Question about sleep schedule and one more thing

[cham87]

Hello everyone I am a first time bird owner. I picked up my first bird yesterday at the petstore. There is an African Grey in my home who is 16 years old. My dad trained him and he isn't very friendly. I wanted to train my own bird so I decided to pick up a Budgie. I was going to buy a Green Cheek Conure but I found a great bird training website and I have decided to settle on a budgie since they are able to be trained just as well as any bird.

Here is a picture of him http://s14.postimage.org/r6e7tshtd/IMG_20120305_145513.jpg I got him at petco. I am told that he is a male (no DNA test) and that he is under 6 months. So he is still a baby. His name is Fleury. I have yet to buy toys I will soon. He hasn’t moved much since yesterday he is still getting used to everything. I cannot wait to see him move around and start showing me his personality. I am so excited to start click conditioning training, but that won’t start till a couple of days.

My main question is sleep scheduling. So from what I have found online from multiple sources it is appropriate to have a schedule like this 10am-10pm. Or anything similar 6am-6pm, 11am-11pm, 4am-4pm, etc.

So I wake up at 6:15am in the morning and then go to college and come back home around 1pm. This is my current schedule for this semester. It can always change.

But I guess the question is what people on this forum would recommend I do for a sleep schedule. I don’t know what would be the best thing. I guess I really want the bird to go to sleep at 10:30pm or so. So I guess I will have a light timer that will turn off my blacked out rooms light at 10:30pm and will turn on my bed room light at 10:30am.

That makes sense to me and seems like it would work. Any input?
I just know this bird will live for another 15 years or so which makes me ask what if in the future I need to change the schedule to a different time. How difficult is that?

Also my other question is...
I currently live at my house and like I said will have a constant schedule for my bird. BUT come the summertime, I don’t know what I should do because I will go to New Jersey for the summer until I come back to my home in Pennsylvania. I want to take my bird with me to New Jersey but it would be a complete schedule change in every way possible. Will my bird be able to adapt to this new environment and then revert to the current schedule after the summer?

Thank you from Scott and Fleury

 

[Enjru]

Fleury looks really distinguished!

I think 10:30 am is pushing it a bit too far. By 10:30 am, there'd be lots of cars driving, people walking, people talking, doors opening and closing, phones ringing, televisions and radios broadcasting, roadworks drilling, planes flying, etc, so your budgie will know people are up and about, even if his cage is able to be kept completely in the dark.

That's why I reckon 4 pm for sleeping time is also far too early, because even the next door neighbour's toddler hasn't gone to bed yet and is still watching teletubbies on TV, so why would any bird think that it's bedtime?

I'd think probably around 9 am is as late as you can push it.

As for taking him with you over the summer, that should be OK, provided that you make sure you can provide a suitably sized cage for him, continue to provide for all his needs including spending enough time with him, and not neglect him even if/when you fall in love with a pretty girl down in New Jersey.

 

[madatter]

Billy my Senegal sleeps 7till7ish at tbe moment we have about 12 hours daylight 6till 6 but It will soon be 20 hours daylight 3am till 11pm, havent got a clue what his sleep will be then, I will just watch him and he will go to his sleeping spot In his cage when he's ready

 

[cham87]

So my budgie is still really nervous on day #2 of being in my home. How long will it take for him to start eating food. He has not drank his water either. I think as soon as he starts to eat then I will be able to feed him treats to build a bond with him and then was going to start click training and targeting to teach him step up. Does that sound correct to you? I doubt just sticking my hand in there and grabbing him would be a good idea. I want him to respect me and love me I dont want to force myself on him.

 

[roxynoodle]

I hope he starts eating today.

My birds are in bed by 9pm and up at 8am. When I was working though we had to go to bed earlier as I left so early in the morning. But, they likely took a good nap as well while I was gone.

 

[wenz2712]

Codie is in bed by 9 and I uncover her around 8.. she also has a short nap in the afternoon

 

[roxynoodle]

Just curious, are you feeding him the same food that the pet store was? If you aren't, get some asap as he may not recognize what you are giving him as food. I know some here don't think a bird will starve itself to death, but I do know someone that happened to. She bought a baby conure, that was used to eating seed, gave it only pellets and the bird died 3 days later. It was half the weight it had been when she bought it. When they are new to your house it's not a good idea to suddenly give them new food. You can switch it later when he is comfortable being there, and usually you have to do it slowly.

 

[cham87]

Thank you roxynoodle for coming at me with help. Well yes when I was buying the food the lady at the petstore that tended to the bird made me buy the colorful pellets. I wanted non colored but she said that they feed them the colorful rainbow pellets so I went with those ones to feed him.

He is right next to me-- he is in my room on my desk as I type this. He pretty much just stands there shaking nonstop. He did that all yesterday and is still doing it. Do you think I should leave my room and just give him a lot of alone time so maybe he wont be so nervous and will maybe try to eat?

I am not sure-- I hope he doesn't die that would be awful. But it is day #2 and he has not eaten so far.....

 

[roxynoodle]

If he is that scared right now it might be a good idea to leave the room for awhile and let him be. If it is dark in the room, leave a light on. These first few days it might be a good idea to sit farther from him and do quiet things like read, study, watch some TV and just let him see you aren't going to eat him. Every once in awhile, make a soft comment to him about what you're doing/thinking. When he is feeling more comfortable, start sitting closer and talking and singing to him.

All my budgies were parent raised ones as well from pet stores. They will become tame and be wonderful companions, but it takes quite a bit longer than with hand raised ones from breeders. I've shared my life with 3 of them though and did tame them all.

 

[Pedro]

Hi Scott, congratulations. Fleury is a pretty boy. I have just bred a budgie exactly the same color.

My budgies go to bed at dusk when the sun goes down which is around 6.30pm. They are awake at dawn. Most companion parrots will put themselves to bed when they are ready, even if they are in the same room as all the activity. They do get used to noise just like we do.

Anyway's I am a bit worried about him not eating yet, budgies are seed eaters in the wild & he may have had seed at the breeders. A good quality budgie seed may help. Greens as well.

Anyway have a look at this link it will give you some great hints on caring for Fleury.

Hand Taming Budgies

 

[cham87]

Thank you for the information...

I hope all goes well-- he freaks when I try to get my hand near him... Sucks

 

[Pedro]

Yeah well poor little mite was probably parent reared & is scared of everything but if you take one day at a time & don't rush things he will come around.

It is much easier to buy an hand reared baby, the fear factor has been taken away but a parent reared bird is a challenge but none the less rewarding when you have tamed it yourself.

Good luck.

 

[triordan]

any luck with eating/drinking?

 

[roxynoodle]

I'm going back a long time here on remembering my taming my budgies. I got the last one when I was 14 and he died when I was 30; I'm 43 now. But, I remember I first used leaf lettuce to bribe them (not iceberg, which is not very nutritious). My budgies all really loved leaf lettuce. I first started by putting it in their dish. Then once I knew they knew they really liked it, I would hold a large piece through the bars so they had to come near me, but not that close to me to eat it. Eventually I moved my hand into the cage so they had to eat it with me holding it right in the cage with them. Next I put a small piece between my thumb and index finger and held my hand flat so they had to step onto my hand to reach it. Little by little I worked on that daily until one day I took them out of the cage. And eventually they would just get on my hand and come out and start playing and interacting with me. I hope that helps. I can't say now how long that process took; at least a few weeks if not a couple of months.

But, right now your little guy needs to start feeling comfortable in his new home, and I sure hope he is eating and drinking.

Back when I was a kid I didn't know about breeders or getting hand raised babies. All my budgies were parent raised and came from a pet store. They were some of the best pets I ever had though and gave me a lifelong love of birds. So go slowly, be patient and you will be greatly rewarded in time.