the bird store. I opened the front door and couldn't go through. Closed it. Sat down. Took my little love out and promised him we would stay together.
I didn't really believe it, but I wanted to. Eventually, I did. I was in college back then, and at least I could spend a lot of time with him.
Then there were were years (about 25 of them) when 5-6 days a week, I was gone at 7:30-ish and back at 6-ish.
Some did and will consider me wrong and think I should have re-homed him. My husband at that time detested the bird. My current ol' man tolerates him with good humor. No, the bird wasn't responsible for the first marriage's ending!
Anyway, here is what I think made it work.
I moved and got new jobs maybe 5 times or so. BUT...
Every morning, he had at least ten minutes, and every evening, he had 20 or so. I have always kept him on a natural light schedule, in a separate room, so sometimes those times together were in the dark. During the day, he had a big window looking out on something interesting, a television on one of his favorite channels (music channels, shopping channels), a biggg cage, lots of fun foods, and a few toys that I changed out regularly).
He KNEW he could count on those two crummy sessions a day. Somehow we both made it.
I'm now retired and times are good again. Side-note... when I first started being able to spend much more time, he was strangely aggressive and jumpy. Eventually we settled down.
I don't know if I am doing a service or a dis-service in even suggesting you keep a bird while working. I do know I can't imagine life without mine at this point.
Good luck to you in making a decision. And welcome to the Forum... you'll get lots of empathy and advice here.

xo,
Gail and the Rickeybird

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY! An excuse to tell the Rickeybird's story again!!!

My story...
I got him in 1984. I was fearing getting evicted due to his noise, and my family at the time HATED him. I recall struggling to make a decision, sitting on the floor of my townhouse, watching him race and skip and frolic around on the tile floor, and then run to me GRINNING, so proud to be showing off for me. I would just stare at him and be amazed: imagine --- a real parrot in my house, and it loved me! I felt so guilty and inadequate and afraid at one point that I had him in his travel cage and was planning to take him back to the bird store. I opened the front door and couldn't go through. Closed it. Sat down. Took my little love out and promised him we would stay together.
I didn't really believe it, but I wanted to. Eventually, I did. I was in college back then, and at least I could spend a lot of time with him.
Then there were were years (about 25 of them) when 5-6 days a week, I was gone at 7:30-ish and back at 6-ish.
Some did and will consider me wrong and think I should have re-homed him. My husband at that time detested the bird. My current ol' man tolerates him with good humor. No, the bird wasn't responsible for the first marriage's ending!
Anyway, here is what I think made it work.
I moved and got new jobs maybe 5 times or so. BUT...
Every morning, he had at least ten minutes, and every evening, he had 20 or so. I have always kept him on a natural light schedule, in a separate room, so sometimes those times together were in the dark. During the day, he had a big window looking out on something interesting, a television on one of his favorite channels (music channels, shopping channels), a biggg cage, lots of fun foods, and a few toys that I changed out regularly).
He KNEW he could count on those two crummy sessions a day. Somehow we both made it.
I'm now retired and times are good again. Side-note... when I first started being able to spend much more time, he was strangely aggressive and jumpy. Eventually we settled down.
I don't know if I am doing a service or a dis-service in even suggesting you keep a bird while working. I do know I can't imagine life without mine at this point.
Good luck to you in making a decision. And welcome to the Forum... you'll get lots of empathy and advice here.

xo,
Gail and the Rickeybird

I've come across your story a couple of times and I love hearing it! I've been very close to rehoming my birds, especially Tequila my crimson bellied conure because she screams so much and I don't know if I'll be able to find a place to rent with her being as noisy as she has been. Plus she just never seems happy as her screams have been screams of anger, not contentment.

I recently found out she's very sensitive to soy and in the three years I've had her, I've fed her soy pellets everyday so no wonder she's been so unhappy! Two weeks after stopping the soy pellets, she's still hormonal but the screaming has stopped and she's started playing with her toys which is something she's never really done before! I can't quite believe it as I've spent three years with her screaming at me in anger everyday and now she's just content.

 

[GaleriaGila]

"Thank yewww very much!!"