Cover cage at night?

[Billy29]

I'm hearing different things on this. I always used to cover my birds cage at night and now I have people telling me not to do it.

Should I be covering his cage?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Completely up to you If your house has drafts, or the room their cage in has the light turned on and off after bed time it may be a good idea to cover them.

I don't cover cages, but they're kept in my room and once it's their bed time the lights are out.

 

[Billy29]

I keep him in my living room, only light on is the bathroom which thus a tiny but of light into the room. The cat and dog sleeps down there but they are indifferent to him and ignore him.

 

[chippy]

Both our IRNs want to be covered...esp Tiki...if she does not get covered by a certain time, she gets upset. Our local "expert" here says that many birds, especially in the summer months, need that extra darkness that covering provides.

 

[RockysMom]

all my birds get covered at night so it's dark and they get a good nights sleep the only light is a night lite I have in kitchen

 

[SandyBee]

as said only if you want too.
advantages to covering is blocking light and drafts, if that is not an issue the only other advantage is they might sleep longer in the morning if the light isnt coming in.

The disadvantage is some birds will chew on the covers creating health issues if ingested, this can be serious if your baby does this.

Also birds do like routines, so what ever you choose your bird may come to expect that as habit.

 

[SoCalWendy]

I partially cover. Usually just the area where my bird sleeps at night.

 

[GinaF]

If mine keeps screaming I'm going to cover her.
I'll probably use something light like a vinagrette or teriyaki sauce since it's still pretty warm.

Blue is in the living room and I've come to realize that if I get up in the middle of the night, I tend to wake her and she's a little more moody the next day. She did try to nap today on her playstand and fell off... twice.

She's not the brightest bird in the rainforest.

 

[getwozzy]

It's totally up to you.

I always cover my birds because we have a routine, and they're quiet when they're covered- which helps in the mornings when my son is still sleeping. The other night I forgot to cover Quigley's cage and in the morning she took full advantage and chirped her little heart out which ended up waking everyone up early. Lol

 

[tlfisher]

We tried to cover Wylie's cage. She threw such a snit no one could handle for two days! I think it depends on the bird.. how they were raised. I am new to having fid so I could be wrong.

 

[MonicaMc]

I don't cover my birds. Used to have cage-free birds, so couldn't cover them anyway! They get somewhere around 8-14 hours of sleep at night, depending upon the time of year.

 

[tlfisher]

Wylie has an open cage, and sits on top during the day and sleeps inside at night. She has flight feathers but does not fly unless startled then she flies right to the floor.

 

[goalerjones]

My conure had a tent on top of his cage and would just fly off when he was tired. Then, if the TV was too loud for him he would keep popping his head out and make grumbling noises like an old man until the volume was more to his liking.

 

[tlfisher]

It is amazing the different personalities of birds. When my kids(3teenagers) start arguing or laughing too loud Wylie will scream "Shut up""too loud". I don't say that so she picked it up in her first 17 years. She is starting to talk alot now that she feels more at home in her new home