Apartment living with a caique

[Seemslie]

Apologies, this is a bit long. I own a BHC who I've had for about 12 years now since she was 6 months. She has always lived in my parents house including when I was away during college, but now that I'm in medical school I brought her with me to my apartment. The two of us have not been coexisting well to say the least. It's a very small apartment, and I obviously need to study a lot, her cage is in my bedroom in front of a window, but whenever I'm home if she isn't out, she screams that incessant lovely caique yell. When she quiets down for long enough and I can get her to respond to me with a whistle, I'll bring her out to a play tower I have in the main room, but even then she is unhappy unless I'm fully focused on her. I make sure to set aside some time every day to play with her, she has tons of toys, I try to get her fresh food every morning. In addition, she has been waking up at night making noises, I don't know if sirens are waking her up and scaring her or what, but I had to take her home for a week because I had exams and she would not let me sleep through the night. I bought a smaller cage to use as her sleeping cage in the main room and am hoping this will resolve the problem. I'm just concerned that she won't do anything herself anymore when it's just me here. If my boyfriend is over she'll amuse herself and play with her toys in her cage, and she's never exhibited this much needy behavior at home. Does anyone have any experience with anything similar, or any training tips or advice. I was so excited to finally be able to bring her with me, but now I'm at my wits end and close to just moving her whole set up home.

 

[Laurasea]

Birds take to change slowly, she can adjust but takes time. Try to have as much if a set routine ad possible, cage covered at same time every day 10 to 12 hours of sleep every day. We're you always her person or was she bonded to one of your parents?

 

[itzjbean]

Understand that going from 12 years of routine at your parent's house where there was likely someone home a lot of the day, someone to interact with her and now going to a totally new place, with mostly being home alone all day by herself, well, it can hit them hard and they become unhappy.

How much time are you spending with her one on one every day? Are you incorporating her into your life while being a medical student? As in, are you spending extra time with her in the morning while you get ready for school, stopping home at lunch for a play session, and then coming home to let her out and about with you for the evening?

It can be frustrating, I'm sure, as this is a very important part of your life that you are trying to make happen. Becoming a medical professional is no cake walk!
Perhaps now is not the time to make such a commitment to her, and instead focus on your studies until you graduate, get into your full-time job (which may have 12 hour shifts, not great for owning birds either), and then reevaluate.

I feel you can make this work if you commit to more time with her a day, a couple hours of solid one on one time may be what she needs to adjust. But remember they need this kind of interaction daily, and if they don't get it, they don't really thrive.

Just something to consider as a student still in school with extremely important times ahead of you. You don't want to jeopardize your hard work for the bird, but at the same time you want the bird to be as happy as possible.

Weigh all your options and really think long and hard about this.

 

[Seemslie]

How much time are you spending with her one on one every day? Are you incorporating her into your life while being a medical student? As in, are you spending extra time with her in the morning while you get ready for school, stopping home at lunch for a play session, and then coming home to let her out and about with you for the evening?



Generally I come home to study, I let her hang out with me in the main room or on my shoulder while I do work, and we have play time when I take breaks, so she is getting a fair amount of time with me, like 4-6 hours depending on the day. I think part of what confuses me is how content she is to amuse herself when other people are over, she goes back to a more normal level of behavior, but when it's just the two of us she's super fussy despite (or maybe because of I guess) the fact that she's very bonded to me and very aggressive towards people outside of myself and my parents.

 

[ChristaNL]

If you parents are fine with having her -> put her back there.
Medical students have *no* time and internships will be worse...do not do that to a bird who needs a someone to be there.

Do not get a bird untill you have some cushy 9-5 job or something like that can give you as much birdttime.
A parrot requires 3 hours of direct interaction a day *minimal*
(every day!)

Sorry to be blunt, but dormliving is not fair to the bird if you cannot be there (and with your intense studies you will not).

 

[EllenD]

As someone who has been in a very similar situation, I can tell you that it just isn't easy, nor is it going to get any easier, lol. I'd rather be blunt than lie to you. I had an apartment during undergrad where I had my Budgie, and for whatever reason I decided to get an Australian Cattle Dog puppy my Junior year of undergrad (stupid, let's get the breed of dog that needs to run all day long, every single day), and that was difficult at best. My Budgies at the time I moved him from my mom's house was about 13 years old and had always been surrounded by multiple people, even though he was bonded with me, and he displayed much the same behavior as your Caique is. It's just the change of going from being around multiple people and then suddenly being alone all day by themselves, so when you get home he's so excited that you're finally there that he can't stand not having you directly interacting with him all the time...And when other people come over to your apartment now, it's very much like how it was at your parent's house again, multiple people at home doing their own thing, and he feels comfortable and secure in that type of situation, thus he's very content to entertain himself...But as soon as it's just you and him again, it's different again, and he wants direct attention...It's a big change for him and he's not liking it.

This is why I always tell people when they first bring home a new bird that they need to locate their main-cage in the "main room" of the house, where the people that live there spend most of their time when their home, like the living room, family room, TV room, etc., because birds want to be "among their flock", after all, they are "flock" animals...So they feel the most secure, safe, and content when multiple people are around them! If you locate their main-cage in the room of your home where the people spend most of their time, birds are a lot more-likely to contently entertain themselves, rather than not being around multiple people...that's just the nature of their being as "flock animals"...So at your parent's house there were multiple people around him, and now he's either alone or usually just with you, and so he wants to direct attention without a "flock" surrounding him...

As far as medical school goes, yeah, that's going to be tough. I went through grad school for Animal Health Science, and I can tell you that it was challenging at best, and if I'm being honest with you, one of the reasons that I chose not to go to either Veterinary Medical School or Medical School was because I didn't think it would be fair to my pets...That was a choice that I made for myself because they are my family, quite literally...But grad-school was a nightmare at times, because I always made sure that my dog and my bird got tons of time with me, taking walks/runs, etc. So my life was pretty much a living-hell for 3 years, and honestly doing a BS in Health Science in one of the most demanding undergrad programs in the country was just as challenging as Grad School was (I had Gross Anatomy with Cadaver Lab my Junior year of undergrad, with classes from my Freshman year forward like Exercise Physiology, Organism Physiology, Biomechanical Physics, Advanced Pharmacology, Advance Human Anatomy, Advanced Human Physiology, Cardiovascular Diagnostics, Advance Neurology, etc.)...So making my pets happy and healthy was difficult, and I had to just make it work because I didn't have a choice, my mom wasn't caring for my dog for me, though she would have taken my Budgie back, but I'm actually glad I did it the way that I did, because he lived to be just shy of 19 years-old, so he was a special little dude...

All I can tell you is to say that this is a huge change for your bird from what he is used to, and their feelings that stem from their innate "flock dynamics" can create issues if they go from a situation where their are multiple people around all the time to suddenly being either alone or around only one person. He's going to be demanding of your time, and he may or may not adjust and start to feel more content entertaining himself with just you around, or he might not...I don't know what year you are in Medical School, but as already mentioned, when you start your internship it will be tougher, and even much, much, much tougher when you start your Residency...