Morning routines?

[Florem]

Hi guys!

First of all I want to thank you all for such great answers to my endless questions, as well as the warm and welcoming attitude in this forum.

I wanted to ask you about morning routines.
The last couple of days have been very laid back and I've had some classes later during the day. Tomorrow I have a morning class and am a bit anxious about it. Ebbe is often very lively during the mornings.
The usual routine we have is: uncover his cage and letting him out, me fixing breakfast for him and me and then goofing around a bit and trying to get ready while he is on top of my head. (this can take some time)
I really have to be on time tomorrow and I know how intense he can get.
So how do your mornings look like? Do you do any activities earlier to make your buddy tired before leaving?

 

[Kiwibird]

In the past when I had to be out of the house fairly early for work, Kiwi would be woken, fed, then get to loom over me as I got ready for work. Then right before I needed to go, I took his breakfast out (so it wouldn't spoil and make him sick, since he eats fresh foods), then he went back in the cage, got treats in his foraging toys and several days a week I'd swap out one toy for another. Oh, and we turned the radio on for him! That way when we left for the day, he had fun things to do and didn't make such a negative association with it. They are quite adaptable and quickly pick up on routine. Just make sure he has things to occupy himself with during the day.

 

[Jottlebot]

Would you consider not letting him out? I don't have a morning routine for my birds. I go for the "predictably unpredictable" approach. We don't have set out of cage times or set anything times really.

The only thing I do routinely is to put the following days pellets into his food bowl the night before because I know he eats most in the morning. I then give fresh food when I'm home in the evening.

I'm not very routined myself and all my animals (dogs, cats, snakes, birds) aren't either. I think there are different feelings on this issue, but I feel that if a routine is broken it's more likely to cause stress than everything changing all the time!

 

[wrench13]

So I am out of the house by 6 am every weekday. Geri is home all day and Salty gets uncovered at 10 am. She changes water, and give him fresh pellets and 1 peanut. Weekends I wake him up at the same time and feed him the same. He gets 2 different types of fruit around 1 or 2. And then he eats dinner with us around 6 or so. Very important that dinner, because parrots are flock animals and they eat together when the eating is good! Salty has his own food, but sometimes he will share what we might be eating too. 8:45 to 9:20 is trick training time, and nite nite is 10Pm.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

No real "routine' here either. When I was working ( still waiting for the ok to return to work) when I got home from work at about 8am,i'd change their water,say good morning to them for a few minutes,then go to bed.

I'd get up about 2 or 2:30pm,let them both out,and fix them lunch/dinner.
They'd get their warm nummies and I'd change there seed/pellets/a couple treats,to hold them until the next day,then off to work for 12 hours.
On my days off,it's whatever happens




Jim

 

[Florem]

In the past when I had to be out of the house fairly early for work, Kiwi would be woken, fed, then get to loom over me as I got ready for work. Then right before I needed to go, I took his breakfast out (so it wouldn't spoil and make him sick, since he eats fresh foods), then he went back in the cage, got treats in his foraging toys and several days a week I'd swap out one toy for another. Oh, and we turned the radio on for him! That way when we left for the day, he had fun things to do and didn't make such a negative association with it. They are quite adaptable and quickly pick up on routine. Just make sure he has things to occupy himself with during the day.

That is very similar to what I usually do. I've sometimes had my best friend who works from home, watching him on my webcam since he was a screamer before he came here. He doesn't make a sound. In fact, he doesn't do anything at all, even though he's got food, natural branches and foraging toys. He just sits there and it worries me a bit.


wrench13 - I haven't thought about the eating in flock-thing! We always eat breakfast together

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

In the past when I had to be out of the house fairly early for work, Kiwi would be woken, fed, then get to loom over me as I got ready for work. Then right before I needed to go, I took his breakfast out (so it wouldn't spoil and make him sick, since he eats fresh foods), then he went back in the cage, got treats in his foraging toys and several days a week I'd swap out one toy for another. Oh, and we turned the radio on for him! That way when we left for the day, he had fun things to do and didn't make such a negative association with it. They are quite adaptable and quickly pick up on routine. Just make sure he has things to occupy himself with during the day.

That is very similar to what I usually do. I've sometimes had my best friend who works from home, watching him on my webcam since he was a screamer before he came here. He doesn't make a sound. In fact, he doesn't do anything at all, even though he's got food, natural branches and foraging toys. He just sits there and it worries me a bit.


wrench13 - I haven't thought about the eating in flock-thing! We always eat breakfast together

Florem..eating with their "flock" is a good thing. BB my cockatiel is a flock guy..they play,eat,bathe,fight,have fun and get into trouble together lol.

I have found that BB will generally eat things I WANT him to eat only if he is with ME. He will either eat from MY plate,or his little plate,only if it is next to mine...try and put it on his roof by himself...nope...not interested

Amy,being the chow hound that she is,doesn't really care from where she eats.


Jim

 

[texsize]

I normally take Bella out first. She is very insistent about her morning poop being done outside of her cage and in the trash.

After she has been taken care of It's Bingos time.
I take him out and he sits with me for about 1/2 hour.
He goes back sooner if he is miss-behaving. I think (my opinion) it's about quality of time not so much quantity of time.

texsize

 

[LordTriggs]

my routine was normally wake up, spend 10 minutes lying in bed regretting that I had to leave my warm fluffy cocoon. Eventually go downstairs and uncover the small green monster when he began the morning clucking. I'd then quickly get some fruit in his bowl and fresh water then go about the long process of waking up/getting dressed upstairs. He could see me from the cage (open plan double storey) and would normally munch away to himself and do his morning flaps. After getting dressed I'd then go and have a little conversation with him whilst I got my bits done (breakfast, preparing my lunch ETC) then I'd put some pellets in the cage let him know I was going and head off for the day. I'd come back after work and he'd normally be dancing away when I entered asking to come play so he'd come out until I began cooking which point he went back in the cage to have his after which I replaced the food with seeds, then when it was time to be he'd go in get covered and I'd chill out and prepare for the same again.

Once he got better with going in and out of the cage I began bringing him out for a morning shower which he loved, I'd make sure he went back in the cage with plenty of time before I went in case he decided to be a brat about it

Weekends were pot luck. If I was in, he was out the cage playing around, I'd go out to do some shopping so he'd go in the cage, normally only for an hour or 2. He seemed to enjoy himself

 

[Florem]

Very interesting to read about your days! And a bit jealous of you with bigger homes. Would be nice to be able to have some alone time
I read through your ideas and came up with a plan.
During the evening I made him a new foraging toy, and in the morning put my makeup on before I uncovered the cage and put aside some time just to hang out and eat together. I think it worked well. He didn't play with his new toy until I got home though..

It can be hard to get him in the cage (a cashew usually does the trick) but since he's not keen to sit on arms and hands except for short periods and for a treat, it's almost impossible to make him have a time out in the cage. Still not sure how to work on this.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I got the Rickeybird in 1984. I was in college and then grad school, so I spent LOTS of time with him. Then it was time to go to work!
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.
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, CNN - he loves talking heads), a biggg cage, lots of fun foods, and 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. Sometimes I can't believe he didn't pluck or go nuts... it was such an abrupt and terrible change.
I'll throw this in. I thought about him and loved him all day long. Sometimes I think that helped spiritually in some way. Yeah, I'm a little out there!