ShaunaR
Supporting Member
Hi Everyone!
Rick and I have hit a dilema with our 1 year old Caique Pixie. We both started working exclusively the night shift in January. Rick works PT so probably 15 shifts in 4 weeks and I work FT or 19 shifts in 4 weeks. We are most often working on the same nights because we commute. We get home every morning and have her out of her cage for about 2 hours, feed her, then we go to bed and leave her in a large cage with plenty of toys (changed out weekly), and either the TV or radio playing for around 6 hours. She is caged right next to Steve, our Canary and has 3 dogs to watch. For the first 4 months she was great but recently began to scream while we are sleeping, particularly when we first go to bed. Nothing has changed in our routine but she has been losing feathers now for almost 2 months. I am finding maybe 2 feathers per day and some days none. Since we only saw Steve molting we have no idea what this looks like for a parrot, or if she is simply pulling feathers in frustration. The feathers are intact and not chewed so I am leaning to the fact that she is molting and perhaps her screaming is part of that? She also gets much nippier and short tempered if we leave her alone rather than take her into our room. She knows full well where we are and if we put her in a cage in the room with us she is quiet as a mouse. The trouble with that is we need to leave the curtains open so that she gets some sunlight, which hampers our sleep.
What do other shift workers do with their fids during their sleep time?
Should we invest in a cage for our bedroom and is there any risk we could be causing more issues by doing that?
How long do molting behavior changes last?
Thanks Ahead,
Shauna/Rick
Rick and I have hit a dilema with our 1 year old Caique Pixie. We both started working exclusively the night shift in January. Rick works PT so probably 15 shifts in 4 weeks and I work FT or 19 shifts in 4 weeks. We are most often working on the same nights because we commute. We get home every morning and have her out of her cage for about 2 hours, feed her, then we go to bed and leave her in a large cage with plenty of toys (changed out weekly), and either the TV or radio playing for around 6 hours. She is caged right next to Steve, our Canary and has 3 dogs to watch. For the first 4 months she was great but recently began to scream while we are sleeping, particularly when we first go to bed. Nothing has changed in our routine but she has been losing feathers now for almost 2 months. I am finding maybe 2 feathers per day and some days none. Since we only saw Steve molting we have no idea what this looks like for a parrot, or if she is simply pulling feathers in frustration. The feathers are intact and not chewed so I am leaning to the fact that she is molting and perhaps her screaming is part of that? She also gets much nippier and short tempered if we leave her alone rather than take her into our room. She knows full well where we are and if we put her in a cage in the room with us she is quiet as a mouse. The trouble with that is we need to leave the curtains open so that she gets some sunlight, which hampers our sleep.
What do other shift workers do with their fids during their sleep time?
Should we invest in a cage for our bedroom and is there any risk we could be causing more issues by doing that?
How long do molting behavior changes last?
Thanks Ahead,
Shauna/Rick
