My parrot won't sleep! (Eclectus)

[Zilla_Achilles]

Hi everyone,

I am new here, so hopefully I am doing this right.
Anyways my name is Lauren I have two absolutely wonder soloman island eclectus parrots. Male and female, their names are Achilles and Zilla. I absolutely love them to death I can't stand it. Lol

Now with that being I said I am a little bit concerned and would like to hear what everyone thinks.

So here it goes.
Both of my feathers spend the entire day out of their cages. We have play stands and perches with lots of toys to keep then entertained. The only time they spend in there cage is at night for bed and if we are not home. So they both get lots of attention and time out to play an stretch their wings. Now the problem I am having is with my Achilles (the male). For the past few weeks he has not been sleeping. And by that I mean he is ringing his bell, screaming, and doing anything other than sitting and sleeping. Both of my birds go to bed as soon the sunsets and we don't take them out until the next morning around 8:30. They both share the same room but seperate cages, their room is upstairs and out of the way so there is nothing to bother them or keep them up. Achilles doesn't appear to be sleep deprived from his nightly festivities. Although Zilla is the kind of gal who needs her beauty sleep or else she gets cranky. Mainly I am more concered about her because she is the one who is being affected most. So my question is how do I get Achilles to sleep. Oh and it's at all hours of the night, last night I heard him around 9:30 and again at midnight. I went to check and make sure he was okay and he was hanging like a bat playing with his toys. Zilla was trying to sleep and appeared to be cranky that she kept being woke up. Oh and they both get covered for bed too.
So if anyone has some advice I would LOVE to hear it!

 

[Terry57]

Hello and welcome!
How old are your eclectus? I'm wondering if it could be hormonal.

 

[Zilla_Achilles]

Hi thanks!
My female is a year and my male is seven months

 

[Terry57]

Hmm...that is young for hormones in an eclectus, I would think.
Has anything changed in the house?
Hopefully someone with more experience than I will be able to help you

 

[Zilla_Achilles]

No there have not been any major changes. We are getting ready to move in a month so we have been packing a little bit at a time. But nothing really noticeable. Thanks though I appreciate your help!

 

[labell]

I'm not sure where you are located but sunset comes really early right now where I live. What time are you putting them to bed? I give mine 11 to 12 hrs and they do fine with this routine, your boy maybe thinking it is too early to go to bed
Babies or young birds will sometimes nap during the day without you noticing, do you see him getting in any short naps during the day? You could maybe keep your boy up a little later and get in some one on one time to tire him out. I know these red heads tend to be pretty grouchy when they don't get enough sleep, if you disturb them while they are killing a toy or come between them and their warm mash!

 

[jenphilly]

Welcome and post some pics when you get a chance, we all love to see other's babies

Just a thought, but is there a streetlight or anything coming in the window that hits his cage? Have you tried covering him? I know our Ivory (tho a cockatoo) has the same type of schedule, tho she is up later. She naps during the day and enjoys being out later with everyone being home and the schedule works great for her, she gets about 10+ hours in her cage covered each night. One thought might also be to remove the 'noisey' toys, but give him things to shred or other toys he likes. If he is just a guy who does not need as much sleep, or like Ivory, naps throughout the day, so does not need or want 14 hours at night, he can at least have things to keep him occupied, but not so easily wake up the house

He certainly does not sound stressed, so don't think its a worry that way, just more a habit that needs to be changed a bit

Good luck and welcome to the forum!!!

 

[Kiwibird]

Have you tried allowing Achilles to stay up just a little later, till, say 8 or 9pm? He obviously isn't tired, so no need to put him to bed so early IMO. And certainly no need to have him right next to Zilla disrupting her sleep because he isn't tired yet. Just like people, some birds just don't need as much sleep as others, and there's no harm in letting him stay up a bit later. Kiwi's bedtime is 9pm, and I usually wake him up around 7-7:30am. He's never cranky in the morning, and he typically goes straight to sleep when the covers go on. It's worth a try.

 

[Zilla_Achilles]

Hi thank you both! I will be taking the advice you have both giving me and we will see how things go! We live in pittsburgh so the sun has been setting a little after six here lately, we are slowly getting a little more daylight each day!! In regards to the street light, as I look out the window now I do not see any street light. But that's not to say that maybe lights from a neighbors house is shining in, because his cage is next to the window and Zillas is not. I will try closing to the curtains tonight aswell, and maybe that will help. I am really liking the idea of keeping him out a little later, since my little Zilla monster won't be there to hog all my attention. She insists that it must always be about her. Poor Achilles will finally get 100%. I would certainly love to share my pictures! I just haven't figured out my way around yet. So once I figure out how and where to do so I will! Thank you so much again guys!

 

[labell]

LOL! that is most assuredly a ekkie girl thing, they think everything should be about them! But hey what other parrot in the wild has up to 7 males catering to her every whim. They are red diva's for certain!

 

[jenphilly]

That is just win, win for everyone!!! Zilla gets her sleep and Achilles gets to be the center of attention for a couple hours - excellent bonding time for you

If you have a photobucket account, just upload your pics to there and paste the IMG link for the photos into the message. Simple as that

 

[Zilla_Achilles]

Yes definitely! I will keep everyone posted! Hopefully all will go well!
Now I am going to try and figure out this photo thing!
Thanks again guys!

 

[witchbaby]

What is your schedule like? Do you stay up late? I'm a nightowl and I've noticed my green cheek sometimes stays up late too. I can hear her making noise and playing with her toys around midnight. If I have the night off I'll sometimes take her out for a later playtime. She doesn't seem bothered by it and she'll take a nap during the day if she feels like it.

As long as he seems happy, I wouldn't worry about it too much. As other people have pointed out, it's a good opportunity for some bonding time.

 

[Zilla_Achilles]

I didn't hear a peep out if him last night! I only kept him up an hour later but it seemed to work just fine.

 

[Mike17]

I second the idea that the boy is going to bed too early. Our male, Alex, stays up with me until 10pm (along with his 'tiel friend Ariel) because he's kept in his indoor cage through the day. Our other birds get to fly in the afternoon, but Alex and Ariel aren't allowed out with the others. In the cooler months they spend the day on the verandah, and go to bed a bit earlier since they get more tired. It's not ideal, but is a response to having a mixed flock, and Alex can be a real bully. Alex often falls asleep on my hand by 10pm, but if he doesn't get his playtime he gets really cranky. Oddly enough, we have another male in the family room (which is airconditioned) who isn't tame, the survivor of a (hoped) breeding pair where the hen died, and he shrieks and carries on when Alex is let out his cage and goes to another room. Joey seems to have formed a strange bond with Alex, yet they had little to do with each other when "free" on the back verandah in the cooler months. I live in the subtropics, and day length doesn't vary anywhere near as much as in higher latitudes. Temperatures do though- we had 44.4C as max yesterday:11: