How to Get Rid of Hidey Hut?

[fiddlejen]

So having read all these threads, I am convinced. It's probably best to break by 7-month old Sun Conure of her hidey-hut habit before she gets to the hormonal stage. But how? I've had her for just about a month. When I got her, a month ago, I got her a little hanging sleeping bag because she I could just see that, unlike my budgies, she was obviously gonna want one. And she did. (ALSO, my house can be quite drafty. If the temp drops suddenly outside and its windy, my house can get suddenly cold before the heater catches up the next day.)

So anyway. She loves sleeping in her sleeping bag. (Also in the day she will use it as a tunnel, to quickly move from one side of the cage to the other.) Unlike the budgies, she does Not sleep standing up. I don't think she's capable. She is a little "challenged" in the area of perching. We just recently achieved intentional "Step Ups," for which she cannot be bothered to take her reward-treat because she is concentrating too hard on staying balanced. Even a too-enthusiastic "Yay, good job!" can cause her to overbalance and fall backwards from her perch. At this point there's no way she could sleep upright.

So I brought her a new, roomier cage Saturday. I moved her, and then some of her toys, and tried to just "forget" her hidey hut. No such luck. She hooted reminders at me for some time. And then as it got towards her bedtime she stood there inside her new cage (clinging to perch AND bars for balance like she does), and looked more and more tired at me, until I finally gave in and Remembered it.

So. Any suggestions for how to remove the sleeping bag Before she hits one year?

 

[charmedbyekkie]

What kind of perches does she have? Dowel perches are too symmetrical and smooth, so it doesn't help their feet at all. If you have perches of varying sizes and roughness (from rope to wood to concrete), that might help her balance.

It's a bit surprising that she still doesn't balance well, so perhaps a visit to an avian vet might be in order? Some birds have feet problems, and a good avian vet might be able to help recommend next steps. Or it might be something in her brain - I'm not too familiar with this area though.

In the meantime, there are some platform perches (basically a small board of wood that attaches to the cage like a perch), I wonder if that might be a suitable substitute for her.

 

[noodles123]

You may have to forget it...for real (and that may mean a night of upset...but honestly, I think if you shut off the lights and went to bed, she probably would too...) Maybe that is optimism, but you are far better off getting rid of it than keeping it.

 

[Sunnyclover]

Toss that vile thing and never look back. She'll be fine in a few nights. What I did for my birds were to put a softer toy they could kind of snuggle next to instead and it's fine.

 

[SunnyGirl]

unlike my budgies, she was obviously gonna want one. And she did.

speaking very generally here... but this makes me wonder... why oh why do we think like that? where does the idea of ''but my conure will want it'' come from? I was like this too, so many people on social media are like this too ''I'm getting a conure, he doesn't have a hut yet but he will love it'' I have no idea where I got this 'conure needs tent' thing and why it's so hard to convince people that they are just not needed (when you mention dangerous they almost attack you of abusing your bird) Sunny had a hut, Sunny almost dies, Sunny has no more hut, Sunny is fine... simple math but hard for my human brain to understand...

........................................

back on the topic, your birdie should be able to perch normally at 7months, I would see a vet for this...
like the others said: it could also be the perches... do you have a pic of the cage maybe?

geting rid of the hut is easy: just toss it in the trash where you can't just get it out and hang it back in again... yes, she will geg and probably scream and play a very abused and unloved, but I can promise that she will get used to it in a few days, mine did too and I didn't believe she ever would or that it would be ok so fast she now has a good natural wood perch and seems ok with the whole sleeping situation

 

[ChristaNL]

Just trow it out.

It may seem harsh but (almost) every adult bird sleeps sitting up (the way their feet are constructed is so they can sleep deeply without even activey have to hold on, so it is no problem for them at all!)
Bend a birds leg and the feet will close, stretch a leg and the feet open ... so if they crouch down to sleep (bend the legs) they lock themselves into place.

(Unless the perch is too small or large a diameter and the grip is not great ...)

 

[noodles123]

unlike my budgies, she was obviously gonna want one. And she did.

speaking very generally here... but this makes me wonder... why oh why do we think like that? where does the idea of ''but my conure will want it'' come from? I was like this too, so many people on social media are like this too ''I'm getting a conure, he doesn't have a hut yet but he will love it'' I have no idea where I got this 'conure needs tent' thing and why it's so hard to convince people that they are just not needed (when you mention dangerous they almost attack you of abusing your bird) Sunny had a hut, Sunny almost dies, Sunny has no more hut, Sunny is fine... simple math but hard for my human brain to understand...

........................................

I wonder this as well but the danger of these sleep huts (and shadowy spaces) certainly isn't common knowledge. Here are a few reasons why I think people erroneously feel that sleep tents are necessary for their birds:

1. In nature, the only time humans tend to actually see birds sleeping is when they are in nests (leading many to believe that birds sleep in nests). Granted, the only reason people ever see birds in nests is because they are sitting on eggs/babies, but still, since people don't see all of the birds sleeping in the trees, they associate birds sleeping with nests.

2. Additionally, people's assumptions are likely influenced by their familiarity with outdoor "bird houses" (although most people seem to forget that these are intended for egg-laying)...

3. Then there is the fact that (especially in the US), kids, infants and even dogs often have their own "beds". Heck, even hamsters and guinea pigs usually sleep in tubes etc. Since most pets and people sleep in special places within people's homes, people assume that birds will seed their own "special" sleeping place as well. Furthermore, it is very hard for people to imagine sleeping standing up (even though that is what 99% of birds are designed to do).

4. At face-value, these assumptions appear to be validated when birds show great interest/"love" for these huts/ other dark spaces (even though they are dangerous and encourage nasty hormonal complications) so people take that as a sort of confirmation that tents/boxes etc are needed.

5. Certain birds do prefer to nest in cavities (conures and cockatoos included) but nest is the operative word....They seek them out and spend a lot of time in them (but not for the "right" reasons)...Natural/instinctual reasons, yes...but wholesome reasons....not really...The thing is, even extremely hormonal birds may not be obviously hormonal to the untrained eye-- in fact, many hormonal behaviors are misinterpreted and even encouraged because they seem cute and benign...even though this couldn't be further from the truth.

6. These tents/huts are sold at pet stores (and many people on Youtube also use them), which leads people to believe that they must be good/safe. Again, not true, but it's hard to believe that an unsafe product would be widely marketed within a public space.

All in all, people are convinced through a sort of social "osmosis" (marketing, plus what they see in pet-store cages, past experiences etc) that these tents are necessary for proper ownership and when their birds become obsessed with them, it perpetuates the idea that they are necessary.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

My Skittles ABSOLUTELY loved his snuggle hut and I HATED to remove it, but he kept regurgitating in it and pulling the fibers out and it was just a matter of time before it became a safety issue or worse yet, a fatal one. I thought for sure Skittles would be mad and hold a grudge, I was convinced, but truth of the matter is, it barely phased him. I just put empty tissue boxes (I cut the plastic and glue parts out). I put one box over and one under to make a 'tunnel' and I layer unscented tissues and plain paper towels on the bottom and he's fine. Even if I didn't do that (cause I don't always have the tissue boxes to use, depending on how fast he tears them up) he's fine. He adapts a LOT quicker and easier than I often think he will.

Like others have said, its not worth keeping and the sooner you get rid of it the better. As far as drafts, try and keep her in a place that has the least draft and the most level temperature (and is still in the living area, except at night of course). You could also cover the cage with a thicker cover.

As for perches, Skittles has all kinds in his cage. Cement ones, he does have a few dowel perches just in case, he also has rope perches and wooden perches of various size and shape. He likes them.

 

[EllenD]

Your bird will be fine, and yes, he is capable of sleeping on a perch...That's what they do naturally. Those "Huts" have killed literally thousands and thousands of pet birds, and broken the hearts of a lot of people. Sometimes it takes months and months of them eating bits of the material, sometimes they are killed the first day they have it inside of their cages...So please don't worry about humanizing your bird, just get that horrible Hut out of there immediately...You'll feel better knowing it's gone and your bird's life isn't constantly in danger...

As mentioned above, we all ten to humanize our pet parrots/birds, but the fact is that you simply need to remove that Hut immediately, like right now, and then move on with your lives, because for all you know your bird has been eating little bits of the inside material of that Hut and it's been building up all this time...No joke, if you don't remove it ASAP you could very well come home to a dead bird laying on the bottom of it's cage due to a GI-obstruction...Or worse, you'll find him hanging from a thread that just suddenly broke loose...And at 7 months old, he's approaching puberty very soon, and you don't want that Hut in there when that happens, because he could become extremely aggressive and display very unwanted behaviors because being inside of that Hut causes them to go crazy after their sex-hormones kick in...

Please, just remove the Hut, throw that horrible thing away immediately, and make sure you don't ever put anything at all similar back inside his cage...I guarantee that when you turn the lights out you'll find him sleeping on a perch with his leg tucked. He's not a human being, and sometimes it takes us a long time to realize that they do need to act like birds once in a while...myself included for sure, lol!

 

[Scott]

The horrors of "Happy Huts" and similar fiber constructed accessories: http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-toys/38678-list-hazardous-toys-here-please.html

 

[fiddlejen]

........................................

back on the topic, your birdie should be able to perch normally at 7months, I would see a vet for this...
like the others said: it could also be the perches... do you have a pic of the cage maybe?

The cage has various perches. She came unable to perch at all and is just starting to perch now. She saw the vet who said she is fine. (However the vet did not comment on the inability to perch, I think they just took it as un-willingness instead of inability, even when I said she "can't." I did not realize just how much unusual this was for her age until actually talking to the bird-guy at the store where I got her. (He was not the one there when I made the purchase.) He stated he had never seen a bird her age who couldn't perch but she had not been able to at all for the week she was there. At home we are, as I said, just now beginning to achieve "Step-Up" outside of the cage. She frequently overbalances and falls off. I have watched her fall from her perches inside her cage. she normally stands with one foot on a perch and one clinging to something else, or else both feet clinging to wall. I don't think she could safely sleep standing on a perch when it clearly takes all her concentration to not fall off.

 

[SunnyGirl]

well it's still a bit weird... I got my sun at 2.5 months old and she was perching just fine, yes she wanted to cuddle up and flop down on her belly but she had no problems standing on any perch at all... that's why I did suggest a vet, but glad to hear there was no problem (but I would call back and ask specifically about perching, you just never know) and that she is beginning to perch but please do consider an alternative for the sleeping situation, those snuggle huts really are dangerous

 

[Sunnyclover]

Umm not being able to perch at her age is HIGHLY ABNORMAL... I'm guessing the vet you saw wasn't a CAV (Avian Vet). I'm worried for her and you now. Something is very wrong here ...does it look like she's doing the splits all the time or does she look normal but just can't perch? She might be splay legged or something. Can you take a pic or video of her?

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

Agreed Sunnyclover. However well intentioned a regular vet may be, seeing one who is NOT a CAV is basically a waste. It's like going to see a dentist for an ear-nose-throat problem. They may both work in the same 'area', but their expertise are limited to certain areas.

 

[fiddlejen]

No, he is definitely an avian vet. Maybe I should have waited longer after getting her but I brought her home on a Friday evening and had her in to vet for checkup the following Thursday. I have my non-tame budgies but other than that she is my first. So although I told them she couldn't step up (when they reached in and asked her to), it did not occur to me to ask about it as a problem.

 

[fiddlejen]

Umm not being able to perch at her age is HIGHLY ABNORMAL... I'm guessing the vet you saw wasn't a CAV (Avian Vet). I'm worried for her and you now. Something is very wrong here ...does it look like she's doing the splits all the time or does she look normal but just can't perch? She might be splay legged or something. Can you take a pic or video of her?

I will try to get a picture posted. She could be splay legged -- since, on a perch, she always prefers to have one leg up on a wall -- but it seems more like a balance issue. I mean, you don't Look at her and think anything is wrong with her stance, its more how she moves around.

Maybe that reflex that is supposed to make her foot grip properly, maybe it doesn't work right?

 

[fiddlejen]

In the meantime, there are some platform perches (basically a small board of wood that attaches to the cage like a perch), I wonder if that might be a suitable substitute for her.

I just put empty tissue boxes (I cut the plastic and glue parts out). I put one box over and one under to make a 'tunnel' and I layer unscented tissues and plain paper towels on the bottom and he's fine. Even if I didn't do that (cause I don't always have the tissue boxes to use, depending on how fast he tears them up) he's fine. He adapts a LOT quicker and easier than I often think he will.

Thank you for these good suggestions. I'm having a little trouble picturing the tissue-box option but I think it could work. Also the solid perch idea seems good. I was looking at a flat corner-perch online recently. The one I saw was too large but perhaps I can find one more properly sized for a conure.

 

[ChristaNL]

You can always get a saw and alter sizes of anything made of wood
(Parrots do it all the time)


Sunny was almost 10 y. old and falling of her perch - so the first thing we did was test for PDD (and BPFD etc.) to rule out neurological issues.
It turned out she (mostly) suffered from malnutrition and severe lack of excercise.

So she did not have the strenght, no chance to pratice (small small cage) and not enough good groceries inside her system to be able to build anything (muscles, feathers etc.).
Plenty of fat- not enough muscles.


Maybe all your birdy needs is just that: good food and lots of options

 

[EllenD]

How old is she? I am willing to again bet that your Vet is actually not a Certified Avian Vet at all, but rather an Exotics Vet that sees birds, because if your Sun truly cannot perch and she is fully weaned onto solid food, then something is extremely wrong...

Sometimes this is because they are splay-legged, but even most very, very splay-legged birds can perch just fine, because being on the perch actually keeps their legs together. So usually if a fully-weaned bird who is at least a few months old still cannot properly perch, it's a neurological issue, it's a serious orthopedic issue (usually a genetic deformity), or it's a Congenital condition/disease of their muscles, nerves, and bones...There are a list of them, but they are all nasty and require some long-term treatments...Either way, the best thing you can do is get that Hut out of there immediately, not only because it is dangerous and could kill her, but because you're not doing her any favors by allowing her to keep laying down all the time, especially if her ability to perch is actually getting better, which to me says that's it's probably due a horrible breeder who never put her inside of a weaning-cage and just kept her in a Brooder or a box, or that she's so severely Splay-Legged that her leg muscles are atrophied badly to the point that she has absolutely no strength in them at all, or she has some other Congenital issue that causes the muscles in the legs and feet to atrophy.

If she's getting better at perching, that means that the more and more she uses her legs, the stronger they are getting, and that you need to keep forcing her to stand/perch at all times, not keep allowing her to lay on her back/stomach/side, because that's the exact opposite of what she needs to be doing...If it's a matter of her breeder not providing a cage or any perches at all, which allowed her legs muscles to atrophy to nothing, or that she is just so badly Splay-Legged that she can't even use the perch to push them together, so the treatment for that too is to simply make her be a bird and force her to perch...

Any way you put it, the Happy-Hut is not the answer at all for any bird...I just don't want you to come home and find her hanging from a thread or laying on the bottom of the cage like so many people have due to those things...Plus it's not doing her any favors getting her legs to work correctly either...If she needs something flat to stand on/lay on at night (and then keep forcing her to perch or use her legs on the cage bars during the day), then take one of the options above, or you can also buy a perch-shelf that connects to the cage bars in a corner of the cage (put it down low)...But you need to keep her using her legs all day, every day...

****She should have an X-ray and full routine Blood-Work ASAP to rule-out a Spinal-Cord issue, an Orthopedic deformity issue, and then the Blood-Work to look at her nutritional-levels to rule-out a deficiency disease of some kind that is causing this, along with any of the nasty Avian Viral Diseases that can cripple them...That's why your Vet is not a CAV or Avian Specialist Vet, because they didn't take an X-ray or do any Blood-Work, and they told you she was fine when a Sunny that is at least a few months old can't even perch...That's not an experienced Avian Specialist at all, it's an Exotics Vet unfortunately...So you need to find a CAV or Avian Specialist Vet to make sure that your bird isn't suffering from anything serious or that can be treated medically or with a diet-change, etc. Or to diagnose any deformities in her skeletal system or nervous system to that you can then adjust her environment to meed any special-needs that she has, change her diet if necessary, add medications if necessary, etc. This really is a very serious issue that you're describing, and any Avian Specialist Vet is going to immediately recognize that and want to do an X-ray and Blood-Work on the spot, because it could be progressively fatal, or progressively debilitating, and sometimes there are medications and dietary changes/additions that can stop a lot of these conditions if you diagnose them early enough before they are too far-gone...Also, if your bird is in-fact so Splay-Legged that she can't even perch, and your Vet didn't recognize that and said she was "fine", then there's another red-flag...

 

[fiddlejen]

I have a flexible parrot ladder in her cage. I just realized that of course it doesn't have to go vertically. I will put it more horizontally, about where the hut was. If it turns out she actually can already sleep upright (which I doubt), or that she becomes able (more likely), then she can sleep on any rung. Or for that matter any other perch in her cage. But, IF she does need to lie or lean for balance whilst sleeping, then rungs of a horizontal hanging ladder should give her support. Right?

So. The hut is out of there right now. I will find out when I get home tonight how well she adjusts.